By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The CARES Act and other federal programs enacted during the pandemic expanded and extended unemployment benefits for millions. But those programs expire the week ending Sept. 4, which, ironically, is Labor Day weekend.
Also expiring that day is the additional $300 per week many claimants were getting.
That means, for many people who were holding out from getting back to work, the pressure will be on to find a new job.
How will that play out here in Clallam County? We talked with Brandino Gibson at WorkSource to get a sense of what he’s seeing in terms of the job market.
One fact that we did not see coming certainly leaps out.
“When you look at the numbers, when was the last time we saw Clallam County unemployment rates down in the 5 percentage range?. So we’re at 5.7- 5.9 over the last couple of months and we typically range, you know, between 7 and 10, you know, seven in our low area. And now we’re down in that…were down in the 5 percentage range.”
That means more people who want to work are working than we’ve seen in years here in Clallam County. That appears to fly in the face of what seemed to be the general opinion, which was that too many workers were happy to sit home and collect unemployment until the well runs dry.
The reality, it turns out, is that while there are still a lot of jobs to be filled in Clallam County, 1,000 to be exact, according to Gibson, the choices are getting slimmer very quickly.
“I correlate it to this. It’s like Black Friday at Walmart. You know, for those that have been sitting there collecting the money and now it’s going to be gone. Now, all of you are going to be competing for the same job. And yeah, there’s a bunch of them out there. But let’s, let’s not wait any longer. Let’s get out there now. And you know, we can help with that.”
One spot of bright news for job seekers today is that there’s plenty of evidence that wages have gone up and, depending on the industry you’re interested in, the need for workers has sparked some bidding wars.
“When you drive down the street and you see that competing fast food places, like McDonald’s, and they have $15 an hour. And then across the street Burger King’s going to now hire at 15.50, because we’re competing for the same people that they are. And, interesting enough, we’re finding that there are those that are in that, you know, mid-lower mid-level professional range. Under a normal realm, they’re not making much more than what you can make at McDonald’s right now. You know, and those jobs are getting filled by teenagers.”
The bottom line, in Gibson’s mind?
“If you are kind of on the fence, ‘When do I need to start looking?’, it’s now. The jobs are out there and you may have more competition coming here in the near future from those that have been sitting back and just collecting the money.”