End of additional unemployment benefits for 7.5 million workers in September

Millions of Americans are on the verge of losing their unemployment benefits within a month, as the massive safety net Congress put in place at the start of the coronavirus pandemic begins to unravel.

A new report released by the left-wing Century Foundation has found 7.5 million workers face the loss of unemployment aid on September 6 – Labor Day, the official deadline for three aid programs that were first created in March 2020 and renewed twice. by Congress as the virus forced an unprecedented shutdown in the country’s economy, pushing unemployment to the highest level since the Great Depression.

THESE 26 STATES END UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS OF $ 300 – THIS IS WHEN

In addition to providing workers with an additional $ 300 per week on top of their regular state allowances, the programs offered assistance to workers who were generally ineligible and extended state unemployment benefits once they ended. ‘they were exhausted.

But as the economy reopens, businesses have complained about the lack of available workers: There are still some 5.5 million Americans unemployed, despite 9.2 million open jobs. Already, 23 states – all but one of which are headed by a Republican governor – have ended unemployment programs, a move meant to help companies struggling to hire workers. (Arkansas, Indiana, and Maryland have been ordered by state judges to restore relief programs.)

Critics argue that other factors, such as lack of child care, are the reason for poor recruitment and have said that withdrawing from the relief program before its officially scheduled end will hurt unemployed Americans, leaving them without. income while looking for a new job.

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“With the US economy still short of 6.5 million jobs at the end of June 2021, the end of pandemic unemployment benefits will be a brutal shock to millions of Americans who will not find jobs in time for them. this arbitrary termination of assistance, “Andrew Stettner, senior researcher at the Century Foundation, wrote in Wednesday’s report.

Despite the rapid spread of the highly contagious delta variant, which has prompted states to reinstate mask mandates and companies to reverse back-to-work policies, there appears to be little momentum on Capitol Hill to expand programs to unemployment assistance.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that the administration had not decided whether the additional benefits expire in September – a reversal from Biden’s previous position in June, when he had said it “made sense” for the programs to expire in the fall.

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“There has been no decision on this at this stage,” she told reporters.

The average state unemployment benefit is around $ 330 weekly. With the federal supplement, Americans receive about $ 630 in weekly unemployment benefits. (For comparison, that’s about $ 32,000 a year, or about double the country’s minimum wage.)