No Vaccines Requirements is the New Job Perk Offered By Some Employers
In the current tight labor market, employers have become very creative to attract workers. From sign-in bonuses to increased wages, companies are willing to up their ante. The new perk: “no vaccines needed.”
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As of Nov. 5, fewer than 0.01% of job postings and about 0.01% of U.S. searches contained the phrase “no vaccine required” or some iterations thereof, according to the most recent data from Indeed, CNN reports. Meanwhile, 2.53% of U.S. job postings on Indeed mentioned requiring a vaccination. On Tuesday, a search conducted by CNN Business for “no vaccine required” listings on Indeed’s website returned about 230 results.
GOBankingRates did a cursory “no vaccine required” job search on Indeed, which retrieved a slew of postings, including for nurses, gym hosts or food safety specialists. There was even a job posting for a vaccination specialist in Virginia.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued new rules applying to businesses with 100 or more employees, requiring U.S. companies to have their employees fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 or regularly tested for COVID-19. The administration has also previously implemented policies requiring millions of federal employees and federal contractors to be fully vaccinated.
Some employers say that “the perk” enabled them to start hiring more workers.
“It was at that point that we were then able to start hiring people,” Primal Life Organics CEO Trina Felber told CNN, adding that it was also an opportunity to attract employees that would fit well with the company’s culture.
“We try to foster independence,” she told CNN. “I feel that as a culture for my company, I don’t want people to be hired being told what they can and can’t do personally.”
However, experts caution that offering this particular incentive is a considerable — and a potentially deadly – gamble, CNN says.
“My suspicion is that these employers are probably facing hiring challenges, and they’re throwing everything at the wall to try to get the workers they need,” AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told CNN. “That’s a very short-term bet with long-term consequences,” she said, adding that the non-mandated postings represent an “incredibly small” percentage of Indeed’s U.S. job listings.
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Since the pandemic was declared and as of today, COVID has killed 765,000 people in the U.S. and 5.1 million people globally, according to data from The New York Times.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: No Vaccines Requirements is the New Job Perk Offered By Some Employers
