Children, Teachers and CalCares…
…Two out of Three Ain’t Bad. That is my shout-out to Meat Loaf. Look it up.
Check out that new jobs report!
467,000 jobs in January, and November and December were revised upward by 700,000 combined.
That seems like a little more than a rounding error - who tracks this stuff?
Regardless, those are strong job numbers and in the middle of Omicron Prime, no less.
So, who hired these folks? You did. As a matter of fact, business owners hired so many workers that more people joined the work force raising the unemployment rate from 3.9% to 4%.
Rising unemployment is usually a bad thing, but in this case, it really is a good thing.
It’s even dragging teachers into the fray – see below.
The Child Tax Credit
I’d like to think I’m also a resource for your employees, but a CPA I am not, so have them talk to their tax person about this.
In 2021 most folks with children received a number of checks from the IRS above and beyond the $1400 that was doled out as part of the covid rescue package. This was an advance on their tax refund by way of the child tax credit. It was a way of getting cash into people’s hands that might need it now, instead of at year-end.
While this was explained as such, the impact won’t be known until they do their taxes.
The good news is that the IRS only advanced half of what they should get.
They may have been expecting a bigger tax refund, but they already got half of it in 2021. Some may not get a refund at all.
Just something you should know. Oh, and it is possible that some people will owe taxes because of it.
Teachers going into the private sector
Your kids’ teacher could be your new co-worker or employee.
The Wall Street Journal reported that teachers are quitting in droves and going into the private sector. Why?
The reasons were across the board, and not necessarily for money; covid was a big reason. Some even took a pay cut. But here are my thoughts:
First, hiring managers stuck at home watching their kids take zoom class finally realize what teachers actually do. They also realized that many of their employees don’t even come close to accomplishing in a week what some teachers do by Tuesday afternoon.
Second, teachers stuck at home watched their spouse, also stuck at home, do jobs that, compared to teaching, really didn’t seem that hard.
The US average teacher salary is $63,645.
However, it’s just a matter of time before the teachers realize that there are just as many babies in the private sector as there are in Kindergarten and that many of their coworkers really don’t remember what they learned in Kindergarten. Time will tell.
CalCares dies a quick CalDeath
A few Reports ago, I mentioned CalCares, a plan to provide single-payer healthcare for everyone in California.
Some media and some politicians liked it because it takes care of everyone at no charge to the individual.
Unless the individual earns over $50,000.
The project is daunting and would have doubled California taxes; it never made it out of committee. Too bad, so sad.
A few years ago, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway came together to do the ultimate start-up: a healthcare company that would seek to solve all the woes of healthcare up to that point. It was called Haven Health. For a number of different reasons, covid among them, it failed and wound down within three years.
If those three companies couldn’t get it done with an unlimited talent pool, can California?
Just like Phil Conners in Groundhog Day, this will keep coming back, so stay tuned.
Who was Peter Robbins?
Peter Robbins died in January at the age of 65. Who was he?
He was the voice of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts animated holiday specials in the early 60’s.
He really was around 9 years old when he was the voice of Charlie Brown.
Rumor has it they had various elected officials do the voice of the grown-ups. You can hear a sample here.
If you would like to see this and other previous Russell Reports, you can see them at my blog - they can be viewed here.
Thank you for reading this and until next week, keep hiring!
