Financial Guide: The Pros and Cons of Unemployment Assistance
As the global pandemic continues, more and more people are collecting unemployment. Here is our financial guide on the pros and cons of unemployment assistance.
This past year has been rough for everyone as we battled a pandemic that shut down much of the country and we try to rebuild our lives after unprecedented layoffs. In an effort to help families struggling with employment, the government provided unemployment assistance designed to bring them through the pandemic.
We created this financial guide to show you both the pros and cons of these benefits. Unemployment benefits help people while they search for a new job, but when they become a crutch, that keeps people from accepting jobs and depending on financial assistance.
Unemployment Assistance Financial Guide
When you lose your job, the bills still need to be paid. While the electric company may feel for your situation, they won’t hesitate to shut off the juice if you get behind. Job loss shouldn’t mean you become homeless, so states provide unemployment assistance to help during this time.
The assistance pays a percentage of your former wage until you can find a new job. It’s a wonderful resource for people who may spend months searching for a job during hard times. It helps keep the bills paid and food on the table.
It was never meant to be permanent or entice people to not accept jobs.
How the Pandemic Changed Financial Assistance
When the pandemic causes the nation to settle in at home except for essential workers, countless people who couldn’t work from home lost their jobs and businesses closed. The federal government added $600 a week to the existing income to help unemployed families.
They have children at home instead of school and that added food costs, energy costs, and more. The plan was for expanded unemployment insurance to stop once the pandemic ended. It hasn’t, but many government officials are ready to drop it and return it to standard levels.
Is This Employment Assistance Keeping People from Jobs?
The country is opening, and businesses are once again receiving customers, but they’re finding it difficult to fill positions. Many people, especially those making minimum wage, make more money with unemployment than by working a wage.
While corporate jobs paying high salaries are filling up, restaurant workers and other jobs that provide lower wages can’t fill positions. This is the biggest con of the expanded unemployment assistance. People aren’t using it as a gap until finding a new job, but depending on it and refusing to accept jobs that pay less.
Employers are scrambling to make deadlines and appease customers while being short-staffed. It’s time to remove the expanded benefits and get things back to normal.
Unemployment Benefits and Jobs
There is no doubt that unemployment assistance is necessary, but the expanded coverage for the pandemic is causing an employment crisis. Why would someone accept a job that pays them less than unemployment?
Employers are struggling post-pandemic and they have many jobs open with no takers. We hope you enjoyed this financial guide. If you want to learn more about getting a job, then please contact our experts today.
