Unemployment numbers are falling more quickly in Missouri and 21 other states that canceled pandemic aid this month according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and other media. The data suggests what NMBC has told Governor Lujan Grisham, “that ending generous unemployment payments could push more people to take jobs.”
Federal COVID-19 relief aid measures, which expire in September, increased unemployment payouts by $300 per person per week and extended them up to 18 months. However, states can opt out before September, and some have.
- Governor Lujan Grisham is willing to take all the money she can get from the federal government and pass it on to ‘support’ workers with unemployment payments. Others, like Missouri Gov. Mike Parson have said the previously helpful enhanced payments have “worsened the workforce issues we are facing.”
Domino effect: Missouri was among the first states to cut off extended benefits. The resulting unemployment data:
- “The number of workers paid benefits through regular state programs fell 13.8% by the week ended June 12 from mid-May—when many governors announced changes—in states saying that benefits would end in June, according to an analysis by Jefferies LLC economists. That compares with a 10% decline in states ending benefits in July, and a 5.7% decrease in states ending benefits in September.”
The bottom line is that the data suggests that states who encourage people to get back to work (by limiting ongoing unemployment payments) are seeing more people back at jobs than states, like New Mexico, who continue extended/increased unemployment benefits.