Top 3 reasons Americans are quitting jobs: Bad pay, bad bosses, bad prospects. House passes $1.5 trillion omnibus. Russia-Ukraine talks yield no progress.
NATIONAL NEWS
Top 3 reasons Americans are quitting jobs in droves: Bad pay, bad bosses, bad prospects
The latest jobs report shows that slightly more Americans filed for unemployment last week than the previous week. Even with hiring up and firings and layoffs down, new unemployment claims have continued a steady upward trend since last year. In January, more than 4.3 million people quit their jobs.
Economists have called it the “Great Resignation” and have attributed it to tight labor market. Many workers left jobs last year and a significant percentage has dropped out of the labor market entirely in recent months. A recent Pew poll asked resigning workers themselves about their reasons for quitting. The top three reasons workers cited for leaving their workplaces were low pay, bad bosses and a lack of opportunities for advancement.
Companies in nearly all sectors of the economy are now in the position of competing for workers. Offers of better pay and benefits, more flexibility and other perks are luring workers towards greener pastures. Many of the poll’s respondents also pointed to more intangible reasons for quitting, including feeling disrespected or undervalued at work.
House passes $1.5 trillion omnibus bill, but few lawmakers know what’s in it
The House has passed an omnibus government funding bill totaling about $1.5 trillion, which will now advance to the Senate. The bill contains funding to keep the federal government running until September. The bill is split into two parts. The first sets aside $780 billion for defense spending, including an 11% rise in spending for the Department of Homeland Security; this portion also includes about $14 billion in humanitarian, security and economic assistance for Ukraine. This portion passed with broad bipartisan support with a 361-69 vote. The second portion contains domestic spending, and passed closer to party lines with a 260-171 vote.
What did not make it into the bill was $22 billion the White House had requested for COVID control funding. According to a White House official, the results of not appropriating this funding could be “dire”. Without the funding, “In March, testing capacity will decline. In April, the uninsured fund — which offers coverage of testing and treatments for tens of millions of Americans who lack health insurance — will run out of money. And in May, America’s supply of monoclonal antibodies will run out”, the official said. “Simply put, failing to take action now will have severe consequences for the American people”.
Pork and earmarks
Members of both parties have expressed misgivings about the bill for another reason, namely that many lawmakers do not know what’s in it. This is especially true of the “domestic” spending portion. The omnibus totaling 2,741 pages was only published on Wednesday, and the Senate leadership hopes to have it passed by Friday.
Republican lawmakers have complained that Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have secured a huge number of earmarks for spending in their districts. But some Republican lawmakers, notably Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, have gotten in on the act as well. The earmarks include spending on housing, communities and infrastructure projects, all of which will help bolster their sponsors’ chances in the mid-terms.
Some lawmakers view this as an opportunity to secure funding for their districts that might otherwise have come from the now-defunct $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Plan. Progressives in the House also voiced frustrations that the winners and losers of this stimulus spending have been decided in backroom deals. This is in contrast to Build Back Better, which offered a more inclusive and holistic nationwide blueprint for stimulus spending.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Ukraine: No progress towards ceasefire, but Zelensky hopeful
Talks between the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia haven’t produced any new prospects for an end to hostilities. Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says the terms offered by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amounted to unconditional surrender. Regardless, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes that Putin will soon negotiate to end the war. Zelensky said he believed that Putin did not anticipate the strong resistance in Ukraine and that this would soon force him back to the negotiating table. This is likely wishful thinking on Zelensky’s part and a signal to rally his troops and beleaguered countrymen.
Meanwhile in Washington, the White House raised alarms about a possible chemical attack by Russia. Citing Kremlin accusations about US biological weapon labs and chemical weapon development in Ukraine, Press Sec. Jen Psaki said this may be a pre-justification for Russia to deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The US has also nixed a Polish plan to supply some of its Soviet-era war planes through a US base in Germany. The Pentagon says this proposal as “not tenable”, since it would likely spark a broader conflict.
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