The loss of federal unemployment benefits from the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in a lot of people re-entering the workforce.
“I know there was a lot of talk that once those ended, people are all going to come back to work,” says Kinexus’ Al Pscholka. “It’s led to kind of a stabilizing of the state workforce. We’ve not seen a big influx of people coming back to work, so we’re still down a little over 200,000 people.”
Pscholka says there are plenty of jobs open in Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties.
“Job openings from pre-COVID to today are up 91%. There is just a ton of opportunities out there.”
Kinexus also says the COVID pandemic has resulted in likely permanent changes to the Leisure and Hospitality sector of the economy, as 38% of former employees would not consider going back into it. Surveys have found customer behavior becoming abhorrent and abusive post-COVID as a top reason people are leaving those jobs.
