Are Businesses Really Hiring In Amarillo? Just A Ruse?

If you roam around town, you'll notice a relatively common theme at a lot of places.

"Now hiring" signs and messages are posted on marquees and doors of businesses.

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There are still a lot of unemployed people in Amarillo that are actively looking for a job but are somehow unable to gain employment anywhere. So what are the reasons behind it?

One theory that has been that these employers know there are plenty of unemployed people out there, so they feel they can sit back and wait for the right person to come along. By right person, I mean the one willing to work for a ridiculously low wage.

It's been reported that employers are offering extremely low salaries or wages to come and work for them. People are opting to stay on unemployment rather than be underpaid for a job. I completely understand that.

But there's a new theory going around, call it a conspiracy theory or not, that really changes the outlook on businesses that say they are hiring.

The theory is that the funds a lot of companies received during COVID have rules and limitations applied to them. Of course they do, but this one could be the reason we see so many now hiring signs.

The rumor is that if you received the funds during COVID, you have to be actively hiring people or looking for people to come to work for you. Most of these businesses lost employees during the height of the pandemic. Whether that was layoffs due to it or people finding new jobs to start as the country started to reopen.

Well, a lot of companies are saying they're hiring so they can keep the money, but not actually hiring anyone because they're either realizing they don't need the added staffing or are simply ok with tucking the money away and rolling a bit short-staffed.

If it's true that companies are doing this and these are the rules of the loans, they've officially found the loophole. Adding to the rumors, President Biden is supposedly going to start investigating companies that took funds and make sure they are being used properly, or be returned.

If that's true, you may see an influx of employers hiring people at a record pace. Stay tuned.