The US Department of Labor (DoL) reported in its 06 May 2021 publishing that the total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending April 17 was 16,157,024, a decrease of 404,509 from the previous week. There were 17,847,707 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020. During the week ending April 17, 51 states reported 6,862,705 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 51 states reported 4,972,507 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits. And the headlines getting the most attention are those which state that there is a lack of Labor because of the combination of state and federal unemployment benefits. The problem, though, is not a Labor shortage, but rather a refusal of employers whom are willing to pay a living wage. Fortune put it this way,
The clearest sign yet that there are no widespread labor shortages comes from data on wage growth. If companies cannot hire people because there is a worker shortages, it would only be a shortage at current wages. There are obviously a lot of people out of the labor market or unemployed, many of whom would be willing to work at higher wages. Higher wages will entice workers, who are currently out of the labor force, to return to work since they can more easily pay for childcare, for example. Wage growth then should accelerate if employers are really facing worker shortages. But wage growth in general has slowed, in part because more low-wage workers are being rehired and in part because employers are not raising wages. Wages for production, non-supervisory workers, the vast majority of workers, were only 1.2% higher in April 2021 than a year earlier. Unless employers are boosting wages, they are not trying everything possible to fill jobs.
A prime example are the three dollar inspections which National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) members continue to roll out. By the way, that is NOT a typo. So, NAMFS members require you to have a car, buy commercial insurance, pay fuel, have multi-million dollar insurance policies — and all that before you even drive miles upon miles and hours of paperwork for, you got it, three dollars. NAMFS Executive Director, Eric Miller, has been at the forefront of what may only be termed indentured servitude for over a decade now. NAMFS members have also been front and center for multi-million dollar class action settlements for employee misclassification, criminal insurance fraud, and dozens of bankruptcies leaving Labor high and dry.
More heinous, though, is that as a non profit, NAMFS has refused to produce their IRS 990 income tax filings since 2018 — required by federal law to be presented, upon request, by the public. In a recent search of ProPublica’s database, there is no record of NAMFS even filing since 2018. Here are the NAMFS 990’s from 2004 – 2018.
It is par for the course when it comes to Eric Miller and the multi-millionaires whom compose the all white NAMFS Board of Directors. And that is yet another thing which calls into question Miller and the NAMFS commitment to being inclusive of Minorities and Minority Females. Throughout the 25 year history of NAMFS, they have never had an African American on the Board. With the overwhelming number of Minorities in the Mortgage Field Service Industry, this fact, alone, should be a call to action.
