Several Republican Governors are cracking down on unemployment benefits as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls on Congress to end the extra $300 people have been receiving weekly for unemployment benefits. Chamber Executive Vice President Neil Bradley issued a statement that read:

“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market. 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. One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit.  Based on the Chamber’s analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working.”

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson is one of a handful of Governors stepping in to halt the enhanced benefits, “We have employers begging workers to come to their place of business.”

Governors in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Montana have also announced an end to the extra benefits. The NBC affiliate in Utah says Governor Spencer Cox is also considering discontinuing the benefits (watch above). This coincides with a new report from the AP that found that “U.S. employers posted a record number of available jobs in March.”

Yet total job gains increased only modestly, according to a Labor Department report issued Tuesday. The figures come after the April jobs report, released Friday, that fell far short of economists’ expectations, largely because companies appear unable to find the workers they need, even with the unemployment rate elevated at 6.1%.

Senator Marsha Blackburn addressed the influx of available jobs in Tennessee on the Senate floor on Monday, saying businesses’ “survival depends on their ability to hire a team of employees.”

President Joe Biden weighed in Monday as well, making it clear people collecting benefits should still be searching for work, “Anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.” At the same, the White House says the data doesn’t support the notion that people are choosing NOT to work. CBS writes:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday “bigger factors” are keeping people home than increased unemployment benefits. She said vaccination rates, childcare and school reopenings all have an impact. And employers, she said, need to pay a “livable working wage.”

Senator Bernie Sanders echoed the need for livable wages, “No. We don’t need to end $300 a week in emergency unemployment benefits that workers desperately need. We need to end starvation wages in America. If $300 a week is preventing employers from hiring low-wage workers there’s a simple solution: Raise your wages. Pay decent benefits.”

 

The $300 bonus kicked off as part of the American Rescue Plan in March and continues through September 6th.