* Wall Street Journal…
States that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis and economists.
Several rounds of federal pandemic aid boosted the amount of unemployment payments, most recently by $300 a week, and extended them for as long as 18 months. The extra benefits are set to expire nationwide next week. But 25 states ended the financial enhancement over the summer, and most of them also moved to end other pandemic-specific unemployment programs such as benefits for gig and self-employed workers.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 1.33% in July from April in the 25 states that ended the benefits and 1.37% in the other 25 states and the District of Columbia, the Journal analysis of Labor Department data showed. The payroll figures are taken from a government survey of employers. The analysis compared July totals with April, before governors in May started announcing plans to end or reduce the benefits during the summer.
Economists who have conducted their own analyses of the government data say the rates of job growth in states that ended and states that maintained the benefits are, from a statistical perspective, about the same.
“If the question is, ‘Is UI the key thing that’s holding back the labor market recovery?’ The answer is no, definitely not, based on the available data,” said Peter Ganong, a University of Chicago economist, referring to unemployment insurance.
* Bar graph…
This is the second study we’ve covered on this topic. The other one is here.
Econ 101 has wrecked more peoples’ minds than anything else in higher education and has led to some pretty cruel policies.
*** UPDATE *** CBS 2…
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 15,404 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 23 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday. […]
Illinois’ estimated claims are among 340,000 total claims filed across the country last week. […]
There were 21,499 new unemployment claims filed during the week of August 2 in Illinois.
There were 20,019 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 26 in Illinois.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 5:28 am:
Rich, that is an excellent take on Econ 101.
I am glad I never took it, and studied animal behavior instead.
It’s turned out to be a much better predictor of human behavior.
- anon2 - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 7:06 am:
So Republicans cut benefits for their constituents, and it didn’t help boost employment.
- Bruce( no not him) - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 7:36 am:
Who woulda thought it. Starving people still doesn’t force folks back to crappy jobs.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:10 am:
Eagerly awaiting Greg Bishop via Ted Dabrowski to denounce the Wall Street Journal as a leftist rag.
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:15 am:
I took Econ 101, we learned about things like externalities, utility, etc. I think the problem is most people didn’t understand anything beyond supply and demand.
- The 11th Hour - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:24 am:
Hmmm, so where to move the goalposts now. I know, the UI benefits made people SO RICH that they can now effectively retire. Yeah, that’s it. Darn you Socialism.
- Angry Chicagoan - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:31 am:
Most ECON101 is microeconomics, unless you’ve got an economics department that goes out of its way to include macroeconomics. Very few people taking the bare minimum in college get macro — and that omission instills a right-wing bias.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:36 am:
Basic economics assumes people are rational despite so much evidence to the contrary.
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:40 am:
The point of ending support early wasn’t to get people back to work. The point was to punish them.
- James the Intolerant - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 8:51 am:
The beatings will continue until morale approves.
- Almost Retired - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:17 am:
Agree with Cheryl44-she is absolutely correct in my opinion.
- King Louis XVI - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:33 am:
— some pretty cruel policies —
Cruelty is the objective.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:36 am:
And yet their suffering supporters fervently support them. You can’t fix…what was it again?
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:38 am:
It became conventional wisdom that people weren’t working because of the unemployment benefits. I heard it repeatedly from both Democrats and Republicans. Even I kinda sorta believed it. Apparently conventional wisdom was wildly wrong in this case. It just didn’t make a whit of difference.
- SWIL_Voter - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:44 am:
Can never crack the code of how to post here, so apologies if this shows up twice in 6 hours, but the jobs justification was always a lie, it was always about depressing wages
- JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:49 am:
I guess if Illinois had followed suit we would have saved enough money to afford the exelon bailout? So there is that./s
- Homebody - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:50 am:
I’m 40 years old. Nothing Republicans have said at a national policy level in my entire lifetime has ever been grounded in empirical data. At best it was wishful thinking, at worst is was active dishonesty.
Not sure why anyone ever takes any of their claims seriously any more.
- 61820 - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 10:10 am:
You’re giving too much credit to one class. The people who impose those policies probably would have done so even without econ 101, and their behavior is driven more by political views than economics.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 10:18 am:
=it was always about depressing wages=
Rauner used to say “making Illinois competitive” that was his code for depressing wages.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 10:19 am:
“Nothing Republicans have said at a national policy level…”
Reagan, mugging with Boy Scouts and bear-hugging the NRA. It all began there.
Meanwhile, adopting the fiscal mindset of skyrocketing deficits, deregulation of banks, and tax cuts for the wealthy, brought us to where we are today.
- Nick - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 10:54 am:
It’s not just that it’s Micro vs Macro.
The problem is a lot of teachers are fine editorializing and basically declaring their own beliefs as fact. I once had someone at Parkland say a supply and demand graph proved the minimum wage killed jobs.
But then I had a professor at UIUC who declared charter schools were 100 percent effective based on economic literature around competition.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 10:59 am:
We think the IPI whacks did not like WSJ because they gave us GOVJunk. Benefits cuts were designed to keep expenses to the UE Trust Fund down. The recipients could go back to food stamps, Medicaid, Section 8, etc. Just like the good old days. Why pay $15 an hour from big boss pockets when we can shove a bif chuck off to USA?
Happy Labor Day
- dan l - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 1:02 pm:
‘the cruelty is the point’
- Lt Guv - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 1:03 pm:
Having taken quite a bit of ECON in college, I have to disagree. The discipline is quite neutral. That is the singular beauty of it. What’s warped is how too many apply it without consideration of the external factors that need to be weighed with the strict economic factors.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 1:22 pm:
“The point of ending support early wasn’t to get people back to work. The point was to punish them.”
Certain people vote for this cruelty, even though they are the ones punished. Many have a serf attitude and gladly accept policies that hurt them, apparently. Those who push trickle down economics, austerity and the interests of the Griffins and Rauners know this, and they use terms like “job creators” to foster the psychology that workers are subordinate to super-rich corporate types who want the political and economic playing field permanently tilted to their advantage.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 2:41 pm:
When the GOP tries tio end farm subsidies and requires farmers and CEO’s to take drug tests to qualify for their subsidies then I will believe it isn’t about racism/classism.
- walker - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 3:32 pm:
“”Econ 101 has wrecked more peoples’ minds than anything else in higher education and has led to some pretty cruel policies.”"
“It’s simple economics” is a signal for me to expect an avalanched of high-falutin nonsense.
- Nick - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 3:37 pm:
The discipline has never been neutral and trying to pretend it is honestly part of the problem, if anything.
Being *honest* about our biases and opinions and understandings etc would work better. Than casting them off as neutral and simple fact.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 4:09 pm:
=high-falutin nonsense.=
“Authentic frontier gibberish.”
- Apology letter? - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 4:16 pm:
I am sure IRMA, IMA, and the Chamber will write to the Governor and apologize for sending their previous letter with incorrect assertions on this topic.