Ok North Dakotans – NOW Is It Time To Get Back To Work?

Earlier this morning, here at our radio station in Mandan, a gentleman from a local business came by to drop off a couple of things - in conversation with him, he apologized for not coming by yesterday, his exact words were "We are short-handed". I replied back "That is pretty much the case in a lot of other businesses in Bismarck/Mandan" He had the perfect answer to that, as he was walking out the door -

   Well everything ended last Friday, so maybe it's time for those to get back to work

I wondered what he meant by that as he drove away, then it hit me - back on May 10th of this year, KFYR reported Gov. Doug Burgum, R-N.D., is ending North Dakota’s participation in federally-backed COVID unemployment assistance programs. On June 19th, the state will return to its traditional model for handling unemployment assistance. Some staggering statistics were brought up according to the governor's office there were more than 16,000 job openings in April. Meanwhile, more than 8,300 individuals were claiming unemployment KFYR wrote.

        The feeling of frustration seemed to be felt everywhere here in town - several job interviews were set up at one local restaurant, but the owner was lucky if just one person followed through and actually showed up. Another place in Bismarck had to cancel several events because of a lack of employees. No longer will people be able to receive as much as $300 dollars a week - and yes I get it, several of the comments from the people that were collecting that check - "I make more money NOT working than I did if I was employed at like a minimum wage place" - makes sense to me, but it's over now.

In my opinion, get out there and WORK - our local businesses need you!