Since President Joe Biden's September announcement of COVID vaccine mandates for federal employees and contractors and private businesses with at least a hundred workers, many in the private sector have scrambled to implement their own vaccine requirement to abide by what is now an executive order. But as the Biden administration's COVID vaccine mandate is making the worker shortage even worse, some companies have found a way to attract more applicants: by not requiring the jab.
According to Not the Bee, not only are job postings being created with a notice that companies do not require COVID jabs, but entire new job sites are dedicated to jobless unvaccinated folks looking for new work. It is reminiscent of the exodus of conservative folks who found themselves censored by mainstream media companies such as Facebook and Google, who eventually found like-minded peers in social media sites such as Gab, Parler, and more.
CNN reported that JP Valadez of the Lubbock, Texas-based NextGen Code Company launched an online job board in August, after which it had over 2.25 million unique visitors and more than 20,000 resumes posted. As of November 12, the company said the site had about 500 active job listings.
"We are also seeing a massive migration from corporations to smaller businesses," Valadez explained in an email. "Many in the health industry are completely abandoning their career path in favor of something completely different. We are seeing nurses and doctors apply at travel agencies, for example, and just the other day we saw a resume from a NASA data analyst who was willing to work as a plumber or an electrician as long as the employer respected their values and their bodily autonomy."
Spanish Oak Assisted Living owner Philip Dulock, who runs the facility in Pflugerville, Texas, shared that after he added the phrase "NO VACCINE REQUIRED" in the title of an open position for a certified nursing assistant, there was a major increase in applications. Dulock explained that it had been challenging trying to hire qualified staff but after larger companies began to require vaccines among their employees, he thought adding the phrase to the job posting would attract more new potential candidates for the job.
Dulock added that he believes the COVID risks of hiring an unvaccinated worker is lower because majority of the staff and all of the facility's residents are now vaccinated. He remarked, "As far as I'm concerned, if someone does not want to get vaccinated, that's their choice. We're all protected by the vaccine."
Kathy Garfield, who runs building panel and plastic manufacturer Keller Companies, remarked that the exodus of unvaccinated employees is real. Garfield lamented during a news conference with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu that it's also difficult to find COVID testing providers, as they are pricey, ABC 10 reported.
"That's the difference between eating and starving. So what are these employees going to do? They're going to go to another employer with less than 100 employees," Garfield explained. Describing the vaccine mandate as a "crushing blow to employers," Garfield admitted that some of her employees expressed their desire to leave if they were forced to get the COVID shot.
Garfield pondered, "How can I run a business when I have no talent?"
