A new Fed study blows a hole in the GOP argument that unemployment benefits caused the labor shortag [View all]

Source: Business Insider

shortage

A new study from the Federal Reserve published Monday tore a hole in one of the GOP's main arguments about the ongoing labor shortage.

Under President Joe Biden's stimulus law enacted in March 2021, laid-off Americans received an additional $300 a week, gig-workers were made newly eligible for checks, and the number of weeks Americans could receive unemployment was extended.

Republicans often cite the program as a reason that Americans held off from seeking jobs. But the analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found little difference in job-seeking between states that ended their expanded unemployment programs early and those that kept them in place until their scheduled expiration in September.

"We find small differences in employer hiring activity between these two groups of states, consistent with other recent assessments of the impact of the pandemic UI expansions," the study said.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-new-fed-study-blows-a-hole-in-the-gop-argument-that-unemployment-benefits-caused-the-labor-shortage/ar-AAW6vfy