Guatemala volcano erupts but no evacuations yet

Issued on: 23/09/2021 - 

Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupts on February 14, 2021 Johan ORDONEZ AFP

Guatemala City (AFP)

Guatemala's Fuego volcano spewed lava and ash Thursday in a series of explosions that have not yet forced any evacuations, authorities said.

The eruption produced a long river of lava flowing down to the base of the volcano, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of the capital Guatemala City, said Emilio Barillas of the Insivumeh volcano institute.

Fuego, 3.7 kilometers high (12,240 feet), is one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala.

The recently-recorded activity is the strongest since June 2018, when Fuego unleashed a torrent of mud and ash that wiped the village of San Miguel Los Lotes from the map, said Barillas.

More than 200 people were killed.

On Thursday, several communities at the foot of the mountain reported nothing more serious than a downpour of ash, said the Conred disaster coordination center.

"For now, no evacuation program has been initiated," said Conred spokesman David de Leon, though the situation was being closely followed.

© 2021 AFP

US north-east among fastest-warming areas in northern hemisphere, study finds

Coast has already heated up by 2C over the past century, thanks in part to warming Atlantic Ocean

A man sells water on the boardwalk of Coney Island in New York last month. 

Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Thu 23 Sep 2021 16.00 BST

The coastal US north-east is one of the fastest warming areas in the northern hemisphere, having heated up rapidly by 2C (3.6F) already over the past century due in part to the soaring temperature of the nearby Atlantic Ocean, new research has found.

The coastline that stretches from Maine down to Delaware hosts urban areas such as New York City and Boston and draws millions of tourists each year to beaches and other attractions. But the region is rapidly changing due to the climate crisis, having heated up by 2C on average since the start of the 20th century, driven largely by much warmer summers.

This is one of the fastest temperature increases in the northern hemisphere, researchers found, and is double the level of heating that has taken place further inland in the same region.

The world’s governments have agreed to limit the overall global temperature rise to “well below” 2C to avoid disastrous heatwaves, floods and other impacts. The US north-east has itself now, in isolation, already breached this threshold.

“It really pops out, it’s a big jump in temperature,” said Ambarish Karmalkar, a climate scientist at University of Massachusetts Amherst and lead author of the paper, published in Nature Climate Change. “It’s an exceptional level of warming and what is surprising to me is that it’s so different within a small region. The interior of the US north-east has only warmed by 1C, whereas these popular coastal areas have warmed by 2C. That’s a big difference.”

Karmalkar and his colleague Radley Horton sought to establish the reasons for this brisk temperature increase and have pointed to a link between the rising heat of the northern Atlantic Ocean and that of the nearby land.


How the US labor movement is getting to grips with the climate crisis

A large system of ocean currents, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (or Amoc), acts as a sort of conveyor belt for the ocean, bringing warm, salty water from the tropics north towards Greenland, where it cools and sinks.

Recent studies indicate that this watery conveyor is slowing down as the climate heats up, meaning that warmer water is piling up along the US east coast, in places such as the Gulf of Maine and the Mid-Atlantic Bight. This warming, which is upending traditional fisheries as marine ecosystems morph, has helped drive up temperatures along the coast with the aid of altered wind patterns, according to the researchers.

“The sea surface temperatures have gone up dramatically, much faster than the global average, and more heat is being dumped there by the slowing conveyor belt,” said Karmalkar. “You are also getting these anomalous winds, and these two factors together are driving warming trends.”

Cities in the US north-east have been primarily focused on the dangers of flooding wreaked by the climate crisis – record rainfall caused severe flash flooding that killed dozens of people in New York earlier this month – but Karmalkar said that authorities would increasingly have to focus upon rising heat if current trends continue.

“The exceptional warming we’ve seen can have serious implications for heat stress and human health,” he said. “Lots of people vacation on this coast but the warming may change how people use the space. This will become an important public health issue to deal with.”

Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University who was not involved in the research, said the study “nicely identifies” possible causes for the heating of the US north-east. Kopp added that adaptations to this heat would have to take place.

