Do Lower Gas Prices Mean More Workers?
By Scot Feldmeyer
BarryStaff of Cincinnati Newsletter
Wow, did you notice how gas prices have gone down. I filled up this week for only $3.79. WHAT A DEAL!!! Well, not really. I knew this is what they were going to do. They find some reason, any reason, to jack up the price of gas to $4.29 and then bring it gradually back to $3.79 and we are supposed to feel like we are getting a bargain. Of course we have to forget that gas was just $2.79 or less only a couple of months ago. What chumps they must think we are. But hey, I don’t know about you but I have to have gas to get to work and to the store, so what are we going to do?
According to an article recently posted on the BarryStaff blog (www.barrystaff.com), the higher cost of gas has convinced many people that it’s just too expensive to go to work when they compare the option of staying home and collecting unemployment. No kidding! Check out the article here on our blog. It shows how some people, with at least three dependents, can bring home up to $524 per week. When faced with losing this money to take a low-paying job they decide to stick with the unemployment, which has been extended from 27 weeks to 99 weeks. These folks feel that they have almost 2 years to wait for a better job to come along and many are doing exactly that.
Check out the math. A job paying $15 an hour, or about $2,400 a month, would give a worker only about $800 more than the $1,600 a month he or she receives in unemployment. And that’s BEFORE TAXES! Then gas prices alone would eat up almost a third of the difference for the average Ohio worker, who has a round-trip commute of about 20 miles. At current gas prices a worker with a 20-mile commute, working five days a week and driving a vehicle that gets an average 35 miles per gallon would spend just over $250 on gas each month.
So if you’re having trouble recruiting quality workers, you can thank the gas companies and a generous Unemployment system that pays people to sit at home for a long, long time. The good news is that BarryStaff has the professional recruiters to find the people you need at the wages your company can afford. There are good people out there who want to work. And we know who they are!
ON THE LIGHER SIDE: I should have figured it out sooner. It’s the shampoo I use in the shower. When I wash my hair, the shampoo runs down my whole body. Printed very clearly on the shampoo label it reads, “FOR EXTRA VOLUME AND BODY.”
I have gotten rid of the shampoo and I am going to start using Dawn dish detergent.
Its label reads, “DISSOLVES FAT THAT IS OTHERWISE DIFFICULT TO REMOVE.” Problem solved! Geeze! It sure pays to read the label!