Where We Don’t Want To Work

More people want to be traffic flaggers.

But it’s not because the job has become more attractive.

Jobs No One Wants

Most of us do not want to be a traffic flagger. Requiring long hours in high and low temperatures, flagging is wearing, boring (flipping a sign from slow to stop), and dangerous (standing in traffic). For these reasons, an Atlanta traffic flagging company reports that it typically gets fewer than 10 calls a week for the position. Now though, inquiries are up to 80.

Elsewhere also, interest in unpopular jobs is up. Indeed observed an uptick in demand for the less dependable seasonal jobs that people tend to avoid. In addition, waste management is getting more requests to drive garbage trucks and the military has become more popular. Schools have even seen interest is up for substitute teaching positions.

Some say the reason is a “no fire, no hire” environment.

Our Bottom Line: The Employment Report

With the unemployment rate low (4.6%) and economic growth up (4.3%), the interest in jobs no one wants can be a head scratcher. Then though, looking closely, we see that the employment situation is more complicated than it initially appears. For that closer look, we can go to the JOLTS numbers and the U-4. As the Job Openings and Labor Market Turnover Survey, the JOLTS numbers provide information about the “openings, hires, and separations” that reflect an economic slowdown. Also a recessionary indicator, U-4 adds “discouraged workers” that left the labor force to the unemployed that by definition are in the labor force.

Always though we can return to mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and the British coastline.

The closer you look, the more you see (about traffic flaggers):

My sources and more: Thanks to Bloomberg radio for alerting me to undesirable jobs. From there, I found this video with more detail and discussion while Reuters had the statistics for “no fire; no hire.”