The disconnect is jarring. Across the country employers who are desparate to fill jobs have posted a record-high number of job openings. They’re raising pay and dangling bonuses to people who accept job offers and recruit friends. Yet millions more Americans are unemployed compared to the number who were jobless just before the pandemic flattened the economy. Retired Ripon College economist Paul Schoofs says the puzzling mismatch is a reflection of an unsettled economy. Meanwhile, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply to 310,000, a pandemic low. Schoofs says it’s a sign that the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant has yet to lead to widespread layoffs and a sign of the large number of vacant job openings. Schoofs says employers don’t want to let someone go and not get them back when business picks up again.
