Has the response to Covid-19 created a class of permanent, unemployable, couch potatoes? From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Something odd is going on in the US economy.
On one hand, in the aftermath of the covid pandemic there are millions and millions of former workers who have lost their jobs and are unable to return as their job may not even exist today (while their skills atrophy and they become increasingly unemployable with every day they are unemployed). Addressing this, on Thursday Fed Chair Powell spoke at an IMF panel saying that over nine million Americans remains out of work, while a quick look at the latest BLS data shows that there are over 100 million Americans who are out of the labor force (of whom just 6.85MM want a job currently, and a record 94 million don’t want a job).
At the same time, as we pointed out last night, JPMorgan and many others have noted that when one looks at the recent JOLTS data, which showed a near record number of job openings, a clear trend is emerging: there is a big labor shortage in the US, one which could (finally) lead to higher wages in the US.
While JPMorgan did not dwell on what may be causing this unprecedented schism within the economy – after all, for normalcy to return, people must not only be employed but must want to be employed – it did suggest that the “robust” government stimulus may be keeping workers on the sidelines, a more detailed analysis from Bloomberg confirms the nightmare scenario: the trillions in Biden stimulus are now incentivizing potential workers not to seek gainful employment, but to sit back and collect the next stimmy check for doing absolutely nothing in what is becoming the world’s greatest “under the radar” experiment in Universal Basic Income.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 
In UK after first lockdown people swarmed back to the shops. Almost immediately govt enforced masks and the shops emptied. But the staff were stuck, forced to wear masks and dealing with angry masked customers. Being forced to wear masks at work – even behind plastic screens, is not only unpleasant but degrading. I expect some unemployed are waiting for “normality” to return. But if govt wants to destroy businesses which appears to be their intent, masks have effectively deterred shoppers and are likely to deter job applicants.
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