“Of course, there are huge inequities within the United States, and within the region the harms of extreme heat will tend to be felt most heavily by lower-income people,” he said. “This is also a densely urbanized area, with a substantial urban heat island effect.”

Scientists have warned that countries are still not cutting planet-heating emissions quickly enough to avoid catastrophic consequences, with places from the US west to Germany to China already experiencing recent severe climate crisis-fueled impacts. “These changes will only become worse if humans continue to emit carbon dioxide,” said Natalie Mahowald, a climate scientist at Cornell University.

The Coastal Northeastern US is a global warming hotspot

by University of Massachusetts Amherst

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

New research, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveals, for the first time, not only that the coastal Northeast—from Maine to Delaware—is heating faster than most regions of North America, but that this heating is linked to drastic alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions over the North Atlantic.

"What does global warming mean for the Northeast?" asks Ambarish Karmalkar, professor of geosciences and researcher at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at UMass Amherst and lead author of the paper which recently appeared in Nature Climate Change. As Karmalkar started to pursue this question, he began noticing two disconcerting phenomena: the coastal Northeast is warming faster than most other regions in the U.S., and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean is also warming at a much faster rate than all the oceans as a whole. "I wanted to know if there was a link between these two trends, and if so, what that link is."

"The key findings here are that the observed warming in coastal Northeast is exceptional," says Karmalkar, "that some of the biggest populations centers in the U.S. are suffering the greatest degree of warming, and that this warming is being driven both by equally rapid trends in the Atlantic Ocean and by changes in atmospheric circulation patterns." Additionally, Karmalkar's research shows that, not only are Northeastern winters getting warmer, as expected, but significant and rapid summer warming is happening along the coast.

Several recent studies indicate that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is slowing down due to climate change. Envision AMOC as a conveyor belt that transports warm, salty water from the tropics north toward Greenland, where it cools and sinks. This cooled water then flows back south in the form of deep-water currents. But as the climate warms, and glaciers in Greenland melt, the conveyor is slowing down. "One consequence of this conveyor belt slowdown is more heating of the ocean off the Northeastern coast, which helps to explain the spike in ocean temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Maine regions," explains Karmalkar.

One link between AMOC and rising temperatures in Boston, New York and Providence is the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a weather phenomenon that governs the strength and position of the winds that blow from the US, over the Atlantic and on to Europe. There's a degree of natural variability to the NAO, which influences everything from storm tracks, the jet stream and seasonal temperatures in the Northeast. However, as Karmalkar and his co-author Radley Horton from Columbia University show, the NAO has, for the past few decades, tended to settle into a pattern which enhances the influence of ocean air on the climate of the eastern seaboard. Because the northwestern Atlantic is also warming due to the AMOC slowdown, this means that warmer ocean air is being blown over the coastal Northeast, accelerating land-based heating trends.

Karmalkar's research also highlighted the importance of using a new generation of high-resolution climate models that could more accurately capture changes in regional climate. "Our research," says Karmalkar, "implies that without improved high-resolution data, regional climate assessments, which inform our ability to plan for the future, may underemphasize warming in this populous region."Study pinpoints key causes of ocean circulation change

More information: Drivers of exceptional coastal warming in the northeastern United States, Nature Climate Change (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01159-7 , www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01159-7

Journal information: Nature Climate Change 

Provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst 

THE 51st STATE

House passes standalone bill to provide $1B for Israel's Iron Dome
BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 09/23/21 

© Getty Images


The House passed legislation on Thursday to provide $1 billion to support Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, after Democrats stripped the funding from a stopgap bill to prevent a government shutdown due to progressive objections earlier this week.

The standalone bill to ensure the Iron Dome funding passed handily on a bipartisan basis, 420-9, with two Democrats voting “present.” Eight liberal Democrats and one Republican voted in opposition.

House Democrats passed a bill on Tuesday that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 3, but Republicans universally opposed it because it included a provision to suspend the debt limit into next year.


Because of the widespread GOP opposition on Tuesday, House Democrats couldn’t afford more than three defections and still pass the bill on their own. Democratic leaders therefore opted to remove the Iron Dome funding from the government spending bill to accommodate progressives’ concerns and instead consider it on a standalone basis.

