Seven states end all federally funded Covid-19 unemployment benefits

Missouri and Tennessee are the latest two states to end benefits.

Call to End Benefits 

Last Friday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Called for End to Extra $300 a Week in Unemployment Benefits.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling for Washington to immediately stop paying out-of-work Americans an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits, saying the boost in government aid is giving some recipients less incentive to look for work.

The business group said Friday that the supplemental unemployment benefit, part of the Biden administration’s efforts to support the pandemic-ravaged economy, results in about one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment pay than they earned when they were working.

“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” said Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer. “We need a comprehensive approach to dealing with our workforce issues and the very real threat unfilled positions poses to our economic recovery from the pandemic.”

Missouri, Tennessee End Federal Pandemic Payments

Today, Missouri, Tennessee Join U.S. States Cutting Pandemic Payments

"While these benefits provided supplementary financial assistance during the height of COVID-19, they were intended to be temporary, and their continuation has instead worsened the workforce issues we are facing,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in announcing the decision on Tuesday.

The extra sum [$300 in pandemic assistance] more than doubles Tennessee’s maximum weekly benefit of $275.

Seven States

Missouri and Tennessee join Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, and South Carolina in terminating the benefits they blame for slowing hiring.

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The Chamber of Commerce blamed the payments for creating a lack of incentive to work.

In response to the jobs report Biden wants still more free money.

I replied Biden Comments on the Jobs Report and Gets the Key Message Wrong

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard at least partially agrees.

“Rural labor markets are very different from urban ones,” he said, and some cities are more expensive than others. The same $300 “incentivizes people very differently.”

I do  not see this as a rural vs urban issue. 

Rather it's the moral hazard of paying some people in some states or areas more for not working than working.

That was my key objection from from the beginning.