The Republican push to kill extended unemployment benefits in red states did not create more jobs. In fact, states that extended unemployment created slightly more jobs.
The AP analyzed data from all 50 states and found:
An analysis of state-by-state data by The Associated Press found that workforces in the 25 states that maintained the $300 payment actually grew slightly more from May through September, according to data released Friday, than they did in the 25 states that cut off the payment early, most of them in June. The $300-a-week federal check, on top of regular state jobless aid, meant that many of the unemployed received more in benefits than they earned at their old jobs.
An earlier study by Arindrajit Dube, an economist at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and several colleagues found that the states that cut off the $300 federal payment saw a small increase in the number of unemployed taking jobs. But it also found that it didn’t draw more people off the sidelines to look for work.
People Have A Better Chance Of Going Back To Work If They Are Economically Stable.
The Republican theory that unemployment benefits provide a disincentive to work has been proven wrong. The unemployed do want to work, but they need jobs to go back to. Many of the businesses that were been forced to close during the pandemic aren’t coming back, and the economic uncertainty of the lingering Delta variant is making it difficult for new businesses to open.
The answer was never to cut unemployment benefits. All Republicans did was create poverty. President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda will create millions and get the economy rolling.
The country still needs a boost, and the Republican politics of cultural stigma and austerity are a roadmap to economic decline.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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