Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) has announced the state will cut off the additional $300 in weekly federal assistance going to unemployed workers, starting in late June. DeWine says this is another step in restoring the market while others call it a mistake.
DeWine says companies around the state are having trouble finding workers to fill job openings and says the extra $300 a week going towards people who are unemployed is playing a role.
“In some cases, certainly discouraging people from going back at this point in time. The assistance was always, always intended to be temporary,” DeWine said.
Ohio will end that additional assistance program June 26.
Watch: DeWine and Husted discuss hiring issues in Ohio.
But groups like the liberal think tank Policy Matters Ohio calls that a mistake.
“The best way for employers to attract new workers is to pay a good wage and offer decent benefits," Hannah Halbert, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, wrote in a statement. "State unemployment data show Ohioans re-enter the workforce when decent jobs are available. In the last quarter of 2020, the vast majority of unemployed Ohioans, about 80%, returned to work before exhausting their unemployment benefits.”
When asked what the employment situation with the additional $300 in assistance says about the current state of wages in Ohio, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) said there are many jobs available in the state paying $50,000 salaries and $15 an hour, arguing that a lack of good paying jobs is not the problem.
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