Extending unemployment will help women and workers of color find higher-paying jobs
Aug 6, 2020, 23:59 IST
- People find higher-quality jobs when given extended unemployment insurance, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, first reported by CNBC.
- The paper compared which jobs laid-off workers found during the 2009 Great Recession, when unemployment insurance averaged 79 weeks, and during the 2002 recession.
- The paper found extended UI allowed workers time to choose jobs "better suited to their skills;" without UI, workers were more likely to take whatever job they're first offered.
- Women, people of color, and less-educated workers are more likely to find better jobs with extended UI, the paper found, because these groups tend to have less savings to fall back on.
- Women have less in workplace retirement savings plans than men, and Black and Hispanic households have far less personal savings than white ones.
- Americans laid off due to the coronavirus received a $600 weekly federal bonus on top of state unemployment payments up until August , when congress failed to extend the program.
- Since jobs have not rebounded to their pre-coronavirus level — and some experts say many jobs have disappeared permanently — 16 million people still need unemployment benefits, per the Labor Department.
- President Donald Trump has indicated he supports extending federal unemployment insurance, and Republicans have proposed cutting the benefits to $400 a week.
- Read more on CNBC.
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