JUNEAU (AP) - Alaska will stop participating next month in a federal program that provides an additional $300 a week in unemployment aid to thousands of people, the state labor commissioner announced last Friday, saying it’s “time to help people get back to work.”
Department of Labor Commissioner Tamika Ledbetter said state participation will end June 12. Alaska joins at least 16 other states that have said they will stop providing the extra benefits paid by the federal government, which was set to expire in September.
Ledbetter said many Alaskans abruptly lost work due to the pandemic last year and she understands some still have child care, transportation or other challenges that keep them away from going back to work. “However, unemployment insurance is a temporary support system,” she said.
The extra $300 a week has been in addition to regular state unemployment benefits, which max out depending on past earnings at $370 a week, plus additional for dependents.
Ledbetter told reporters that while many businesses are affected by a lack of cruise ships this summer, others are hiring and reporting difficulties in finding workers. She said there are more job openings than applicants in the state.
“We want our economy to be strong. Therefore, it is time for Alaskans who are able and available to go to work to do so,” she said.
Patsy Westcott, director of the department’s Division of Employment and Training Services, said there are more than 30,000 active unemployment filers who could be affected by the decision to end the additional benefits.
Alaska’s unemployment rate in March was at 6.6%, higher than the national average of 6%. The state is down almost 22,000 jobs from last year.
Nolan Klouda, executive director of the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development, raised concerns over the decision to stop the enhanced benefits, writing on Twitter that it will “hurt tens of thousands of unemployed Alaskans and their households.”
Klouda, in an interview, said programs like this have allowed people to pay bills and “prevented a lot of economic pain,” and the additional unemployment funds have flowed into the Alaska economy.
There are anecdotes that people are not returning to their old jobs or taking new jobs because of the increased unemployment benefits, and that the anecdotes are widespread enough that he doesn’t “completely ignore them or disregard them,” Klouda said.
But he believes the picture “is a lot murkier than that.”
He pointed to research, much of which looked at 2020, and said there “really hasn’t been evidence that supports people, on a big scale, staying home because of unemployment benefits overall.”
Also adding “to the feeling of scarcity in the workforce” is that so many businesses are hiring for similar-type jobs all at once, competing for the same pool of workers, Klouda said.
More than $1.2 billion in federal and state funds have been distributed through Alaska’s unemployment insurance program since March 2020, according to the state labor department.
In a prepared statement critical of the decision, House Labor and Commerce Committee Co-chair Rep. Zack Fields said, “Alaskans will lose at least $50 million” in federal assistance.
“At a time when local businesses are struggling, we need every dollar we can get circulating in our economy,” Fields said.
“I sympathize with Alaska business owners who are struggling to hire right now, but drastically reducing these benefits which were already temporary, and at no costs to Alaskans, is bad policy as our communities continue to suffer the economic effects of COVID,” Rep. Bryce Edgmon said in the same House majority caucus prepared statement.
Reader Comments(0)