The debate over the Iron Dome funding once again laid bare the internal Democratic divisions over Israel, which have repeatedly flared since they took over the House majority two years ago.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spoke with the Israeli foreign minister on Tuesday and assured him that lawmakers would address the Iron Dome funding, despite its removal from the bill to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

Funding for the Iron Dome, which is designed to help Israel defend itself from rocket attacks launched by terrorist groups like Hamas in Gaza, has long enjoyed bipartisan support. Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee sought to stress that the funding is purely for defensive purposes and cannot be used by Israel for procurement of offensive weapons.

“As we continue to stand up for a two-state solution that achieves peace, security and hope and opportunity for both Israelis and Palestinians, we vigorously, strongly, unshakably stand for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism,” Hoyer said.


But moments before Hoyer took to the podium on the House floor, tensions flashed as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the lone Palestinian-American member of Congress, spoke out against the Iron Dome funding.

“We cannot be talking only about Israelis’ need for safety at a time when Palestinians are living under a violent apartheid system,” Tlaib said, calling the Israeli government “an apartheid regime.”

“We should also be talking about Palestinian need for security from Israeli attacks,” she said.

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who is Jewish, subsequently abandoned his prepared remarks and angrily blasted Tlaib for having “besmirched our ally.”

“I cannot, I cannot allow one of my colleagues to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and label the Jewish democratic state of Israel an apartheid state. I reject it,” Deutch said.

Deutch argued that describing the Israeli government in such terms is “consistent with those who advocate for the dismantling of the one Jewish state in the world. And when there is no place on the map for one Jewish state, that’s anti-Semitism.”

The Senate is expected to consider the standalone Iron Dome funding bill at a later time.

But the bill that the House passed on Tuesday to keep the federal government funded through Dec. 3 and suspend the debt limit before an October deadline is set to fail amid widespread GOP opposition in the Senate.

House Democrats introduce $1B stand-alone bill for Israel's Iron Dome

Overnight Defense & National Security — Presented by AM General —...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is insisting that Republicans won’t help Democrats prevent a disastrous default on the nation’s debt obligations, as the GOP protests Democrats’ plans to enact a $3.5 trillion spending plan to expand social safety net programs.

Democrats argue that they acted to suspend the debt limit multiple times during the Trump presidency and that the accumulated debt is also a result of spending from those years.

“From the start, they’ve planned to use a party-line fast-track process to ram this through the Senate on their own,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday, referring to the budget reconciliation process Democrats are using for their spending plan to circumvent a GOP filibuster. “That’s why Republicans will not help this unified Democratic government with its basic duty to raise the debt ceiling.”

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Alberta carnivals, festivals permitted during public health emergency

WHAT PART OF PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND

An advertisement for a carnival that has drawn controversy, but is fully approved by Alberta Health. (Source: Wild Rose Shows Inc.) THAT'S A POLITICAL DECISION BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE


CTV News Edmonton
Staff
Published Sept. 22, 2021 


EDMONTON -

As health-care workers struggle with a fourth wave of COVID-19 patients, other Albertans are able to go to weekend carnivals and festivals sanctioned by health officials and approved by the UCP government.

A state of public health emergency was declared by Premier Jason Kenney on Sept. 15 as patients requiring intensive care hit all-time record numbers.

Still, in an effort to keep the economy going, Alberta is allowing businesses including festivals and carnivals to continue outdoors without vaccine rules – causing confusion and drawing criticism from some.

Responding to concern from residents, Slave Lake’s mayor clarified that he had no say in the carnival setting up in his town this week, because it’s happening on private land.

“This approval does not go through council!! My understanding is they have approval from AHS and it is up to AHS to monitor and enforce in the event. It is my hope that AHS does so. You should not expect to see me at a carnival this weekend,” Tyler Warman wrote on Facebook.

A commenter on the post called the event “dangerous,” and another said it was “surprising” that this was being allowed.




