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Monday, 6 September 2021 marked the end of the U.S. government’s expanded unemployment benefits, part of the $1.9 trillion economic aid package which had been in place since March, leaving 7.5 million Americans entirely without benefits and another 3 million without their $300 weekly unemployment supplement.
Opponents of the aid package have been calling for an early cutoff, contending that economic recovery has been held back by discouraging people from looking for work, essentially paying them to remain unemployed despite a record number of job openings, and thus fueling a labor shortage, especially in lower-paying industries; see “TRENDS ON THE U.S. EMPLOYMENT FRONT,” 11 May 2021.
As reported in The New York Times on 7 September, the Biden administration’s position is that the cutoff of benefits will help the economy transition from government assistance to a healthier, more sustainable model, driven by the labor market, in which consumer spending is powered by people earning actual paychecks.
About half the states, almost all of them under Republican governors, didn’t wait for the cutoff, but moved on their own to limit expanded benefits, and such moves weren’t opposed by the federal government, which, the NYT tells us, angered Progressives. Instead, Biden called on willing states to fill in for the expired benefits. The NYT article paints Pres. Biden as facing criticism from the Left and the Right, and having to perform “a balancing act.”
Who Comes Up With This Stuff?
The states that ended the benefits early have, according to the NYT, seen no significant increase in people eager to get back to work. Factors limiting a return to employment are said to include “child care challenges, fear of the virus, accumulated savings from previous waves of government assistance and a broader re-thinking of work preferences in the wake of the pandemic.”
TREND FORECAST: One might think that the word “inertia” would figure in there somewhere. Name the business sector—from hospitality, restaurant, construction, retail, truck drivers, etc.—“Help Wanted” signs are spread across the nation, as employers seek employees.
This is unique in modern history and will be a socio political and economic factor that will negatively affect economic growth and personal development in what history books once called, “The Land of Opportunity.”