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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (7News) — Governor Larry Hogan announced that Maryland plans to soon discontinue the enhanced pandemic federal unemployment benefits and will restore work search requirements. The benefits will be discontinued effective Saturday, July 3, according to the governor, and comes as the state leader says economic recovery in the state continues.

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Monday that federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits will end in Oklahoma on June 26, and that the state will offer a new workforce incentive for people who go back to work.Stitt said he will issue an executive order to create a $1,200 incentive for Oklahomans who get off unemployment and go back to work, and that federal benefits will end on June 26.Advertisement “That gives people six weeks to get off the sidelines and get back into the game,” Stitt said. “Employers across the state tell us their biggest challenge right now is finding new employees. Job...

More than three-quarters of Republican-led states plan to end an extra $300-a-week in federal jobless benefits early, as unemployment claims reached a new pandemic low, likely triggering a decrease in the number of benefits recipients this summer. The development came as initial unemployment claims through regular state programs dropped to 444,000 last week, the lowest level since the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020. Weekly claims are still more than double their average of 218,000 in 2019 ahead of the pandemic. This week Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana joined the list of at least 21 states that are cutting off access to...

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) - As some states choose to end the weekly $300 federal unemployment benefits, the Maryland Department of Labor says the additional payments will continue.A DLLR spokesperson says the federal benefits will continue in addition to Maryland reinstating its work-search requirement for claimants...

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would end a $300 per week federal unemployment boost in Wisconsin, which several business groups say is creating a disincentive to work and exacerbates ongoing workforce shortage challenges. The bill, which Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said could be in committee next week and taken up by the Legislature as early as June, would end Wisconsin's participation in four federal programs aimed at assisting individuals who are unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporters of those provisions say they provide much-needed assistance to those who are...

Gov. Greg Abbott notified the U.S. Department of Labor that Texas will end its participation in pandemic-related federal unemployment compensation starting June 26. This includes ending a $300 weekly unemployment supplement from the federal program. “According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job openings in Texas is almost identical to the number of Texans who are receiving unemployment benefits. That assessment does not include the voluminous jobs that typically are not listed, like construction and restaurant jobs. In fact, there are nearly 60 percent more jobs open (and listed) in Texas today than there was in February 2020,...

Indiana will drop out of the federal program providing an extra $300 in weekly payments to unemployed workers and other programs that expanded unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor announced Monday. The changes taking effect June 19 could cut off or reduce unemployment benefits to more than 220,000 people. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order last week that reinstates a requirement that those receiving unemployment benefits will again have to show they are actively searching for work as of June 1. The changes come as many businesses blame the extra $300 weekly payment and the ease...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says Texas will opt out of further federal unemployment compensation related to the COVID-19 pandemic next month, thereby ending the $300 weekly unemployment supplement from the federal government, in order to help unemployed Texans get back to work and to curtail fraudulent unemployment claims. Abbott made the announcement Monday afternoon, saying he'd informed the U.S. Department of Labor in a letter the state would opt out effective June 26. “The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities throughout the state,” said Abbott. “According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job...

Eight years ago I wrote a post titled: Can A Nation Built By Giants Survive Nanny State Paternalism? The Numbers Don't Look Good... In it I wrote: “ Were the Americans who carved a nation out of a continent, who crisscrossed that continent with railroads, telephone lines and highways and who won two world wars so different from Americans today… Not based on DNA they weren’t. But that doesn’t mean they were the same. While the DNA of the American people today is no different from that of the people who invented the elevator or the light bulb, the American...

The American Foundry Society (AFS) and the Foundry Association of Michigan (FAM) sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) Thursday urging her to end extended unemployment benefits. In a letter obtained by Breitbart News, the two groups said the “number one issue” facing the metalcasting industry is “the inability to find workers” and said it “has reached a crisis level.” According to the AFS and FAM, openings are “near an all time high” and there is a shortage of workers across several positions, including production workers, maintenance, electricians, patternmakers, and engineers. The groups said metalcasters account for 490,000 jobs...

More than 2 million workers could see their jobless benefits slashed or eliminated altogether next month as more states opt out of federal unemployment programs. Some of the hardest hit will be out-of-work Black Americans. “The states are giving them 30 days to find a job,” Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert and senior fellow at the Century Foundation, told Yahoo Money. “Most of those workers won’t find a job within those 30 days. Most of them are going to have zero in unemployment benefits.” Those workers stand to collectively lose $10.9 billion, averaging out to potentially thousands of dollars...

IRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The following is a statement from Governor Kay Ivey’s office: Governor Kay Ivey announced today that Alabama will end its participation in all federally funded pandemic unemployment compensation programs effective June 19, 2021 including: - Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides for an additional $300 weekly payment to recipients of unemployment compensation. - Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for those who would not usually qualify, such as the self-employed, gig workers, and part-time workers, - Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provides for an extension of benefits once regular benefits have been exhausted,...

Eleven Republican states have announced they will decline federal coronavirus aid from President Joe Biden by withdrawing from the $300 per week enhanced unemployment scheme, with others set to follow. Iowa and Idaho announced they were pulling out of the scheme on Wednesday morning hours after Republican governors in nine states withdrew in a bid to push workers back into the job market. Last week, a Department of Labor report showed the country added an underwhelming 266,000 jobs in April, fueling GOP claims that the benefits were keeping people at home.

The growth of small businesses in the U.S. was held back in April because small businesses could not find enough workers, the National Federation of Independent Businesss said Tuesday. “Small business owners are seeing a growth in sales but are stunted by not having enough workers,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Finding qualified employees remains the biggest challenge for small businesses and is slowing economic growth. Owners are raising compensation, offering bonuses and benefits to attract the right employees.”

Fox Business host Charles Payne told the American people what many in the media wouldn’t dare say: Giving people money to not work doesn’t incentivize them to find a job. Payne scorched the haphazard predictions by economists and the media that the U.S. economy would add 1 million new jobs in April. He called the predictions a massive “swing and a miss” during the May 7 edition of Making Money. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) clocked the increase in April at an embarrassing 266,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1 percent. Payne lambasted how “the narrative...

In case we needed more proof that the US labor market is in a supply-demand mismatch crisis, a few hours after the latest NFIB showed that it has never been more difficult for small business to fill job openings, moments ago the BLS confirmed what we expected: that the number of job openings in March (recall JOLTS is one month delayed) soared by a massive 597K to 8.123MM in March from an upward revised 7.5MM in February, and the highest on record!The actual number was a 6-sigma beat to already lofty expectations of a 7.5 million print.Looking at the details,...

GOP Governors Slash Unemployment Benefits as Businesses Plead for Workers By Updated: May 10, 2021 biggersmaller Print Expanded federal unemployment benefits that were implemented during last year’s pandemic relief efforts are ending earlier than scheduled in Arkansas, Montana, and South Carolina—and Florida is expected to follow suit as Republican governors nationwide respond to pleas from businesses to encourage Americans to return to work. “We absolutely can put more people to work,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters during a press conference Wednesday, announcing that Floridians receiving the $300 weekly extra payments will soon have to provide proof that they’re...

People who lost their jobs in the pandemic are now earning more in benefits than they did in wages, creating a nightmare economic situation that is stopping people from returning to work and in turn, driving up inflation. In March 2019, the average weekly payment to an unemployed person was $348 when combining federal and state unemployment payments. That nearly tripled to $938 in April 2020, when Trump passed COBRA - a temporary economic plan that boosted weekly unemployment payments by $600 and also gave employed people one-off stimulus checks. COBRA expired in July and the unemployment boost was halved...

Forty Democrats sent President Joe Biden a letter asking him to include more generous and long-lasting unemployment benefits in a brand new “anti-poverty” bill that the administration is expected to roll out next week.The radicals want Biden to propose a massive overhaul of the unemployment insurance system by mandating new federal standards in programs that are now basically run by states. They propose increasing the amount of jobless payments, extending the duration of the weekly benefit, expanding eligibility requirements, and creating a system that would more closely tie the payments to economic conditions.Recommended: Bernie Sanders’s Unemployment Handout Will Cost 13.9...

Despite increasing numbers of initial unemployment claims across the region, local business and industry leaders say the jobs are available but no one is applying for them. The 60 members of the Greater Rome Existing Industry Association report some 400-plus open positions but say additional federal unemployment benefits and stimulus payments give some possible candidates no incentive to work. “There are hundreds of jobs here, we just can’t find people to fill them. I was at the GREIA meeting this week and all manufacturers were saying the same thing,” says David Newby, President and CEO of Profile Custom Extrusion in...