1000 Jobs Gone (So Far)
As a direct result of the executive order signed by President Biden that revokes the Keystone XL pipeline permit, TC Energy eliminated 1000 mostly union jobs. Not only will it cost jobs, it will also increase the price of fuel. All kinds of fuel. From the gas that goes into automobiles to heating oil. That is a pretty obvious tax on those that can scarcely afford it.
After Democratic President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that rescinds a permit for constructing the Keystone XL pipeline, to run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, Canadian company TC Energy Corp fired 1,000 workers, Americans and Canadians.
“A majority of the 1,000 are unioned workers who have been constructing on both sides of the border,” TC Energy spokesman Terry Cunha told Bloomberg News.
This is most likely only the beginning of the job losses. President Biden has also championed the idea of raising the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. That may sound like a great idea at first blush, but a lot of small businesses can’t afford to pay those wages. From USNews:
MORE THAN three-quarters of restaurants in New York City have reduced employee hours since the minimum wage was increased to $15 per hour.
In a survey by The NYC Hospitality Alliance, 76.5 percent of full-service restaurant respondents said they had to reduce employee hours and 36 percent said they eliminated jobs in 2018 in response to the mandated wage increase.
Arbitrarily raising the cost of unskilled labor results in a net loss of jobs, simply because the labor that gets done by those making minimum wage usually isn’t worth more. Otherwise, they could barter for better wages. The job market is just that, a market.
Anticipate more of this kind of news in the coming years. If this is the plan to bring the country back from the pandemic, it is going the wrong way.