Restrictions here in the Garden State are being lifted slowly, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
One problem here is a lot of places cannot find people to work. The unemployment 'bonus' seems to be keeping some people from looking or returning to work.
Amazon and Fedex/UPS have signs at curbside offering $15 to $22 per hr. for warehouse and package handling.
Restaurants are looking and saying no one is interested; the Jersey Shore amusements are looking; I heard $15 per hr, with a lot of 'freebees' thrown in. The shore areas usually have a lot of temp foreign students on visas, but the Fed Govt has some type of hold on the visas now.
One restaurant on the shore near me usually hires 40+ people for the summer season, and he only had 2 apply.
That "force that nobody remembers" is the grease that keeps society going and as someone who went from 2 working spouses to both retired. I understand how 40% of your salary can look better than working if you don't have to go to work. There is a whole lot of skill that few people notice and yet few can do, sitting on the couch. If the government was actually doing their job down at unemployment and finding YOU a job when you file, it would stop. There really should be a pipeline directly from the employers to unemployment. Go on employment, fine., We put your resume out in a catalog and we give you offers. Maybe even some protection for you and the employer but isn't that why we have government? Folks who want to work get the reverse directory of that catalog and get to see what jobs are offered, all in a regulated environment. That's the carrot. The stick is if you don't want a job and you won't take one, go on disability, talk to OSHA or something but we have exhausted our resources in your case, Then unemployment can get to go back to finding people jobs.
Back in the early 80s, unemployement here in NJ was a lot different then it is today.
You had to go to the office, fill out papers, and actually talk to someone there on the first or second trip. Then you had to go there every two weeks to get your check. You had to bring a list of where you went looking for work, and I think they used to check. They had training classes, and also gave you a list of places that were looking for help.
Those were the days? That was the first and last time I 'collected' which was $120 per week. I lasted six weeks!
We are some what germaphobic when we travel or at least that is the impression we give because we wipe down the area around our seats on the plane and use a lot of hand sanitizer but we got sloppy in NZ and took a bus ride from Queenstown to Milford Sound for a boat ride in the rain and my wife caught a horrible cold. That was when we abandoned the touristy stuff including the Shotover river boat ride and the cave with the glow worms. I have neighbors who can take you out and scare you in a fast little boat. Fortunately she got over it in a couple days and we were back on the road, being a little more careful.