A new Wall Street Journal analysis finds that States that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid… (Wall Street Journal)
- What did the data show? An analysis of Labor Department data found that nonfarm payrolls rose 1.33% in July from April in the 25 states that ended the benefits and 1.37% in the other 25 states.
- But not so fast. Economists did also caution against concluding that expiring benefits had no effect on employment. “First, they say it might be too early to detect such an effect. Second, offsetting effects from state reopenings and virus-related restrictions by local governments could be masking the impact of the expiring benefits.”
- So what is to blame? Economists generally agree that the “enhanced benefits caused some people to stay out of the labor market, but they also point to several other factors that have held back job growth this year…”
