* US Chamber poll press release…

• Half (49%) of Americans who lost their job during the pandemic report they are not active at all or not very active in searching for new employment. Less than a third (32%) report that they are strongly active in their job search.

• Six in 10 respondents (61%) say they are in no hurry to return to work. Three in 10 (30%) say they do not expect to return to work this year, with more than half of those (13% of the total) saying they never plan to return to work.

• One in eight (13%) who became unemployed during the pandemic and remain unemployed have turned down at least one job offer in the past year.

• One in six (16%) not actively seeking work say the amount of money they are receiving from unemployment benefits and government programs makes it “not worth looking” for jobs. Even more—28 percent of all respondents—agree that “there are a lot of people who are not looking for work because they can do almost or just as well collecting unemployment benefits.”

• Other common factors contributing to unemployed Americans not looking for work include childcare and other family care needs (24%), a lack of available jobs due in sectors that are still suffering (28%), and COVID-19 concerns (26%).

• One in four survey respondents (23%) say they lack the skills or experience necessary for most of the jobs available right now.

I’d ignore the 28 percent who are speculating about why others aren’t returning to work and focus on what they actually said about themselves. It’s pretty clear that this Chamber poll shows the vast majority of unemployed people aren’t staying home because they can make more money by doing so. There are far more important factors involved.

And if you look at the Chamber’s own analysis, you’ll see that 55 percent of people 45+ are not actively seeking a new job, with 42 percent saying they aren’t at all actively looking - by far the highest number in that category.

Yet, some people insist on punishing families with children and younger workers by cutting off their UI benefits.

* Methodology…

The poll of 506 Americans who lost jobs during the pandemic and have not returned to full-time employment was taken May 17-20. The poll has an overall survey margin of error +/-4.4 at the 95% confidence level, with stable and projectable bases across age, prior total compensation, ethnicity, incidence of children at home, industry sector and educational attainment.