WOWK – Back in mid-June Governor Jim justice cut the extra $300 in federal weekly unemployment benefits early, which affected 15,000 people in the Mountain State. Watch the full segment.
While many argue it was intended to get people back to work, the data shows a different reality.
Ask most people in Charleston about ending enhanced unemployment benefits, and you may get a reply that sounds like Donnie Skeens’s, “I think the pandemic’s over, people need to go back to work and the jobs are out here in Charleston everywhere, people need to just step up and go back to work,” said Skeens.
The supplemental unemployment benefits from the federal government not only provided an extra $300, but it also qualified many contract workers who otherwise didn’t qualify for unemployment benefits.
“Kicking all of the people off unemployment, and taking away the $300 benefit, the argument was this was going to encourage them to go out and get these jobs and so far in these two months it hasn’t happened yet,” said policy analyst Sean O’Leary with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
