Status: 06.09.2021 4:47 p.m.
Special rules for unemployment benefits and supplements are expiring in the United States today. The result: Millions of citizens lose their support. This could have an impact on the current shortage of applicants in some industries.
About seven million unemployed Americans are losing all of their support today. For another three million, the corona surcharge, which has been in place for 18 months, is no longer applicable. Ironically, on American Labor Day, several programs of the trillion-dollar economic stimulus package, with which the consequences of the economic crisis in the pandemic had been cushioned, expire.
Arthur Landwehr
ARD studio Washington
Criticism of additional unemployment benefits
Unemployed people – initially extended – received their unemployment benefit of 400 dollars a week, plus a surcharge of initially 600 and then 300 dollars. Employers’ organizations and many Republicans had taken a storm against the welfare package.
You blame the support for the fact that there is a dramatic shortage of labor, especially in service and agriculture. They believe that as of today, more people will be looking for a job simply because they no longer have an income.
Lots of explanations for missing applications
Others, on the other hand, explain the lack of applications by stating that fear of infection when there is a lot of contact with people plays just as much a role as lack of childcare and closed schools. In the pandemic, many people also changed their professional goals, received further training or, in this competitive situation, simply found better-paid jobs with better working conditions.
Millions of Americans are losing their unemployment benefits today
Arthur Landwehr, ARD Washington, September 6, 2021 4:12 p.m.