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Mandates make jobs less appealing
On Feb. 2, the Sentinel published an editorial praising Governor Shapiro for removing the appearance that a degree was necessary to fill the hundreds of vacant jobs in state government. I think more than a symbolic gesture will be needed to accomplish that goal.
When I was a military spouse for years, I would apply for Federal, state and local jobs wherever we were stationed. I was given advice on how to land those jobs all the time. One technique was to tailor your resume by picking words out of the job description related to necessary skills or experience and make sure they appeared in your resume so the computer algorithm would pick your resume for review. When we moved back to Pennsylvania after my husband retired, I applied for state jobs, I took the required tests, and I applied for many of the jobs that are now open but not anymore. I wouldn't touch a state job with a 10-foot pole if it was offered to me.
So what changed? I give you two words, Vaccine Mandates. During the 2021 pandemic season, the Pennsylvania government demanded vaccination with an experimental vaccine in order to keep your job. Now I don't care if a person wants to receive the COVID shot and all the accompanying boosters. What I do care about is a government that can and has shown that it will threaten my livelihood over a choice that should be my personal choice to make based on the facts at my disposal. Meanwhile that same government is shouting from the rooftops that no government has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body, and that I have to follow the science when it comes to their Covid restrictions and mandates but ignore the science when it comes to biology. Maybe the state's job vacancies have less to do with college degrees and more to do with culture.
Beth Fisher
Mifflintown