Ken Cuccinelli, who is the acting director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, says the significant numbers of tech company layoffs should make them prioritize American workers. Cuccinelli then argues that the border wall promotes national security and reduces the flow of illegal immigration to our country.
Unemployed Americans who depend on the extra $ 600 a week in unemployment may find an unpleasant surprise: the sweetened benefits could expire almost a week earlier than originally planned.
Officially, the increased benefits, part of the $ 2.2 billion CARES Act passed by Congress in late March, will not end until July 31. But states will only pay the extra cash during the week ending July 25 or 26, even as the coronavirus pandemic and related economic blockade continue to trigger a historic number of layoffs.
ADDITIONAL $ 600 IN UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS END NEXT MONTH WHILE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ARE OUT OF JOB
“The (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) $ 600 can be paid for weeks ending no later than the week ending before Friday, July 31, 2020, ” the US Department of Labor said in a statement to USA Today, which first reported the news, “For all states except (New York), that is Saturday, July 25. New York’s end date is Sunday, July 26. “
States administer unemployment benefits weekly or biweekly with a defined end date of Sunday or Saturday. But the CARES Act stipulates that the additional cash will end “on” July 31, 2020 or before, on a Friday.
Due to unemployment schedules in most states, that means the extra cash will end the previous Saturday (July 25) or Sunday (July 26). The language confusion led some states to list July 31 as the benefit end date, when it is actually a few days earlier.
The New York Department of Labor told USA Today that it would update the end date on its website to reflect the week ending July 26 as the actual expiration of sweetened benefits. The Alabama Department of Labor also said it would alert people who receive the change money.
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“We will send it at least two weeks in advance,” Tara Hutchison, a spokeswoman for the state department of labor, said in an email to USA Today.
The latest unemployment figures from the Labor Department showed that another 1.48 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total number of job losses to 47 million Americans. The speed and magnitude of job loss is unprecedented and more than double what the United States saw during the global financial crisis a decade ago.
“The labor market continues its lethargic recovery as we see one more week of modest declines in the tens of millions of Americans who continue to claim UI benefits amid an ongoing pandemic,” said Daniel Zhao, economist at Glassdoor. “While recent economic indicators like the May jobs report fueled optimism for a quick recovery earlier this month, the slow improvement in continuing claims curbs those high hopes.”
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Now, economists increasingly warn of a second wave of job loss. According to an analysis by Bloomberg Economics, 6 million jobs are potentially on the line, including the highest-paid supervisors in sectors where front-line workers were hit first, such as restaurants and hotels. It could also have a ripple effect in industries like professional services, finance, and real estate.
Democrats want to continue the additional payment of $ 600 per week beyond July. In the $ 3 trillion HEROES Act they passed in May, House Democrats proposed to extend the $ 600 payments until at least the end of January. The bill also offered the so-called “soft cut,” which would give the extra money to people who needed it until March 2021.
“We must think big for people now, because if we don’t, it will cost more in lives and livelihoods later,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in May.
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But Republicans and the White House have argued that the sweetened benefits actually discourage some Americans from returning to their jobs, making it difficult for the economy to recover from the virus-induced shutdown.
Larry Kudlow, a senior economic adviser to President Trump, suggested that the administration is open to a return-to-work bond to encourage Americans receiving unemployment benefits to return to work if given the opportunity.
About two-thirds of unemployed workers receive more government aid than they earned from their old job, according to a document written by economists at the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. Once the $ 600 per week expires in late July, the typical unemployment check, which varies by state, will return to less than $ 400 per week. That is an income reduction of about 60 percent.
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