[BobL]

Yea, that’s my first thought on the unemployment weeks...if you keep paying people not to work, their willingness to work will lessen. The basic question that they ask themselves is this: If I ‘make’ $12 an hour by not working, why should I take this job for $10 an hour...and I’ll only take that $15 an hour job if I REALLY need the money, since I will net only $3 an hour over not working.

(and all that assumes no under-the-table work too)

[TomGuy]

Yea, that’s my first thought on the unemployment weeks...if you keep paying people not to work, their willingness to work will lessen.

Looks good on paper, but unless you have been unemployed during a major recession, you don't understand. When there are NO jobs, there are NO jobs -- not at $10/hour, not at $8/hour.

Any $6/hr jobs hardly pay the basic living expenses, plus one is competing against young people for jobs that usually requiring little experience or qualifications. That is, one is usually over-qualified and employers will only hire such people if the employer is in extreme need of employees.

I recall in the mid-80s recession, one couldn't buy a job a McDonalds. I recall in the early-90s recession sending out resumes and filling out applications for over 400 jobs and getting only 10 interviews. For the job I accepted (first and only offer during that time), I took a 40% cut in pay from my previous job. That was a signficant reduction.

That 90s recession hit engineers, computer programmers, etc. I remember setting in the required initial unemployment meeting with 27 other engineers and computer people and 2 clerical/secreterial people. That was just one hour at one of eight local employment offices. In that metroplex, about 8,500 comparably skilled engineers and computer people PER WEEK were becoming unemployed and competing against each other for any available jobs.

It is easy to say "get a job" if you are employed. During major recessions, getting them is just not always that easy. Many factors -- age, location, qualifications (over or under), etc. -- impact hiring.