Icianptica by trade, Stokes worked at Henry Ford OptimEyes until the coronavirus arrived and closed the school for his two young children.
The family has been able to eliminate the pandemic thanks to the expansion of federal unemployment benefits, which provided them with $ 1,152 every two weeks, far less than Stokes earned before, but enough to survive.
Now, however, that lifeline is over. Stokes isn’t worried about his ability to find a new job, but finding one that can fit his children’s schedules will be “almost impossible,” he says. Child care in the Detroit suburb, where he lives, is very limited, he said, and the babysitter he relied on to pick up the children in the afternoon before the pandemic is no longer available.
“The government leaves us no choice,” Stokes said, noting that officials are pushing people to work while being told the delta variant remains a concern. “There are a lot of single moms who are really panicking right now and they don’t know what to do.”
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Nearly 18 months after Congress rescued unemployed Americans, its historic expansion of the national unemployment benefit system expired nationwide this weekend. Lawmakers, who expanded the three pandemic programs in December and March, are not expected to renew them again.
A key component of the relief effort was a federal weekly supplement for unemployed Americans. Initially, the unemployed received an increase of $ 600 per week from April to July 2020. Congress recovered the improvement in late December, but reduced it to $ 300 per week.
Lawmakers also created two more measures to help the unemployed when it attacked the coronavirus. The Pandemic unemployment assistance program provided payments for self-employed, self-employed, independent contractors and certain people affected by the outbreak, while the emergency unemployment compensation program in pandemics expanded payments for those who have exhausted its usual state benefits.
President Joe Biden said last month that states can use federal aid funds to extend programs beyond Labor Day, but so far no one has said they will.
The end of the safety net comes as the delta variant is weighing on the economy and dampening recruitment. The United States added only 235,000 jobs in August, well below what economists expected and the smallest increase since January.
About 11 million people are affected
Now more than eight million people are left without any unemployment benefits, while another 2.7 million lost the $ 300 federal weekly boost, but will continue to receive state payments, according to Century Foundation estimates.
They joined the roughly 2.7 million Americans who were wiped out of some or all of their profits in June or July after two dozen states chose to end at least one of the programs earlier. The governors, all but one Republican, wanted to push their residents to look for work.
While there is a record 10 million jobs in the United States, employment is not expected to increase, at least not immediately, experts said. Labor markets did not improve much in states that stopped benefiting over the summer.
Generous profits are not the only reason for the relatively slow pace of hiring. Child health and care issues are also important factors.
More than 5.5 million people said they do not work because they care for children who are not in school or daycare, according to the latest census of household dust in the Census Bureau, conducted in the first two weeks. of August. Another 3.2 million said they are concerned about getting or spreading the coronavirus.
Economic uncertainty is also a problem. Andrew Stettner, a senior member of The Century Foundation, says people are entering the job market at a time when the delta variant is affecting consumers and businesses. The increase in cases causes some people to withdraw from trips and meals outside and some companies to cancel events. This can lead employers to reduce their hiring.
“So far we have protected people from the real damage of long-term unemployment,” Stettner said. “Now we need to see if this job market is really strong enough to keep people out of long-term harm at a time when people don’t have some of the other protections (like housing protections) they had during the pandemic. “
Hundreds of unemployed Americans wrote to CNN why they are having trouble getting back into the job market right now. Some said good jobs are still scarce, others said the virus still affects their businesses and others mentioned family or health reasons.
Take Valerie Giguere, who lives in Rhode Island.
She owns Gourmet Traveler, which offers bus tours to destinations in New York and New England, as well as trips abroad. Giguere hoped business would pick up in 2021 after Americans began getting vaccinated, but the delta variant has forced her to cancel several trips to New York City this summer and postpone two European tours until next year.
The $ 424 she received in weekly pandemic unemployment benefits helped her pay her bills and invest some in the company to prepare when the trip resumed. Both she and her husband cover Social Security, but it is not enough to cover all the basic expenses, especially with inflation that raises food prices and other needs.
Without unemployment benefits, he fears he may be left behind on some bills and have to further reduce groceries, especially meat.
“Just knowing you have that little bit of money they gave me was a good thing,” Giguere said. “That’s what saved me throughout 2020 and most of 2021.”
Some have concerns about coronavirus
Fear of coronavirus has prevented some Americans from returning to the job market.
Rebecca Ruiz began schooling her two young granddaughters after her husband died of COVID-19 earlier this year. Ruiz, who has custody of the girls, is worried that they may bring the virus home, a possibility she is unwilling to take.
The $ 900 she received every two weeks as unemployment, along with Social Security benefits, helped the family survive, especially after losing her husband’s income from her job at a supermarket.
“Right now, all I can do is stretch my pennies,” said Ruiz, who did office work for a trucking company that closed early in the pandemic. The California resident now hopes to find a position that will allow her to work from home.
Meanwhile, some laid-off Americans report that they do not receive interviews or offers despite sending a large number of resumes.
David Grein, who has worked in the hospitality industry for more than 30 years, has been applying for jobs throughout the pandemic after losing his position as a cook in a retirement community in early 2020. publications call for less experience and offer a lower salary schedule than you had earned in the past. Grein, who turned 64 on Monday, suspects his age also plays an important role.
The Illinois resident is holding an interview Tuesday with a cook position that pays $ 21 an hour, which would be a big cut, and could lead to a 45-minute commute depending on traffic. But now that she has lost her $ 1,060 unemployment benefit every two weeks and has just taken out Social Security so she can get the full benefit in 2.5 years, she can’t afford to be too picky.
“I’m at the point that the gun is in my head in terms of income. I don’t have any,” he said, noting that he also needs health insurance to deal with his diabetes.
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