Extended Unemployment Benefits Are Hurting Main Street
Floor Speech
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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, these are trying times for our country, specifically for small business owners and their families who, in some cases, are watching their livelihoods literally disappear right before their eyes.
The jobs report that was released on Friday was cited as the ``largest miss'' compared to economists' expectations since 1998. The United States filled only 266,000 jobs of the estimated 1.3 million that were predicted to be filled. That is more than one million jobs less than expected. The unemployment rate actually rose for the first time during this recovery.
For over a year, our businesses have been shuttered and our schools closed, making it impossible for parents to return to work and for hardworking individuals to earn an honest living.
To make matters worse, many of our local businesses simply cannot find the labor they need because Federal unemployment benefits discourage workers from returning to the workplace, further hindering the recovery of our local economies.
President Biden dismissed these figures as merely a snapshot in time, refusing to see that they represent the very real struggles our small businesses and communities are facing.
Just this weekend, I hosted our annual job fair in central Washington, and the changes that I saw were stark. Dozens of employers, who represented everything from the agricultural industry to law enforcement offices, restaurants, distribution centers, to government contractors handling nuclear cleanup, were all looking to hire hundreds of people.
And guess what?
Less than 100 applicants showed up.
Two years ago, we had 500 attendees competing for many of the same kinds of jobs.
Now, I know that our small businesses are the economic engine of our economy, and we must ensure that we can get that engine restarted as quickly and as safely as possible. It is time we reopen our economy, get our kids back into the classrooms, empower the entrepreneurs who are the backbone of our economy, and allow America to recover.
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