Natural State News

Gov. Asa Hutchinson recently announced that supplementary unemployment benefits would end June 26 in an effort to help boost the state's economy, according to a press report.

Hutchinson, who made the announcement May 14, said eliminating the $300 federal supplementary unemployment benefits will help stabilize Arkansas' economy by helping businesses that have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic to find workers.

"As we emerge from COVID-19, retail and service companies, restaurants and industry are attempting to return to pre-pandemic unemployment levels, but employees are as scarce today as jobs were a year ago," Hutchinson stated in the news release.

Hutchinson also stated in a memo to the state's Division of Workforce Services that continuing to provide the supplementary income will make it more difficult for employers to fill the state's more than 40,000 job openings.

"The $300 federal supplement helped thousands of Arkansans make it through this tough time, so it served a good purpose," Hutchinson said. "Now we need Arkansans back on the job so that we can get our economy back to full speed."

Approximately two-thirds of employees who were laid off during the pandemic received more in unemployment than they earned while still employed, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research report.

"The programs were implemented to assist the unemployed during the pandemic when businesses were laying off employees and jobs were scarce," Hutchinson said.

Additionally, a University of Chicago study found that reducing the number of people receiving unemployment benefits could result in up to 75% of a rise in job growth.

While the White House maintains that unemployment benefits have had little impact on the labor shortage, President Joe Biden appeared to make an early concession to his Republican critics, promising to "make it clear" that Americans must take a job or risk losing their benefits.

Arkansas is one of 16 states to announce its intention to withdraw from federal unemployment benefits, joining Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.