President Joe Biden announced a nationwide vaccine mandate which requires all employers with 100 or more employees to make sure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative COVID test at least once a week. The government hopes that this mandate will not only protect lives, but the economy as well. Economists have attributed the U.S. economy's slower than expected growth to the highly contagious Delta variant. Until the virus can be contained, states with low vaccination rates will continue slower job growth than states where more of the population is vaccinated.
The mandate will affect about 100 million Americans, many of those already vaccinated. According to research from the Associated Press, about half of Americans are in favor of vaccine mandates for employees working in person at their workplace. This comes after the nation only added 235,000 jobs in August, which did not meet economists expectation of 750,000 new jobs. Employers looking for workers may see these numbers and take a page of the mandate to grow their businesses faster.
However, there are questions to be answered from this new mandate. It is unsure how the vaccine mandate will be unforced and fines to companies who do not comply could be as expensive as $14,000, according to Biden. Also, this mandate could have an adverse reaction from employees, who may just quit rather than abide by the vaccine requirements, further slowing job growth. The largest question still to answer is the virus. Chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, Ian Shepherdson, noted that Delta cases could peak as soon as this month. Therefore, the dip in cases could spur consumer confidence and grow the economy. Still, there is uncertainty about a possible winter surge in the future. So, it will be interesting to see how much dent the vaccine mandate will make in the ongoing pandemic.
Article link: Biden's vaccine mandate could be a shot in the arm for U.S. economy, experts say - CBS News
2 comments:
With the many Americans that are currently unvaccinated, it is clear that they have made up there minds. I feel that this mandate will not have the desired effect that the government believes that it will have. I could see an increase of unemployment and and increase in unemployment benefits that the government will have to pay out while many workers are looking for jobs that do not require them to get a vaccine. With a unemployment rate that is still relatively high compared to pre-pandemic, this mandate could be a painful blow to the economy that is already treading on this ice.
I agree. Looking at the job market right now I can't help but think a lot of these positions are available because people are leaving due to being forced to take a vaccine. I could see increase in unemployment numbers as well but also I can see the percentage of the workforce that is close to retirement just retiring or if able to just not looking for jobs making the unemployment numbers appear better. It will be interesting to see how this effects the larger companies as well that have larger impacts on the economy as a whole.
Post a Comment