Ted Cruz told the millions of Americans who lost their unemployment benefits on Labor Day to 'um, get a job?'

• Ted Cruz tweeted "Um, get a job?" in response to news federal unemployment benefits had expired.
• An estimated 7.5 million Americans were affected by the end of three federal pandemic-aid programs.
• Cruz's tweet shared an article titled "Jobless Americans have few options as benefits expire."

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas reacted to news that millions of Americans had lost their unemployment benefits as of Labor Day by telling those who were out of work to get a job.

Cruz tweeted Monday night, sharing an article by ABC News that carried the headline "Jobless Americans have few options as benefits expire."

"Um, get a job?" Cruz wrote in his tweet. "There are millions of vacancies, and small businesses across the Nation are desperate for workers."

Three federal unemployment-aid programs were scheduled to end by Monday. The programs were the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, and a program that provided people with $300 a week in Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

The ABC News article that Cruz retweeted and critiqued reported that the relief efforts had allowed Americans who lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic to afford essentials like food, gas, and rent and enabled them to pay their bills.

"The end of the pandemic unemployment benefits will be an abrupt jolt to millions of Americans who won't find a job in time for this arbitrary end to assistance," Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the left-leaning think tank The Century Foundation, told ABC News.

The Century Foundation estimated that at least 7.5 million Americans would lose their unemployment benefits over the weekend.

Many Americans have been left in the lurch with their benefits expiring, per CNN. The news outlet interviewed a Detroit optician named April Stokes, who said she had received $1,152 in unemployment benefits every two weeks but no longer would. Stokes has had difficulty finding a job in her area that would enable her to work around her children's schedules.

"The government is not leaving us with any options," Stokes told CNN. "There are a lot of single moms out here that are really panicking right now and don't know what to do."