A new report suggests that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 25 other state-level chief executives acted correctly in encouraging constituents to get back to work.
The conservative Foundation for Government Accountability released a study recently detailing how the rejection of the Biden administration’s extended unemployment payments is getting people off their couches.
“In short,” the FGA report says, “states that have decided to reward work instead of unemployment have seen immediate, significant benefits. Specifically, opt-out states are seeing more work search and less unemployment — while status quo states are seeing quite the opposite.”
As noted, one consequence identified by the FGA is that online “work search activities” accelerated in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, and the 23 others that opted out.
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“In states that ended the federal pandemic-related unemployment programs, work search activity rose by more than 28 percent in May and June,” the study says. “This growth was 68 percent faster in states that ended the unemployment bonus than in states that did not. Hundreds of thousands of individuals are leaving the unemployment rolls — and this is happening much faster in states that wisely opted out of the failed unemployment bonus.”
Secondly, as might be expected, unemployment is dropping faster in those states.
“Since May 8, new unemployment claims have fallen by 30 percent in states that ended the bonus, hitting their lowest levels since the pandemic hit,” the think tank notes.
On May 8, four days after Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte announced the first state withdrawal from the pandemic-related unemployment program, with an offer instead to pay people who got jobs, there were 198,149 jobless claims in those states, FGA reports.
As of July 17, the number had fallen to 138,961.
“Meanwhile,” the FGA adds, “in states that have decided to continue paying people more to stay at home than to work, the results are far less impressive.”
As is shown in the group’s third point.
“Despite record numbers of open jobs and an economy that is screaming to be unleashed, nearly half the states have kept the destructive unemployment bonus — and they are paying the price,” the report says. “Indeed, while unemployment plummets in the other half of the country, unemployment bonus states have continued to see unemployment claims tick up.”
On June 5, new collective unemployment claims in the pro-payment parts of America totaled 221,300. As of July 17, the number had risen to 257,365 – an increase of 16 percent.
“Paying Americans more to stay home than work is wreaking devastating consequences on the economy. Businesses have been forced to close, unable to find workers, state trust funds have been destroyed, and the economic recovery remains sluggish,” the FGA report concludes.
“Thankfully, more than half the states have realized how damaging the unemployment bonus has been and started turning the ship — and they are mapping a way forward. They are proving that ending the unemployment bonus can help jumpstart local economies, reduce unemployment, and increase work.”
The FGA called on the rest of the country to opt-out as well.
“Workers, taxpayers, and small businesses everywhere need the boost that would certainly follow,” the group argues.
The federal benefits are set to expire on Sept. 6.
But as seen with the recent expiration of the moratorium on evictions for people not paying rent, Democrats will apply pressure to keep the government money-printing press running at maximum speed.
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