US workers' willingness to accept meatpacking jobs amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

We implement a discrete choice experiment to examine the impact of COVID-19 exposure risk, unemployment risk, enhanced and extended unemployment benefits, and job attributes on low-skilled workers' willingness to accept (WTA) meatpacking jobs. With a sample average WTA wage of $22.77/h, the current national average meatpacking wage of approximately $15/h is too low for these workers to consider this employment opportunity. Enhanced layoff risk and exposure to COVID-19 further deterred respondents, while health insurance, retirement benefits, and a signing bonus enhanced respondents' WTA. The additional unemployment benefits of the CARES Act neither deterred nor encouraged respondents WTA.