This weekend marked the expiration of expanded pandemic employment benefits, the once-$600 per week new benefits later reduced to $300 per week and, as of now, gone completely. This does not mean the pandemic has gone away. The pandemic is still going strong, especially in Republican-led states devoted to not combatting it with much urgency, and the reopening of schools is leading to new outbreaks across the nation.
The premise is that ending the enhanced pandemic benefits will force more Americans to return to the workforce—specifically, the low-pay workforce that is the backbone of service industries struggling to convince workers that risking their lives to take burger orders is a risk worth taking. It is not likely to work: The data has already demonstrated that ending those benefits hasn't meaningfully raised hiring in the states that previously tried it.
It does, however, mean families won't have an extra $300 to go toward food and rent. During a pandemic. And the pandemic can be expected to surge yet again in the winter months, just as it did last year. Perhaps bizarrely, though, there's little stomach in Congress for extending the programs. The pandemic was supposed to be over when vaccination rates gave even the delta variant of the virus no solid foothold to linger in communities. We were supposed to be celebrating and reaping the rewards of the massive vaccination program, not dealing with overfilled hospitals as state leaders treat any further talk of safety measures as a personal affront to themselves and their own career prospects.
Approximately 7.5 million people are affected by the end of federal unemployment benefits that extended state unemployment safety nets, with another 2 or 3 million losing the $300 per week federal stipend.
In Washington, Maine, Nebraska, and elsewhere, workers who can't find safe pandemic jobs are now grappling with less money but the same pandemic as they were dealing with last month.
What's probably going to happen next on the labor front is ... not much. Again, the data shows that workers weren't being goaded into staying home by the enhanced pandemic safety net; they were just able to eat and stay in their homes while looking for employment in a now much-trickier market. We can expect the economy as a whole to take a hit, including the financials of some of the exact service industries restless for workers. People with no money don't spend money.
If the winter pandemic surge is as bad as it is now looking like it might be, it's possible that Congress may be forced into reinstating benefits to keep the all-heralded economy from again going into a nosedive. Unlikely, but possible. But it's not clear how the current surge will prod vaccination rates—presumably, overfilled local hospitals will help convince vaccine holdouts that the risk they're taking is greater than they once thought it was—or whether the delta variant will give way to an even newer strain that erases past gains.
Ending pandemic benefits while the pandemic is surging to new highs is a ridiculous move. It won't take long for the damage reports to begin rolling in.
The premise is that ending the enhanced pandemic benefits will force more Americans to return to the workforce—specifically, the low-pay workforce that is the backbone of service industries struggling to convince workers that risking their lives to take burger orders is a risk worth taking. It is not likely to work: The data has already demonstrated that ending those benefits hasn't meaningfully raised hiring in the states that previously tried it.
It does, however, mean families won't have an extra $300 to go toward food and rent. During a pandemic. And the pandemic can be expected to surge yet again in the winter months, just as it did last year. Perhaps bizarrely, though, there's little stomach in Congress for extending the programs. The pandemic was supposed to be over when vaccination rates gave even the delta variant of the virus no solid foothold to linger in communities. We were supposed to be celebrating and reaping the rewards of the massive vaccination program, not dealing with overfilled hospitals as state leaders treat any further talk of safety measures as a personal affront to themselves and their own career prospects.
Approximately 7.5 million people are affected by the end of federal unemployment benefits that extended state unemployment safety nets, with another 2 or 3 million losing the $300 per week federal stipend.
In Washington, Maine, Nebraska, and elsewhere, workers who can't find safe pandemic jobs are now grappling with less money but the same pandemic as they were dealing with last month.
What's probably going to happen next on the labor front is ... not much. Again, the data shows that workers weren't being goaded into staying home by the enhanced pandemic safety net; they were just able to eat and stay in their homes while looking for employment in a now much-trickier market. We can expect the economy as a whole to take a hit, including the financials of some of the exact service industries restless for workers. People with no money don't spend money.
If the winter pandemic surge is as bad as it is now looking like it might be, it's possible that Congress may be forced into reinstating benefits to keep the all-heralded economy from again going into a nosedive. Unlikely, but possible. But it's not clear how the current surge will prod vaccination rates—presumably, overfilled local hospitals will help convince vaccine holdouts that the risk they're taking is greater than they once thought it was—or whether the delta variant will give way to an even newer strain that erases past gains.
Ending pandemic benefits while the pandemic is surging to new highs is a ridiculous move. It won't take long for the damage reports to begin rolling in.