EDITORIAL: Nevada jobless numbers remain higher than expected

Job growth surged in June, with employers adding 850,000 workers — the largest one-month gain in almost a year. Wages also increased, as companies bumped pay to compete in a tight labor market.

Yet signs still abound that many jobless prefer to remain on the sidelines. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that 42.1 percent of unemployed Americans have been out of work for more than six months. In addition, unemployment rose a bit at the end of June to 5.9 percent, and the workforce participation rate remained a stagnant 61.6 percent, “showing that millions who have dropped out (during the pandemic) have yet to return,” The New York Times reported last week.

“The single defining challenge for employers,” Becky Frankiewicz, president of the staffing company ManpowerGroup North America, told the Times, “is enticing American workers back to the workforce.”

Nevada remains Ground Zero for the phenomenon. Thanks to its tourist-based economy, the state had the nation’s highest unemployment rate for much of the pandemic. Joblessness in May was 7.8 percent, the fourth worst in the country. While unemployment claims have plateaued, they aren’t falling as fast as might be anticipated during a recovery. Anecdotally, many employers say they are struggling to fill vacant positions.

Peter Ganong, a University of Chicago economics professor, told the Wall Street Journal last month that the weekly federal $300 unemployment supplement means that “42 percent of workers are making more than their pre-unemployment wage” by not working. So far, governors in 26 mostly red states — Nevada is not among them — have begun refusing the federal sweetener in an effort to spur job seekers. Statistics are not yet available on the success of that effort.

Democrats still insist that paying people more not to work has nothing to do with the disparity between job openings and available workers. Instead, they point to child care difficulties or COVID fears as the reasons many workers — particularly women — are reluctant to return to the job. Yet there’s scant evidence women are staying at home in larger numbers than men.

The director of Nevada’s unemployment agency said last week that the expanded jobless checks keep consumer spending at a high level and are a boon to the state economy. So why not simply pay everybody to stay home with our unlimited pool of tax money?

Prudent policy would provide incentives for more Nevadans to move off the unemployment rolls and enter the job market rather than the other way around. The expanded federal benefits are set to expire in early September, and President Joe Biden has said he does not favor a further extension. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if that’s when we see the much-awaited hyper surge of post-pandemic employment growth.