Others were happy that Wild Rose Shows Inc. was setting up in town.

“Don’t go if you’re worried,” commenter Jim Buchholtz wrote on a Town of Slave Lake post explaining the situation.

Wild Rose also had a show scheduled for Sept. 23-26 in Red Deer.

An employee told CTV News Edmonton over the phone that they were trying to save a family business after months of being shut down.

A spokesperson with the company did not return a request for further comment.

Alberta Health confirmed carnivals and other outdoor events are still allowed, and do not require special approval provided “social distancing is maintained between households.”

Outdoor events also do not require vaccine passports and there is no limit on capacity.

Several other festivals were also still scheduled to proceed through the health emergency.

The Lethbridge Electronic Music Festival was planned for Saturday in downtown Lethbridge and the Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival was still a go in High River.

Organizers of both events did have to change plans to allow for the outside 2m distancing rule, their advertisements said.

The Edmonton International Film Festival planned to push on too. Running Oct. 1-10, organizers clarified safety rules in a Facebook post.

“We’re making it safer and more intimate while creating more space and keeping the same excitement and togetherness that guests have come to expect from a visit to the cinemas,” it read.

“All attendees will be asked to adhere to the health and safety guidelines that we’ve developed, along with public health requirements.”

Alberta announced 20 new COVID-19 related deaths Wednesday and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health repeated similar health advice.

“Our actions, such as going out while symptomatic, have very real consequences to those around us. Staying home when we feel unwell, wearing our masks when out in public, & getting vaccinated are critical to limiting the potential spread,” she wrote on Twitter.

10% of cattle on family farm killed by lightning strike

Cheryl Santa Maria 

WARNING: This article contains a photo of the animals impacted by the storm. While not explicit in nature, some readers may find the image disturbing.

Eight heifers - 10 per cent of the 80 cows on a family beef farm - were killed by lightning in central Maine last week, the Bangor Daily News (BDN) reports.

John Fortin of Fortin Farm says the storm rolled in Saturday evening as he was wrapping up for the day when a neighbour called to report lightning struck a tree where eight of his cows had gathered to shelter.

Upon inspection, Fortin found they had been electrocuted and killed.

© Provided by The Weather Network

A photo of the cows. (Fortin Farm/GoFundMe)

The cows were about two years old and ready to start breeding. Fortin told BDN each one was worth an estimated $1,500, but could have brought in up to $2,500 when sold as beef - but the cost is "exponential", BDN says, because each cow could have potentially produced one calf a year for up to a decade.

A GoFundMe was set up to help replace the animals. While Fortin has livestock insurance his policy won't cover replacements, BDN says.

The fundraising goal was met in less than two days.

Fortin Farm is located in central Maine and has been raising cattle since the 1900s. The family organization spans four generations.

It's not uncommon for livestock to be killed by lightning strikes, due to the outdoor nature of their enclosures. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that lightning is responsible for up 80 per cent of all accidental livestock deaths.

Thumbnail: stylized image created by Cheryl Santa Maria. Image source: Klaus Hollederer/Pexels.

Twitter takes down Maxime Bernier tweet that called reporters 'idiots'

OTTAWA — Twitter has taken down a post by People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier after he insulted individual reporters on social media and shared their contact information.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In a tweet Wednesday, Bernier called three journalists from mainstream news outlets "idiots" and listed their emails, writing: "They want to play dirty, we will play dirty too."

He encouraged his 160,000 followers to contact the reporters, posting excerpts of their requests for comment after Monday's federal election as evidence of what he deemed "disgusting smear jobs."

The Canadian Association of Journalists says journalists have a legal and ethical obligation to send questions to politicians and that going after reporters for doing their job is "unacceptable and dangerous."

A Twitter Canada spokesman says the company took enforcement action against Bernier's account for violating its information privacy policy.

The People's Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Michael Flynn claims salad dressing is being infused with COVID vaccine

National Post Staff 


Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor under Donald Trump, claimed during an appearance on a conservative radio program that COVID vaccines were being added to salad dressing

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© Provided by National Post

Flynn was speaking to Clay Clark, conservative radio host of “The Thrivetime Show”, and Andrew Sorchini, a precious metals dealer in Beverly Hills.

