Two area state legislators say it’s time for the extra $300 unemployment weekly benefits to end.
State Representatives Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) and Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) are calling on Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Employmenrt Security (IDES) to follow the lead of 25 other states to immediately end the $300 extra pay for unemployment weekly benefits. The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program for the additional $300 began January 4th in Illinois and runs through September 4th.
”I am hearing from small business owners throughout the district who cannot find enough people who want to work because they are making more money by staying home and collecting the extra unemployment money,” commented Rep. Adam Niemerg. “The extra $1,200 a month added from the federal government’s temporary program to help people during the forced lockdowns is not needed any longer.”
Wilhour adds labor shortages are doing tremendous damage to the supply chains, limiting productivity, and causing cost increases for the goods and services that everyone relies on.
“It’s past time to get back to work. Providing taxpayer funded incentives to keep able-bodied workers out of the labor force is crippling our economy, limiting our ability to do important things like care for our most vulnerable, and hindering the much needed process of getting back to normal,” said Wilhour.
The two note Illinois’ unemployment rate is currently 7.1-percent, the highest in the Midwest and a full percentage higher than the state average.
