And for a married couple, the extra household expenses incurred for the other spouse to have a job, especially when they have children, really doesn’t make it all that worth it, over having one spouse to stay at home with the children.
The two income problem is showing it ugly head in this economy. A lot of these open jobs were filled not only with second individual income jobs but also a working spouse who wanted the second income, wanted not NEEDED is the key here.
People here still cling to oh it’s the welfare from the gov crutch failing to grasp the paradigm shift. Texas and Florida both eliminated the fed money months and months ago yet people are not rushing back to crappy service industry or retail jobs. I know a lot of Gen X and early Boomers who will never set foot in a corporate office again. They work for themselves now doing gigs, hustles, day trading, and other entrepreneurial activities. I also know of a lot of their kids who will never go back to waiting tables, or retail they found other means, remote work has changed the playing field.
That’s probably a lot of it. How much of an increase in home schooling has there been in the US? 10-20%? How many people, mostly women, is that no longer in the workforce?
TPTB forced people to stay home and not all of them got unemployment and the extra $300 ended quite a while ago in red states. They had to manage.
Some people also quit their jobs because they were scared of covid. All the older women no longer work at our local grocery store. They worked for extra income to go along with what their husbands made.
Some people said screw wearing a mask all day. Now people are saying screw the jab mandate.
COVID made people live a different way and get by with less and they decided they liked it.
A lot of people went into homesteading mode and they decided they liked it.