The generous unemployment benefits in the United States likely have prevented over seven million people from accepting a job offer, based on data from a recent Morning Consult poll.
The week before the poll was conducted, the week ending June 19, there were 14.1 million adults who received unemployment benefits, which is the most recent estimated total of recipients from both the state and federal programs.
The poll shows that generous unemployment insurance benefits from the government have greatly reduced the number of job offers accepted by the unemployed throughout the course of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Fifty percent have said they turned down a job because of the need to take care of children, family members, coronavirus, or health reasons.
The other 50 percent said they turned down a job because the offer was unattractive to them economically, provided too few or too many hours of work, did not allow remote work, or was not in the “desired” industry.
That is exactly what was predicted would happen with high levels of benefits driving a disincentive to work.
Morning Consult’s own analysis showed 1.84 million turned down jobs due to the enhanced benefits. That is how many workers said directly it was the high level of benefits that kept them from work. But that undercounts the number of those influenced by the benefits – more likely an estimated total of 7,050,000. Many of the reasons cited for turning down work would be less influential if benefit levels were lower.- READ MORE
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