A pundit on CNN suggested on Friday that a “factor” that resulted in the disappointing jobs report is that people don’t want to be “assaulted” by anti-maskers at work.
The April jobs report released on Friday shocked the nation, which saw just 266,000 jobs created and a rise in unemployment after economists expected roughly 1 million jobs to be created amid the country’s economic recovery from the infectious-disease pandemic.
When asked why she thought the report resulted below expectations, CNN economics and political commentator Catherine Rampell responded by saying “we don’t know exactly.”
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“Certainly the numbers were much lower than had been expected,” Rampell said. “I think there are a number of reasons to be concerned about labor supply being suppressed in some way. You know, workers wanting jobs but still being hesitant to take the jobs and offers.”
Rampell continued, “Some of that might have to do with, of course, with the fact that they are getting more generous unemployment benefits, but there are a lot of other factors too including lack of access to childcare, public transit cutbacks, the risk of getting sick at work, the risk of, frankly, getting assaulted at work if you tell a customer to wear a mask… so there are a lot of complex things going on here.”
Later on Twitter, Rampell clashed with Fourth Watch media critic Steve Krakauer, who mocked her assertion that anti-maskers were a serious “factor” in the low jobs numbers.
Rampell pointed to a Twitter link of various reports of retail and restaurant workers being assaulted by customers over masks.
“Low-paying service jobs are often risky and unpleasant; they have only become more so in the past year, because workers have been enlisted into the stupid and sometimes violent anti-mask culture wars,” Rampell wrote.
“I think you’d agree, if we’re assessing why the job numbers were off by 750,000, fear of being assaulted by an anti-mask customer would be very far down the list of reasons why,” Krakauer responded.
“Question is why people might be hesitant to return to work,” Rampell told Krakauer. “Answer is host of factors, incl low pay weighed vs considerations like childcare & how risky or unpleasant these jobs are/are perceived to be. High-profile fights w customers are among reasons these jobs are seen as risky.”
