There are help wanted signs all over San Diego county. Why work when there is free money?

Same for Brevard county. Its hard not to find businesses looking for workers.

Some of the help wanted signs here are stating 'free college tuition for family members.'
Granted..It's not a known uni....but better than nothing.

The Carl's Jr here in town is giving away a free iPhone after your first 90 days of employment.

I went to the local recycling place this morning to turn in a bag of aluminium cans and a couple bags of plastic bottles.

The sign said they were no longer accepting CRV due to the labor shortage

Interesting:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/jobs-americans-wont-do-their-old-ones.php

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/11/will-labor-markets-great-reset-change-things-workers-over-long-term/

Something such as a Great Reset seems to be happening across the U.S. labor market. Workers are thinking about what they want from a post-pandemic job — and the answer for many seems to be something very different than what they had before.

A Joblist poll of 13,000 job-hunters found that more than half of all hospitality workers say they won’t go back to their old jobs, and a third won’t even consider going back to the industry. They want better pay, better benefits and less physically demanding employment.

Of course, a survey of job seekers is going to be biased toward the workers who are unhappy at their old jobs. But there’s evidence of reticence in the broader job market, where service businesses are struggling to find enough workers to reopen — a problem even higher wages don’t seem to have entirely fixed.

It’s kind of like the past year has been a wakeup call for many. Involuntarily separated from the daily grind, and with unemployment benefits paying the bills, millions of people took stock and decided that their jobs sucked. In many cases, they were right.

The most capable, motivated and fortunate will get themselves into jobs they like better. Most will have to go back to those sucky jobs, but with some extra pay. Some will not find a seat on the merry go round.

On top of all that, it just takes way longer to find a job / employee than to quit / lay off, even in normal times.

I believe a similar thing is happening further up the income scale. People have come to value flexible hours and working from home, and are quitting rather than be ordered back to the office full time. Others have realized that life is short, and are taking chances, trying new things, starting businesses, moving to new places. Many have decided to retire and enjoy life.

When a waiter or line cook decides to try something else, people call it lazy people sponging. When an account executive or programmer does it, people call it courageous and admirable.

The pause in the rat race gave people time to think about WTF they are doing with their life. I'm sure the right amount of pay would bring them back.

An old guy told me one time that he doesn't mind being tired. He just doesn't want to be tired and poor.