Natural State News

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is tapering off, many businesses are still struggling to fill positions and are understaffed. States that are removing extra unemployment benefits are showing an uptick in job searches.

As reported by CNBC, online job searches jumped 5% in the two dozen states that have announced that they will end the extra $300 in federal unemployment insurance early.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas) made his state one of the first in the nation to opt out of the extra unemployment benefits on May 14.

"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 said in a news release, as previously reported by Natural State News. "The $300 federal supplement helped thousands of Arkansans make it through this tough time, so it served a good purpose. Now we need Arkansans back on the job so that we can get our economy back to full speed."

CNBC reported that Jed Kolko, author of the study and chief economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, notes the 5% increase was "temporary."

A recent poll, published by the Foundation for Government Accountability, found that 73% of business owners surveyed said that have had difficulty hiring people in the past few months, with 59% saying it has been very difficult. A whopping 70% of respondents said there was greater than a 50-50 chance that their business would have to close within the next year due to an inability to hire enough employees.

The poll also indicated that 65% of business owners believed that the extra $300 in federal UI has been making it more difficult for them to hire new workers.