Absenteeism linked to the deployment of national guard reservists is at a 19 -year -old summit, which disrupts a labor market more under pressure.
Between January and August, 90,000 workers missed at least a week of work due to military deployments or other civic obligations (such as participation in a jury), reports the office of labor statistics. It is twice as much as during the same period last year, and a summit since 2006, when President George W. Bush had deployed national guard units in Iraq, Afghanistan and the southwest border of the United States.
These absences are due, in part, to the deployment by Donald Trump of these troops in American cities. Since his entry into office in January, Trump has sent thousands of members of the National Guard-civilians, many of whom have a full-time job-in Los Angeles and Washington and plans to deploy them also in other cities, including Chicago, New York, Baltimore and New Orleans. He called for the creation of a new military unit capable of mobilizing quickly across the country.
This occurs when job offers decrease, layoffs are increasing and businesses are hesitant to hire. Barely 22,000 jobs were created in August, well below economists’ expectations and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.3 %.
The uncertainty linked to the possible deployment of the National Guard and its duration “adds to chaos” for families and businesses, says Michael Makowsky, economist at the University of Clemson, who studies the relationships between the application of the law and economic activity. “Anything that makes it more difficult to develop a plan is generally harmful to the economy. »»
This article was published in the Washington Post.
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