Here’s some good news for Coloradans about to loose that extra boost in their unemployment checks in a couple of weeks: There’s a surge in new jobs available!
The Denver Business Journal reports 14,800 nonfarm payroll jobs were announced in July, with 5,000 new jobs in professional and business services and 4,300 in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Also, fewer folks are filing for new unemployment benefits, with last week’s filings coming in as the lowest number of claims filed since the start of the pandemic.
Not only is this welcome news to those who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 shutdowns imposed by the government or the resulting economic downturn, businesses desperate for workers can maybe entice some employees back on payroll.
Some business leaders have complained that the extra benefits, which have meant an average weekly payment of $680 to Coloradans receiving the assistance, have deterred many individuals from seeking to return to work and unsuccessfully asked Gov. Jared Polis to reject the federal payments as about half of other states have. However, (Ryan Gedney, senior CDLE economist) noted that a study published Friday in the New York Times argued that such a move could have been a double-edged sword.
The study found that states that cut off the extra federal benefits reported increases in employment and decreases in unemployment claims. However, it also found that overall spending in those states dropped when the state benefits ebbed.
With more people returning to the workforce, that means more goods and services for Americans to spend their money on, so we expect this will all even out in the free market.