Flying from Washington to Amsterdam, that was the plan. It turned out differently
Traveling in times of labor market tightness is not easy. Schiphol is not an airport where delays affect movements. A report of 48 hours of trying to fly from Washington DC to Amsterdam – and why it doesn’t work.
Initially, things seem to be going more correctly than ever at Dulles, the international airport near Washington. Behind the KLM counter is a man stretching between two checked suitcases. The time between getting out of the taxi and arriving at the gate: fifteen minutes.
But in the plane itself the first setback was immediate. “At the moment there are very few people for baggage handling,” says the pilot. “That’s why it takes until the last suitcases are on board.”
It is one and a half hours later when it is finally allowed to leave for Amsterdam, and then it turns out that there is a seat in the steering gear of the copilot that cannot be repaired. The flight is cancelled, everyone has to disembark, just like the suitcases. By then it will be evening and above all: outside the normal schedule. “There is now almost no one left to unload your bags,” says a KLM employee who runs around with vouchers for taxis and hotels. It will take another two hours before the device is unloaded.
President Joe Biden was so proud of his April employment figures last week. More jobs were created than economists had predicted: 428,000 new jobs, an unemployment rate of 3.6 percent. “In the first 15 months of my administration, 8.3 million jobs were created,” Biden said. Most newspapers were loved and rightly so, says James Knightley, chief analyst for international economics at ING, over the phone from New York. “This shows that the US economy is maintaining its momentum.”
But Knightley also sees something crazy in the American job market. Many workers stay at home. Unemployment, of course, is low – among people that job is also low: 62.2 percent. Thus, 38.8 percent of the working population, Americans aged 16 to 65, is not in work. “Some are studying, some are sick. But there is also an increasing number of people for whom not working is a lifestyle choice. Older workers die sooner wanting to quit. People who just, for a moment, don’t feel like working.” For every person looking for a job now, there are on average almost two vacancies. Less than half of small and medium-sized enterprises are unable to find sufficient staff.
read more about the problems at Schiphol in recent weeks
Motionless
A new attempt 24 hours after the canceled flight. This time a trip in two: from Washington to JFK, New York, and from there to Amsterdam. This time not with KLM, but with Delta Air Lines. Again an excess of counter staff. And again a lack of boot loaders. Half an hour before the scheduled departure time, the aircraft is still motionless on the trunk. “Our cargo hold is still open,” says the pilot. Fifteen minutes later: “Twelve suitcases still have to be loaded, but that apparently goes one case at a time.” The plane departs for New York an hour late.
How can more Americans, in a notoriously harsh economic system, afford the luxury of a lifestyle choice and give thanks for lousy, poorly paid work like baggage handling? That stems from the government during the corona pandemic that has an unprecedented amount of money in society, to soften the blow of the lockdowns and the economic emergency. Under President Trump, the federal government issued around seventy million checks for $1,200 in the spring of 2020 and from that moment on, both the federal government and the various states have earmarked billions in support for ten consequences of the corona crisis that threatened to lose their jobs. who worked through companies where they worked – a bend that turned out to be carried out for a number of employers: billions in fraud have been carried out with the corona support.
Also read this article: Corona support was a feast for the improved: ‘You only have to bend over and you have money’
The billions that actually came from the workers themselves have “a desire to work,” says analyst James Knightley. “60 percent of the people who lost their jobs because of Covid have benefited financially because of the government support.” Americans have huge buffers. “There is $5,000 billion more saved.” Even the higher ones on offer – wages rose by an average of 5.5 percent in one year – may not tempt everyone. Thus, this labor market slump is contributing in two ways to the United States, which is in the States at 8.3 percent year-on-year. Shortage of staff exacerbated the difficulties in supplying, demand continues to exceed supply. And the prices wages push the prices, the ‘wage prices.
Also read this article from 2021: US highest point in more than 30 years
Restarting the economy
The good news is: at some point the money saved will run out and people will go back to work. The government had expected a temporary effect of the economy. Necessary measures are now needed to keep the wage price spiral under control. The central bank is raising interest rates significantly to cool the economy – not without risks.
Delay in Washington leads to a missed flight in New York. Although the plane is still on the ground at JFK (“we had some problems loading,” says the ground stewardess) it is closed and latecomers are dependent on emergency measures. A flight to Paris is possible.
On paper, the journey is now complete. But that only turns out to be true for the travelers, not for their luggage. The woman behind the Delta counter says she is encouraged to have “a completed one” to get the luggage to Paris. That device is two hours longer than planned in New York to charge, finally seems good news. Plenty of time to stow away the most recently arrived suitcases!
But the next morning at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, that turned out to be an illusion. No suitcase. It will arrive a day later at 08.00, the employee of the baggage service sees on her screen. “Come and see if it’s there at 10 o’clock. Not before. We are short of staff at the moment.”
Also read this interview about the staff shortage in the Netherlands: ‘In the Netherlands we love the quick fix’
A version of this article also in the newspaper of 13 May 2022