The best interpretation of the Jobs Report: Workers are demanding a living wage plus safety.

Stephanie Ruhle had a panel on the Jobs Report that pointed out that Americans are not willing to risk their lives for less than a living wage.

Jobs Report: What it really says about our job market

Many are covering the latest positive jobs report in too much of a fatalist modal. CNN reported it as follows.

New York (CNN Business)America’s jobs recovery hit a major roadblock in August as the Delta variant threatened the labor market recovery, and the US economy added far fewer jobs than expected. Only 235,000 jobs were added back to the economy last month, the lowest number since January, vastly missing economists’ expectations.

“Delta is reducing consumer demand and threatening the reopening,” said Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao. “Ultimately it’s just a harsh reminder that the pandemic has control of our destiny,” he told CNN Business. In normal times the August report would have been a reason to celebrate, but nowadays it’s a sharp slowdown from the buoyant jobs reports earlier in the summer. Friday’s report fell far short of economists’ already reduced expectations: Predictions for Friday’s jobs report had been revised down to 728,000 from 750,000 earlier after Wednesday’s ADP Employment Report, which count private payrolls, also disappointed.

Nearly a year and a half into the recovery, the US economy remains 5.3 million jobs short of where it was in February 2020, before Covid-19 threw a wrench into the gears. Last month, 5.6 million people said they hadn’t been able to work or worked reduced hours because their employer was affected by the pandemic. Amid all the bad news, there were also some silver linings: The unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in August from 5.4% before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Also, the job gains for July were revised up to 1.1 million, the first gain of a million jobs or more since August 2020.

John Hope Bryant has an important take that he presented to Stephanie Ruhle. He is an entrepreneur and the founder CEO of Bryant Group Ventures, The Promise Homes Co, & Operation HOPE. He is also the author of How The Poor Can Save Capitalism, THE MEMO, Up From Nothing, etc.

Bryant pointed out more than anything else now, Americans do not see a beneficial risk versus rewards that would make them go back to certain jobs. That reality has, so far, because of clever government intervention, empowered the worker. The worker is no longer completely enslaved to the employer as a minimal safety net sustained them.

The reason why many Red States and, in fact, the non-support for a strong social safety net of some Centrists and Moderates is that it gives the workers real bargaining power. In other words, pay them what they are worth, which will enable them to live a dignified life.