At this point if you are over age 12 you can be vaccinated which greatly reduces COVID risk of a serious infection. Claiming fear of COVID as a risk in the workplace anymore as an excuse to not get back to work does not really fly. Get vaccinated, stop whining, and get back to work. If you don't want to be vaccinated or are otherwise "fearful" of the workplace then you should not be living off the government's unemployment dime. Live off your own savings & resources. There are many workplaces out there in retail, restaurants, service, and other industries which still require all employees to wear masks (even in Texas) and require that unvaccinated customers to wear masks to enter the premise. Most retail stores have all sorts of safety mechanisms still in place, from wipes, to hand sanitizer stations, to plexi-glass shields. It is hard to make a case that employers are not using safeguards -- they are using them even in Texas.
In today's "Obviously" article. If you don't pay them to sit on their butts at home then they will get back to work. Unemployed rolls shrink faster in states that cut federal benefit: report https://nypost.com/2021/06/27/unemployment-shrinks-in-states-that-cut-federal-benefit-report/ The unemployment rolls are shrinking faster in states that have axed federally boosted payments as the economic carnage from the COVID-19 pandemic eases, a new report said. The 21 states that have ended or will end the beefed-up payments in June saw a 13.8 percent drop since mid-May in the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The four states planning to end the benefits in July and September saw 10 percent and 5.7 percent drops, respectively, the Journal said, citing an analysis by Jefferies LLC. “You’re starting to see a response to these programs ending,” Aneta Markowska, chief financial economist for Jefferies, told the outlet. COVID-19 relief that boosted weekly unemployment payments by $300 per person will expire Sept. 6 but many states have plans to end the benefits earlier. The additional payments have contributed to a labor shortage, those in favor of cutting the benefits have said, while others argue other economic and pandemic-related issues are keeping people out of work, WSJ said. Workers may still receive unemployment benefits on their states’ programs when the additional payments end, the newspaper noted. Four states cut off the payments June 12, seven states ended them a week later and 10 more states were scheduled to opt out this weekend, the Journal said. Four others plan to scrap the extra payments next month. Missouri, one of the first four states to nix the benefits, had a 4.9 percent unemployment rate in May, below the national average of 5.8 percent, the publication noted, using Department of Labor data. But, the publication said, Missouri was not hit as hard as other states during the COVID slowdown, and the unemployment rate was below the national average even during the peak of the outbreak in the US. The continuation of the benefits has become a partisan issue, with Republicans lining up on the side that the extra checks are adding to labor shortages, a recent Momentive and New York Times poll showed. But 52 percent of people in the June 16 poll believed the benefits should end now. All of the states but one that have so far announced an end to the extra checks are led by Republican governors. Several states are offering payouts to workers who accept jobs and complete an allotted number of weeks as an employee, as part of an effort to whittle down the reliance on the federal program.
Seeing that these states only stopped federal pandemic unemployment within the past month. And the last weeks of your chart show clear reductions in number of continued claims (noting it is two weeks out of date as well). Then obviously the policy is working in these four states to get people back to work... and stop sitting at home doing nothing.
I don’t necessarily see too much deviation from the trend and I don’t know if I agree that people moving into lower income than unemployment is a working policy. I would like to see what wages look like in these states.
Yep.... even the Obama economists are stating pandemic unemployment benefits are stopping people from returning to work. Only about 2 out of 10 people are leaving unemployment for work. It should be at least 3 out of 10, former Obama economists say. https://www.businessinsider.com/unemployment-labor-market-quitting-jobs-jason-furman-2021-6 Former Obama economists Jason Furman and Wilson Powell III said only 24% of the unemployed are returning to work. One would predict 34% would return, they wrote, resulting in 1 million more unemployed finding jobs per month. They said the shortfall is likely temporary and comes down to unemployment benefits and health concerns. (More at above url)
More information and data on the pandemic unemployment situation and getting people back to work. Why almost no one is looking hard for a job https://www.axios.com/unemployed-people-not-searching-jobs-115934de-9159-4e4a-abbd-436f51049ee7.html There are around 10 million unemployed Americans and over 9 million open positions. But most people aren't urgently seeking out those jobs. The big picture: For the first time in decades, workers have the power to be choosy. By the numbers: Only about 10% of job seekers say they're actively and urgently looking for work, according to a new survey from the jobs site Indeed. Around 45% are passively looking for jobs, and another 30% plan to get a job in the near future but aren't looking at all right now. What's happening: Most of the open jobs are in low-wage areas like the service industry, which is bouncing back after the pandemic but struggling to find workers. "These jobs are not very good," says Steven Fazzari, an economist at the Washington University in St. Louis. "They’re hard work, and they don’t pay very well." For low-wage workers, pandemic-era expanded unemployment insurance has provided some temporary bargaining power. "They might be able to pay the rent or pay the utility bill without that job" and hold out for better pay or benefits, Fazzari says. Workers without college degrees — who also tend to be in lower-wage jobs — cite several different reasons for delaying the job search, per Indeed's data. Around 25% are afraid of COVID-19 and are waiting for vaccination rates to climb before getting back to work. More than 20% say they have a financial cushion and around 12% say their unemployment insurance is the reason they're not rushing to get a job. Childcare is also a major factor. 20% of lower-wage workers are staying home due to care responsibilities. What to watch: This moment could be a turning point for American workers. Demand for labor is sky high, so lots of firms are offering higher wages or perks to attract talent. But, but, but: While workers may have the edge right now, "I'm really skeptical that what we're seeing is the start of a new era of worker bargaining power," Indeed economist Nick Bunker says. The wage hikes and benefits could start to disappear in the fall as many of the circumstances allowing or pushing lower-wage workers to delay the job hunt change, he says. Many states have already ended pandemic unemployment insurance, and others will do so in the coming months. An analysis from the firm Jeffries reported by the Wall Street Journal shows that states that have ended UI have lower rates of unemployment than those that have not. And schools are set to fully reopen, sending parents back to work.