If someone was to drive through the business centers of Monroe County or read through recent issues of the Republic-Times, that person would be hard-pressed to not find a help wanted sign or advertisement.

And many of those signs and ads have been in place for weeks or more, much longer than before the pandemic.

“There were people working all those shifts 18 months ago,” noted MAR Graphics Vice President of Finance Scott Roever. “I can’t believe that side of our workforce has diminished that much to cause this shortage.”

The trend of jobs remaining unfilled for an extended time period is occurring across the nation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its report showing that America gained just 266,000 jobs in April, hundreds of thousands jobs short of what many experts predicted and hoped.

Explanations for this slowed growth range from there being too much government aid to the country reassessing what jobs it needs while workers decide whether to return to their pre-pandemic occupation.

These reasons and those in between were given by Monroe County-area individuals on both the employee and employer sides of the job hunt.

Among employers, the complaint about unemployment benefits being too lucrative was common.

“The unemployment benefits are really good right now,” said Roever, whose company is among those having trouble filling open jobs. “We hired one gentleman out there in the plant who said he was making more on unemployment but his unemployment was going to be running out so he wanted to jump on a job that was open. It’s hard to compete with the wages unemployment is paying right now.”

Melanie Biffar, a career specialist employed by the St. Clair County Intergovernmental Grants Department who also works in workforce development in Monroe County, said that is true for some people she has worked with, but not all.

“Many people find that they are bringing more income into their household with unemployment, the extra COVID money applied to the unemployment and also the multiple stimulus checks,” she explained. “There are a lot of individuals… who do not want to return to a minimum wage position when in fact it is more beneficial financially for them to stay at home with their children and receive the assistance rather than return to employment and also have to pay child care fees again.”

The Illinois Department of Employment Security’s latest numbers show that unemployment in the metro east was at 5.6 percent in March. That is 2.2 percent higher than the previous year.
Monroe County, meanwhile, had an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in March, down from 3.7 percent in February but up from 2.5 percent in March.

Normally, unemployment benefits can last for up to 26 weeks before an individual would need to file an extension.

Weekly benefits are based on wages from the first four of the last five completed quarters the person receiving the benefits worked. The individual receives 47 percent of the sum of the wages from the two quarters in which they earned the most over 26 weeks.

Those benefits in Illinois were capped at $484 a week with no dependents, $577 a week with a dependent spouse and $669 a week with a dependent child or children.

The federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation is a temporary program that provides additional weeks for individuals beyond the 26 weeks normally offered. That exists through Sept. 4.

The federal government has also been contributing an additional $300 per week in supplemental benefits to eligible individuals on unemployment.

It can be difficult for employers to conclusively determine, however, that those enhanced benefits are the reason for their unfilled jobs because many people are not even showing up for interviews.

“We’re not getting applicants, and the very few we do get, sometimes they show up for an interview, but most of the time they do not,” said Columbia Garden Place Executive Director Wendy Weck.

Roever estimated about half of the people who his company schedules do not come to the interview.

“That’s high. We’ve had that happen before, but not to the degree it’s happening now,” he said. “It’s sad. There’s not enough people out there looking for a job right now.”

There are exceptions to that, however, and one of those is for people who were temporarily laid off due to the pandemic.

The reasons why unemployed people are not applying for or taking these open jobs can vary.

Some experts have theorized that individuals remain concerned about a heightened risk of contracting the novel coronavirus if they return to work.

“I have not heard that more recently, but I definitely heard that a lot last year,” Weck said.

Roever said he has not received that feedback, while Biffar was more in line with Weck’s experience.

“We were in such a pattern of the numbers decreasing and then a big holiday or event of some sort occurs and the numbers increase and more restrictions get put in place,” Biffar said. “During those times people never knew how long the decrease or lifted restrictions would last. I do see now that with the continued availability of vaccines that more and more people are less hesitant about things overall.”

Vaccine availability has also led to an increase of people reaching out to Biffar for help in recent weeks.

People may also have been discouraged after trying and failing to apply for jobs last year, when there were far fewer openings than now in many sectors.

There is also the counterargument that unemployment benefits are not too high, but wages are too low in many of these available jobs.

Biffar, who also helps people continue their education or find training to get a better job, said she has heard that from some people she has worked with.

“In the situation of a lack of education or job related experience, I do find that most jobs do not pay enough – especially for a one parent household in order for that family to live above the self-sufficiency guidelines,” she said.
The employers who spoke with the Republic-Times pushed back against the argument that wages are too low.

“You could make that argument, but we pay well over minimum wage here, especially for jobs that require experience,” Roever said. “I think that’s really not the issue.”

“We offer attendance bonuses. We have great benefits to offer our employees,” Weck agreed.

Just as there is no consensus on the reason for the unfilled jobs, there are several ideas for how to handle this issue.

“I just wish they would re-evaluate the unemployment benefits,” Weck said. “If they could just sit down and evaluate where we are and where things are in the world, and if changes need to be made, that could possibly help all of us in every setting.”

“We weren’t in this situation before COVID, and our unemployment rate is not that bad right now. So what’s different? You look at that, and the only thing different is the unemployment benefits. The jobs are still out there,” Roever similarly reasoned.

Biffar had a more complicated idea for a solution, saying there is probably not a concrete way to fix this problem.

“If resources are continued to be available to assist people in proper schooling or training, that will help their chances at finding a good job or even career,” she said. “I also feel that, on the employers’ end, if they offer good pay, benefits and a great work environment that will increase a person’s desire to work there.

“Especially in smaller towns, such as ours, there is a great deal of desire for a certain opportunity based on experiences and word of mouth. If an employer has a reputation for caring and being someone people like to work for, then, oftentimes, their likelihood of finding employees is greater.”

To contact Biffar for help with a job search, email melanie.biffar@co.st-clair.il.us. Or call 618-939-3332.