With 6 million job openings in the US, why are people complaining that there are no jobs available?
US Answer:Some added context on jobs & etc. since the original post:Baby Boomers are finding it (extra) tough to find decent jobs: For baby boomers, job hunts prove to be dauntingLow wage jobs in the suburbs go wanting, so companies innovate (a’la San Francisco & Silicon Valley GOOGLE buses, only, it’s AMAZON, this time): As low-wage jobs shift to Twin Cities suburbs, some companies offer their own shuttlesNote that these two articles from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune demonstrate the demographic problems that I mentioned below. It’s mostly low wage jobs & the worker pool in the suburbs can’t get to those jobs due to distance and costs. Older workers looking for higher wage jobs? Screwed!The AMAZON solution is taken directly from the Silicon Valley playbook on transporting workers from where they live to the job site. However, there’s a huge fly in the ointment. It takes a large employer, or group of cooperating employers, to make this process work. (Free to the workers, but still, expensive for the employers. AMAZON’s 24/7 schedule allows the buses to go both ways full, which saves the expense of deadhead runs.)PS. A solution, on a much smaller scale, was used in the ’70s & ’80s in the Twin Cities where an MTA shuttle bus would arrive at a suburban company’s door & bring the workers to and from common bus node at the company’s shift change.Example, NCR Comten to & from Roseville Shopping Center. For a short while (in winter), I’d ride that bus & its connections to & from my home in SE Minneapolis (1983 ~ 1985).(Original post starts here.)Today, I went shopping. The place was absolutely full of “Jobs Available” signs. The average salary? $9.00/hour, or about $18,000/year.Rent in the area for a 1br apt? $ 750/mo = $9,000/yearAverage transportation costs (Older car, Gas, Insurance, & repairs) =~ $3,000/yearObamacare tax/Premiums = $350/mo (after subsidies) = $4200/year (Hope that you don’t get sick! The deductibles are in the $5,000+ range)Food = $400/mo = $4800/yearClothes = $50/mo = $600/year (includes coin laundry costs)So, let’s see: $9,000 + 3,000 = 4200 + 4800 + 600 = $22,800/yearAnd, that doesn’t even cover a movie, TV, (Free) Obama Phone, or anything else. …Any other questions?//SUPPLEMENT: Additional notes in relationship to more comments:I forgot FED Income Tax, State Income Tax, and FICA+Medicare Tax. I’ll ignore Minnesota’s 3+% Income Tax, but the FED = 10% & FICA = 7.65%, so reduce the $18,000 by approx $2392, reduced from $3177 by the standard deduction (as listed for 2015’s tax year Pub 17).I calculated for a FTE job at 50 weeks of work, with paid holidays. Obviously, the job offers are mostly for PT Jobs, although, some had a fine print listing for FT & PT.The financial numbers for the obamacare costs were actual quotes for an ACA signup listing for a single person (pre-subsidy, if any). Comments were mentioned about off-ACA individual Plans from BC/BS. In Minnesota, BC/BS abruptly terminated all individual plans as of 1 Jan 2022. Also, the very same plan jumped 78% from 1 Jan 2022 to 1 Jan 2016!//ADDED: To the commenters & everyone else who reads this Opinion/Answer.The numbers that I quoted are for a single adult with few assets in the outer ring suburbs of Minneapolis & St. Paul. The wage rates & ads on the street for retail pay are also for these areas.Public transportation is extremely limited. The main expenditures for the Bus & Light rail lines are to & from the downtown areas & are oriented for folks commuting to & from those jobs. There are *no* cross suburb bus operations.Bicycle commuting, or walking, only works for about 6 months of the year. After that, a car is absolutely critical. (Extremely few taxis & they are quite expensive.)Obamacare - BC/BS pulled out. No competition &, without subsidies, the individual market rates for a single person exceed $500/mo. And, are JUMPING next year. (Yes, it was the Gov. of Mn. who deplored the explosion in rates.)Food. Yea, maybe you can do better. Then again, the inexpensive vegetables at the Apple Valley Farmer’s Market are available for a few short weeks. The Minneapolis & St. Paul farmer’s markets are also limited in availability. Otherwise, It’s beans & weens w/lots of spaghetti to economize.Clothes. You can economize here by buying second hand at a thrift shop. Just remember laundry soap & coins for the washer & dryer. Kitchen stuff & etc., too. Miss-matched second hand does work.Did I mention Cell Phones? The cheapest (non-subsidized obamaPhone) plan these days is about $10 ~ $15/mo. Tax? $2.50 ~$3.75, for a total of $150 ~ $225/year. You buy the phone. (Min cost for a used phone for an example plan, Republic Wireless? $100 on eBay. A T-Mobile Phone? $35 on eBay. (As actually tested. Used, no broken glass & works!)Oh! And internet? At your Public Library. In the case of the example below, the closest Public Library with Internet Access (during Library Hours) 8 miles away (but can be reached in an hour, depending on time, with a Bus, one Transfer, and a 1/4 mile walk).No Cable/Satellite TV, just over the air local stuff and a used TV, or a small flatscreen unit.So, here’s a job offer example (see the photo below.) It is 2–1/2 miles from the nearest rental apartment complex and that complex is another 2–1/2 miles the other way from the nearest large grocery stores (CUB & Target), albeit, there is a Walmart 200 yards away on the other side of that *nasty* industrial road.//Even More ADDED:It’s the inability to fill the jobs at the current price. This especially the case where a homeowner has lost his/her job & faces foreclosure. These examples are, obviously, tragic, but very real.Read through the many responses. Note that one (my favorite) states that folks who lost their (good paying ) job went ahead & took some of these jobs even as they went into foreclosure.I love that one as I had the opportunity to go through 600+ foreclosed homes over a 3+ year period working (indirectly) for a bank.Three things stood out. They stayed in the home until:The 6 month (Minnesota Law) redemption period ended,Winter, without heat, forced them out,or they found another job that paid better somewhere elseThey took those lower paid jobs while having (for those 6 months) an effective free rent (if they could pay the water, electricity, and gas bill)Finally, they bailed & went somewhere else where they had a chance at surviving. Either immediately, or later, taking what they could & abandoning the restIn the area that I specified, it would take two full time jobs at that wage to survive considering expenses & taxes. • And, that’s why I mentioned that the jobs went wanting. Not because folks were lazy, but because they couldn’t ultimately survive on them.Note that some other answers stated “well, I was somewhere else, where it worked”, or “I was single & doubled up with someone”, or “this, or that, expense is not realistic - followed by another stating, yes it is”.