It’s not just the lumber/home market. Copper is up dramatically, oil has risen, raw plastics are in short supply, chip market is seeing drastically longer lead times.
Some of this has to do with last years layoffs and slow rehiring.
Some is due to people still getting govt monies and not rejoining the labor force.
Some is inflationary pressures from continuing to print.
Some is pure high demand. And I’m sure some is govts playing games with each other.
But - it’s across the board. My company has been attempting to hire folks for 4-5 months and hasn’t been able to make headway for the most part. We were lucky to place a large number of purchases immediately when COVID hit so we were front of the line for parts, but we’ve gotten past that and are now back with the herd with significantly longer lead times on everything.
Here's a tip: PAY MORE.
“Copper is up dramatically...”
We made a run to the Scrap Yard two weeks ago with an assortment of metals. Copper, by far, was the big winner. We got $62 for scrap wire and plumbing that had been in the barn, forever.
Then, we went to Menard’s (like Home Depot) and blew it all (and more!) on other building materials and canning jars. ;)
Bring it, ‘Biden/Harris.’ I ain’t afraid of you!
The locals are not able to hire because the extended unemployment benefits amount to $637 a week per person, more than they can make working at $15 an hour. What is more amble benefits are included in unemployment. This will continue to at least September.
Add to this the stimulus was WAAAY too lush. This whole covidcation has been a boon to working people. The stimulus is more money than they have had in their lives. There are no used goods to be had. Boats, cars, motorcycles, four-wheelers etc. all bought up. Anything within that stimulus payment is pretty much gone. Pawn stores are not being restocked, the contrary, they are being emptied.
The day of the first stimulus payment the local lumber supplier parking lot was packed. Trailers and truck loads of stuff for small repair and other projects leaving the store like a land run. All loads of $2,400 or so, sometimes more not forgetting the stimulus was per person, not just per tax paying adult. Geez! I should have seen the trouble starting then but never expected the stimulus and unemployment payments to go on and on as they have.
—check out soybeans and corn futures—in almost everything we eat—
It’s the same at my company - they bought 6+ months of supplies a year ago, now there are worldwide shortages of plastics, and it’s unclear when that will end.
Copper is up because the mines went offline during Covid but demand ran steady. Then China stepped in and bought up a good bit to meet their internal production needs.
Not a real increase due to inflation.
Here comes hyperinflation.
#8 All of it is because gov’t politicians and bureaucrats are in the way. Think of them as termites.