“Somebody sent me a thing this morning where they’re talking about putting the vaccine in salad dressing. Have you seen this? I mean it’s — and I’m thinking to myself, this is the ‘bizarro world,’ right? This is definitely the ‘bizarro world,’” said Flynn.

“These people are seriously thinking about how to impose their will on us in our society and it has to stop,” he added.

No evidence has been found thus far of COVID vaccines being slipped into any salad condiments. Multiple outlets have reached out to Flynn for clarification. Meanwhile, fact-checkers over at Snopes gather that it’s possible the retired general had made a reference to ongoing research that aims to grow produce containing mRNA vaccine material.

Edible vaccines: Scientists studying potential of leafy greens as homegrown 'mRNA factories'

Jonathan Kay: Anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories aren’t just killing people. They’re tearing society apart

A few days before Flynn’s interview, University of California-Riverside announced a research program would attempt to “turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.”

“The project’s goals, made possible by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are threefold: showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate, demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and finally, determining the right dosage,” the release states.

One difficulty with rolling out mRNA COVID-19 vaccines currently is the sub-zero temperatures required during transportation. The research, if successful, would allow mRNA vaccines to be stored at room temperature.

“Plant-based mRNA vaccines — which can be eaten — could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature,” according to the statement. The study is currently looking into using lettuce and spinach for the process. The key to making it work will be chloroplasts, which converts sunlight into energy for plants.

“They’re tiny, solar-powered factories that produce sugar and other molecules which allow the plant to grow,” said one researcher. “They’re also an untapped source for making desirable molecules.”

It’s unlikely the “vaccine veggies” are going to be used during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Snopes points out. The program is in its infancy and without a timeline.

Flynn, Roger Stone and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell are going on a ReAwaken America tour organized by Clark. Multi-day conferences are being held across the U.S., featuring speeches from high-profile Trump loyalists and anti-vax doctors. Tickets reportedly cost $250 for general admission and $500 for VIP access, but pastors can qualify for 50 per cent off. Many of the dates are listed as sold out .

Flynn, who was pardoned by former president Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017, served as the national security advisor to the 45th president for 22 days before resigning. In 2020, Flynn claimed COVID-19 was concocted to “gain control of society” during a presidential election.

Norway hikes rates, becoming the first central bank in the developed world to do so

Matt Clinch 


"A normalising economy now suggests that it is appropriate to begin a gradual normalisation of the policy rate," said Governor Oystein Olsen in a statement Thursday.
Norway's currency rallied to its highest levels since June against the euro, according to Reuters, and gained 0.7% against the U.S. dollar. The bank also said that another hike is likely in December

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© Provided by CNBC Norway's central bank, also known as Norges Bank, in Oslo, Norway.

The Norges Bank on Thursday become the first major Western central bank to raise interest rates following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

After cutting rates three times in 2020 due the economic fallout from the crisis, Norway's central bank unanimously decided to raise rates to 0.25% from zero.

"A normalising economy now suggests that it is appropriate to begin a gradual normalisation of the policy rate," said Governor Oystein Olsen in a statement Thursday.

The bank said that another hike is likely in December.

Norway's currency rallied to its highest levels since June against the euro, and gained 0.7% against the U.S. dollar.

The rate hike comes as many central banks consider similar moves amid solid growth and surging inflation. In the United States, Federal Reserve officials reiterated Wednesday that a tapering of bond buying is coming "soon." The European Central Bank recently slowed its bond buying, but an actual rate move is expected to be still some way off for both banks.

"The reopening of society has led to a marked upswing in the Norwegian economy, and activity is now higher than its pre-pandemic level. Unemployment has fallen further, and capacity utilisation appears to be close to a normal level," the bank added in the statement.

Documents show COVID-19 pandemic led to record-high deficit in Manitoba


WINNIPEG — The COVID-19 pandemic pushed Manitoba's deficit for the last fiscal year to a record $2.1 billion

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The audited final report for the fiscal year that ended in March says the government took in far less in income tax than expected as the economy slowed.

