What to say when someone tells you 'people don't want to work right now'

• As stories about labor shortages continue, it might seem like no one's working.
• The truth, of course, is far more complicated.

In a recent interview with Variety, Kim Kardashian offered her advice to women in business.

"Get your fucking ass up and work," Kardashian told the outlet. "It seems like nobody wants to work these days."

It's been a common refrain for the past few months: No one wants to work. It's a twist in the story of a not-quite-post-pandemic economy that left millions of people unemployed, as understaffed businesses struggle to hire and workers quit en masse.

But, as always, the economy is complex, and so are the myriad people who keep it running. If you want to inject some nuance into your next conversation about the labor shortage, here's what to know.

The pandemic is still going on

If the Delta variant and the Omicron variant have taught us anything, it's that COVID is still spreading — and it's still affecting the economy.

For instance, childcare — or the lack thereof — has emerged as one potential driver keeping parents out of the workforce. With schools and daycares shuttered, some parents left their jobs to provide care. Others may have lost their roles and delayed searching for new ones while their kids were at home. Either way, they may not have returned to the workforce yet.

In the fall, sociologist Jessica Calarco tweeted about the challenges facing parents as children remain unvaccinated and variants spread. She added that classrooms and daycares may have to temporarily shutter as cases come up.

"Given that kids aren't going to be eligible for vaccines any time soon, and with Delta spreading rapidly, we should expect a whole lot more of this to come. I won't be surprised if we end up with a whole bunch more 2-week gaps (or longer) in childcare this fall," she wrote.

The Omicron variant also took its toll. Insider's Madison Hoff reported that in states where Omicron shuttered schools and daycares, women were more likely to quit their jobs than men — a gap that may have been opened due to childcare constraints.

COVID fears have also kept some older workers out of the workforce. They were disproportionately affected by job losses early in the pandemic, and some have called it quits and have retired altogether.

Workers are taking advantage of more options

A huge number of workers are quitting their jobs, which seems counterintuitive. In January, nearly 4.3 million workers quit their jobs — marking eight months of near-record quits. It may be because workers were taking advantage of new opportunities.

Wages in industries that are having difficulty staffing up — such as leisure and hospitality — are on the rise, but they're still relatively low compared to other fields. Dr. William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and the chief economist at the AFL-CIO, previously told Insider that "workers who are employed are finding ways to get jobs in the sectors that are expanding and hiring." Those sectors might offer higher wages, or at least more consistency than their prior roles.

It's what Insider's Aki Ito calls The Great Reshuffle: An unprecedented labor market, coupled with a rethinking of what workers want out of both work and life, has led many to exit their positions or to seek out new ones. The market out there for workers is competitive, and many are finding higher salaries or better positions as they depart their old roles.

And, yes, some workers may not be returning because they benefited from enhanced unemployment benefits, or have decided that life is too short to stay in a role they don't like. As Insider previously reported, the consistent pay from unemployment — as well as the fact that it's higher than what some workers made before — has caused some to rethink work.

"I just think that UI has just at least fixed everyone's brain enough to see how f---ed up the wages are," Matt Mies, an unemployed 28-year-old, previously told Insider.