WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday said the federal government should end the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package to ease a labor shortage that limited hiring in April.
“The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” the Chamber’s chief policy officer Neil Bradley said in a statement, adding that unfilled positions threaten to slow economic recovery.
“Based on the Chamber’s analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working,” Bradley said.
(Reporting by David Lawder)