Gambling revenues plummeted as casinos and video lottery lounges were closed due to public health orders.

On the spending side, a few departments — including health — ran well over budget as the government responded to the pandemic.

The province is forecasting a $1.5-billion deficit for the current fiscal year, due to more federal transfer payments and a recovering economy.

The consecutive years of red ink are expected to push Manitoba's total net debt to $30 billion.

This report by The Can

The labor shortage is actually 3 mismatches between workers and employers
insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan) 

© Provided by Business Insider A man hands his resume to an employer at the 25th annual Central Florida Employment Council Job Fair at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Reports of a labor shortage persist, even as unemployment benefits ended and the US continues to reopen.

Some of the driving factors behind the labor shortage remain mismatches across the economy.

Available workers might not fit open jobs, or want more from work. They also may have just moved.

A Family Dollar briefly closed in Nebraska after its whole staff quit over high turnover and low wages. A coffee shop owner in Iowa raised wages to $15 to lure in workers. A burger chain owner says restaurants are in a bidding war for workers.

It seems like every day there's yet another story about the effects the persistent labor shortage is having on businesses.

Ending federal unemployment benefits hasn't seemed to plug it up yet, Bloomberg reports. In fact, letting those benefits lapse may actually deal a large blow to consumer spending and incomes, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

There are three major disconnects that define this mystery around open jobs, and why people aren't filling them. Economists call these "mismatches," and they've been driving labor crunches for months, as Insider reported in July. None seems to have faded yet.

(1) There's still a skills mismatch - and higher-skilled workers might be filtered out

In June, the right-leaning Chamber of Commerce sounded the alarm on a skills gap, arguing for the need to invest in job-training programs and to equip applicants with the skills needed to fill open roles.

In an August note, economists at Morgan Stanley led by Ellen Zentner wrote: "Differences in skills and qualifications limit the extent to which workers can easily transition to high-demand industries, leading to a mismatch of labor supply and demand."

However, there's another wrinkle: The Wall Street Journal reported that employers are increasingly leaning on hiring software that filters out applicants based on words that may or may not appear on their resumes. But those keywords might filter out someone with tangentially related skills, and keep out someone looking to job switch.

Erica Groshen, senior economics advisor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Insider that many employers may also be filtering out applicants who don't have four-year degrees.

"This is a real problem for the labor market, because less than half of US workers have a college degree, it's not changing rapidly," Groshen said. "And yet we have many, many workers who were very productive at previous jobs, who have learned a lot of skills on those jobs."

(2) People are moving and leaving open jobs

While big cities like New York and San Francisco may be on the rebound, people did move around within metro areas - and many don't want to start commuting again. In fact, they're making big investments in homes without factoring in commute time as much as pre-pandemic.

And "exurbs," rural areas and small towns outside of big-city suburbs, have risen in popularity during the pandemic; the cities people have moved to have more professional roles that need filling, according to Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, the big cities - which are now seeing red-hot housing prices - need service workers. Those economists say migration might need to settle down before the geographic mismatch ends. They also warned that, after the 2008 financial crisis, "regional misallocation of labor was one of the reasons that employment was slow to recover."

(3) Workers have higher expectations and want more than what's available

For four months now, workers have been quitting at record rates. Even leisure and hospitality, the sector largely leading the recovery, is seeing workers leave en masse and push up wages as employers get more eager to lure them back.

In a survey of 1,800 unemployed job seekers by FlexJobs, 48% of respondents said they were frustrated with the search because they weren't finding the right positions - and many were only finding openings for low-wage roles. With the Delta variant still pummeling the US, taking a job now isn't just about pay or benefits (although both are compelling workers). It's also a health and a childcare consideration - will the job offset childcare costs, or be flexible enough when school closes due to an outbreak?

As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: "Would you sign up for a job to get attacked by unvaccinated tourists for $15/hr? For no healthcare but max risk? Most wouldn't."Expanded Coverage Module: what-is-the-labor-shortage-and-how-long-will-it-last