Category Archives: Labor & workforce

by James A. Bacon

A friend of mine, a Richmond-area attorney, received this message from his accountant explaining the increasingly difficult conditions in which his business was operating:

Increasingly, we’ve experienced extreme disruption with our US Postal Service as well as the handling of payments by government agencies, regardless if they have confirmed delivery. This has caused unwanted computer-generated notices and unwarranted penalties and interest. The Virginia Department of Taxation has also recognized this issue and has announced that all tax payments above $1,500 MUST be made electronically.

Pre-COVID, I bemoaned the increased complexity of our information systems and the glitches that result from their imperfect interoperability. Now add to that the labor shortage — not just the shortage of workers with the necessary technical skills but with the right attitudes. After a generation of setting lower expectations, demanding less precision and exactitude, and excusing failure and mediocrity to spare children’s tender feelings, we have created a generation of young people who are sloppier and more careless than their predecessors.

The other day, I encountered a young woman behind the cash register who had trouble making change for a dollar. I’d never seen that before. Ever.

The problems experienced by my friend are murder on workforce productivity. We all suffer from it, even if we don’t see what is in plain sight. Continue reading →

In three states — Washington, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — a family of four can earn more than $100,000 annually in equivalent government benefits, according to a study, “Paying Americans Not to Work,” published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. The earned income equivalent for the state of Washington is a mind-boggling $122,653 a year, or $31 hourly wage equivalent for both parents working.

For a family of two parents and two dependent minor children, 14 states pay benefits that potentially exceed median wages earned by school teachers, machinists, electricians and truckers.

Virginians who believe in reinforcing the work ethic can take some consolation that the Old Dominion is pretty far down the list — 36th. Maximum potential benefits amount to $57,744, the equivalent to paying $15 an hour. That’s less than school teachers, building inspectors, electricians, firefighters, truck drivers, and machinists make — more than retail associates.

— JAB

by James A. Bacon

Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to consolidate the plethora of Virginia’s workforce development programs spread across 13 agencies and six secretariats, according to Virginia Public Media. Not only do these programs consume $485 million in federal and state funding but there are a bewildering 1,500 of them.

I find that number so astonishing as to be unbelievable. The Richmond Times-Dispatch counts programs over 12 state agencies. Whatever the actual number — and the inability to pin it down precisely is indicative of how dysfunctional the system is — workforce development in Virginia is highly fractured.

The system is fragmented in part because many programs are funded as the result of state and federal legislation with narrow goals that target narrow groups or because they dole out funds to satisfy diverse geographic constituencies. Many programs run on autopilot. No one measures outcomes. No one measures effectiveness. No one re-evaluates them.

Redrawing organization charts and appointing a new boss to oversee the bureaucratic labyrinth won’t accomplish much. But Youngkin has more in mind.

“A bloated, disparate construct that has workforce programs spread all over the place, and none of what you’re measured for effectiveness, is the antithesis to what I believe government should be doing,” he said. “We can be efficient and we can be effective. I think it should run much more like a business, and that’s what we’re gonna go do.” Continue reading →