A survey released by the Duke University Fuqua School of Business in December has recently been receiving some media attention. The survey asked Chief Financial Officers – among other things – how Obamacare is impacting their hiring and personnel decisions. The results were unsurprising yet very noteworthy nonetheless:
A significant percentage of U.S. chief financial officers indicate that because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they may reduce employment growth at their firms and shift toward part-time workers….
Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law…..
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment….
“I doubt the advocates of this legislation would have foretold the negative impact on employment,” said Campbell R. Harvey, a professor of finance at Fuqua and a founding director of the survey. “The impact on the real economy is startling. Nearly one-third of firms may either terminate employees or hire fewer people in the future as a direct result of ACA.”
In addition, 44 percent of companies say they will consider reducing health benefits to current employees in response to the ACA.
On Wednesday I blogged about a new CBO report detailing how Obamacare will severely curtail the amount of labor workers will be willing to supply, now we have a survey demonstrating that Obamacare is sharply reducing employer’s demand for labor. In sum: Fewer workers willing to work, or cutting back the hours they are willing to work. Fewer employers seeking to hire, or cutting back the hours they are willing to employ workers. And to boot, a significant portion of those still left with a job may see their health benefits reduced. And to repeat myself, these results were completely predictable.
The result of this reduction in labor will be far less output generated by the economy, and greater government dependency. Somehow, the greater amount of government dependency will need to paid for from tax proceeds extracted from a smaller economy.
I wonder how the Obamacare defenders will try to spin this as being good news.
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