Jobless Benefit Cancellations Looming As Employment Growth Slows

With many starting to panic over the April Job report, which showed a major slowdown in growth from March, some have begun to wonder what options may be left for those who are seeking employment—especially as pandemic area jobless benefits begin to expire and face cancellation in several states.

After the April Jobs report showed a slowdown in growth from 770,000 new jobs in March to just 266,000, many quickly blamed the unemployment insurance benefits which are set to officially expire in September of this year, which includes a $300-a-week supplement to those who are still out of work due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, the slowdown in growth applied mainly to mid-wage jobs, not ones on the lower end of the spectrum, the New York Times reports.

Still, off that news, many states, most with Republican governors, have announced plans to end the benefits within the next 30 days, leaving their unemployed residents very little time to find work.

“The states are giving them 30 days to find a job,” Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert told Yahoo Money. “Most of these workers won’t find a job within those 30 days. Most of them are going to have zero in unemployment benefits.”

It’s believed the cuts, which are expected to happen in Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, Arkansas, Georgia, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Montana and South Carolina in June; Arizona and Tennessee in July and West Virginia in September will disproportionately affect people of color and minorities.

All of the states withdrawing are led by Republican Governors.

However, the news also comes as jobs known for lower-wage, such as food service and retail, are beginning to face an exodus due to labor shortage in other sectors. Business Insider reported that many are leaving frontline retail and restaurant jobs to pursue new opportunities because of the traditionally low pay they receive for dealing with difficult customers.

Lower wage workers were seen as the reason for the slow growth in jobs in April, with complaints that they were demanding higher wages and then refusing to go back to work when they weren’t given them, choosing to stay home and collect the unemployment benefits instead. But the workers who have since returned are leaving for higher-paying opportunities that give them less facetime with the public—and ironically, even with a labor shortage in the field, some of the biggest growth is in these industries.

In the April jobs report, the foodservice industry did add 187,000 jobs—but the industry is still 13.5% below pre-pandemic employment levels.

Pay varies by state and region due to cost of living, but workers likely have been making an exit from low-wage jobs because of stagnant wages, despite many being on the frontlines during the pandemic. The current federal minimum wage, which went into effect in 2009, is $7.25/hour.