Employment

Wisconsin Governor Concerned That People Who Need Money for Food May Not Be Sufficiently Humiliated

/ The Old Crank

One day I guarantee they will propose drug testing all WIOA participants, too.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has finalized a rule that would require able-bodied adult recipients of food stamps to be screened and possibly tested for drugs.

The move is the latest step in the ongoing battle over whether such testing is legal under federal law.

Walker has framed the issue as addressing the state’s worker shortage and as a continuation of the state’s landmark welfare reform efforts begun in the 1990s under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

“Employers have jobs available, but they need skilled workers who can pass a drug test,” Walker said in a statement. “This rule change means people battling substance use disorders will be able to get the help they need to get healthy, and get back into the workforce.” (my emphasis)

Walker has already implemented worker training requirements for FoodShare program participants. Since April 2015, able-bodied adults ages 18-49 have been required to participate in a worker training program or work at least 80 hours per month to maintain eligibility for Foodshare.

It all makes sense, since why else would you be out of work unless you were on drugs?

For more on Walker’s policies, see the second of the three rights covered here.

(Yes, it’s been a long time since a post. I’m not making any predictions this time about posting here with any kind of regularity, as my other commitments must take precedent these days. But this news caught my attention and was too long to tweet.)

Links of Note 10/21/16

/ The Old Crank

The Promise of Personalized Learning in Rural America [Bellwether Education Partners]
I haven’t read this but I would think that many of the issues facing rural K-12 schools would be similar to those faced by rural or otherwise isolated adult education programs.

Not Working Makes People Sick [Bloomberg View]
Does dropping out of workforce due to illness make you more sick? I think additional research would be needed to justify this conclusion, but it’s an interesting theory nonetheless.

Here’s What Economists Don’t Understand About Race [Institute for New Economic Thinking]
“The real driver of inequality… is not an individual’s level of education and productivity, but the resources that parents and grandparents are able to transmit.”

Where the Jobs Are

/ The Old Crank

Drives me little crazy when on the one hand you read about all these jobs that are going to be taken over by robots leaving people unemployed, and then you read stuff like this:

In surveys, people say overwhelmingly that they want to remain at home as they age. To enable that, the country will need another 633,000 home care workers by 2024, P.H.I. projects.

The generation behind the aging boomers is smaller, however. Given the low pay, scant benefits and high injury rates, will enough workers materialize? “We’re reaching a breaking point,” said Abby Marquand, P.H.I.’s director of policy research.

The “care” economy is going to be growing like crazy for the foreseeable future, even if the generation behind the baby boomers is smaller: people are living longer and medical advances are not only prolonging life but making it possible for more people to live at home as they age. While technology may eliminate certain kinds of jobs, it’s not going to eliminate these kinds of jobs, which by definition require human interaction that machines cannot replicate.

It’s similar to my frustration with crumbling infrastructure. We have bridges falling down and old people to take care of. There should be plenty of jobs for everyone. That’s assuming that we invest in the infrastructure and, especially on the caregiver side, (as this article makes clear) create policies that support decent pay, hours, benefits etc. And in all cases training people to do those jobs well.

At least that’s what I would do if you put me in charge. That plus outlawing reserve seating at movie theaters. Also, there shouldn’t be NHL teams in places like Arizona. #commonsensereforms

Links of note 9/14/2016

/ The Old Crank

U.S. Household Income Grew 5.2 Percent in 2015, Breaking Pattern of Stagnation [New York Times]
White House trumpeting these three takeaways: (1) median household income in 2015 up 5.2 percent from the previous year — the largest single-year increase since record-keeping began in 1967; (2) about three and a half million people moved out of poverty since last year—the largest one-year drop in poverty since 1968; and (3) the uninsured rate is the lowest since they began keeping records. The Times article emphasizes those points, but notes that median household income is still 1.6 percent lower than in 2007, adjusting for inflation, and 2.4 percent lower than the peak reached during the late 1990s. The Times also notes that the income gains “came mostly from job growth rather than wage growth. More people are working, but many of them are still struggling to maintain their standard of living.”

Related articles:

Goldman Sachs Isn’t That Worried About Technology Destroying Your Job [Bloomberg]
“[W]orkers are already responding to the new employment landscape by taking on “adaptive occupations” that are better insulated from the rise of the machines. Such occupations include nurses and web developers but can also extend to more traditional vocations such as carpenters, plumbers, and tailors.”