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Originally Posted by vintageogauge
I'm pretty sure that Sumter county has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. If that is true why aren't all of the unemployed individuals accepting all of the newly created jobs?
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Economics. If you're getting health care subsidies for yourself and your family, and you get a job paying only $7.60 an hour, you just incomed yourself out of health care and the buy-in costs more than the $7.60/hour you get paid.
Similarly, some jobs need you to work a minimum number of hours per week to justify the training and whatever benefits they offer (even if it's just a few sick days and holiday pay). If you're receiving Social Security, you are penalized if you go over a certain income, and that threshold is pretty low.
If you were earning $40/hour doing professional work and were forced out of your job due to company restructuring, would YOU be willing to accept a job paying $7.60/hour for 15 hours a week bagging groceries? Your unemployment checks would be higher than that.
Florida is known to have absolutely no respect for the minimum wage worker. They don't even require workers to get breaks, and federal law leaves it up to the states to decide about break times. Most jobs needing to be filled are minimum wage jobs.
On the other hand, there are people (like myself) who aren't eligible for social security yet, who would LOVE to work part time, but don't want to screw myself over with regards to health insurance. I can't afford the buy-in, with zero income. I also can't afford to be sick. So I have to rely on the ACA marketplace and subsidies. That means I can, absolutely positively work. But I have to be careful how many hours I work, and how much I get paid per hour, or it will cost me dearly for the privilege.
If companies paid for insurance, or heavily subsidized part-time employees for their comprehensive plans, it'd be different. But most don't do that.