Figures from the Labor Department for July show that nearly a million people returned to work.
Photo: RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP / Getty Images
The Century Foundation estimates that up to 7.5 million workers will lose access to all unemployment benefits on September 6. The additional benefit of $ 300 dollars per week is part of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) that a year ago about 32 million people applied for benefits after the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then and until July that figure has dropped to about 13 million people.
Immigrant workers, including Latinos, have been one of the groups hardest hit by unemployment during the pandemic, yet now it appears that they are on the mend according to a Pew Research Center study.
The reason unemployment benefits end
The termination date of extraordinary unemployment benefits was set on September 6 in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan which expanded the original legislation of the CARES Act, from March 2021 until Labor Day. Without the extension, an estimated 11.4 million people have been left homeless after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States has just registered 50% of the population that has received a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the states have reopened their economy and have re-implemented regulations on the use of masks and some companies are demanding their Workers receive a complete schedule of the vaccine before returning to the offices.
The most recent unemployment figures released by the Labor Department show that July recorded the largest increase in people who have returned to work, registering almost 1 million people, placing the unemployment rate at 5.4%, still above that registered before. of the arrival of the pandemic.
It appears that the economy is recovering, however, some people may find that unemployment benefits are no longer necessary when they are due to end in less than a month.
Until now the White House has yet to decide whether to extend the program. Jen Psaki, the press secretary, said President Joe Biden “has not made a decision to extend the program, but he has not made a decision not to do so either. The final decision has not been made, ”said Psaki during a press conference held on August 6.
Psaki tells @nancycordes that “there has not been any decision” yet about whether the Biden administration will seek to renew expanded unemployment benefits when they expire in early September https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/N5UB6IUdOj
– CBS News (@CBSNews) August 6, 2021
Related: Cuts Unemployment Benefits Could Cost States More Than $ 13 Billion
A recent study by UKG payroll companies has found that unemployment benefits don’t deter people from going back to work after 26 states decided to end federal and state aid before the original date.
States that decided to eliminate the federal benefits program recorded a slower increase in employment than those who continue with the program, which suggests that the benefits are providing a real economic stimulus.
Experts such as Esther Duflo, Nobel Laureate in Economics, have pointed out that one of the biggest obstacles they have encountered among workers to return to work has been concern about contracting COVID-19, in addition to the fact that people do not find safe places to the care of their children that allows them to join their work.
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