Labor shortage deserves something better than shallow, partisan analysis
MINOT, N.D. — Earlier this year, in deciding to end participation in a federal program expanding unemployment benefits, many state-level leaders, including Gov. Doug Burgum, argued that it was necessary to get Americans back to work.
The expanded benefits obscured the impetus for out-of-work Americans to get a job. Ending the benefits would end the obfuscation.
It’s been a bit less than two months since those benefits ended here in North Dakota, and so far, there’s little discernible change in the state’s labor market numbers, as reporter Jeremy Turley pointed out recently.
Since political commentary is an often shallow business in which perception matters more than reality, this has prompted some commentators to spike football.
Leaders like Burgum made a mistake, they argue.
There’s a problem with that conclusion.
