21 states now canceling federal unemployment benefits
Yahoo Finance's Denitsa Tsekova joins Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to breakdown which states are canceling federal unemployment benefits.
Video transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: About 3 and 1/2 million people are set to lose some federal aid starting next month. That's because at least 21 Republican-led states are terminating that extra federal unemployment program in an effort to get people back to work. Yahoo Finance's Denitsa Tsekova is here now with those details. Denitsa.
DENITSA TSEKOVA: Yeah, we have three more states joining just yesterday. This is Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Texas, obviously, a really big one. 1.3 million unemployed workers will lose some of their benefits very soon. They're joining the wave of states opting out of the federal employment programs. As you've said, a total of 21 states currently joining the program. This move comes mostly from Republican governors. And it's after the disappointing April jobs report. We even had House Republicans, including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, calling on all GOP governors to cancel those programs.
And what we're seeing in those 21 states is that starting mid or late June, workers will lose that extra 300 in weekly unemployment benefits. Additionally, contractors, gig workers, and others will lose access to the pandemic unemployment assistance, meaning they will be left with no benefits. Workers in those 21 states stand to lose, collectively, $21.3 billion in unemployment benefits. And this is around 3,000 or 4,000 for workers, depending on the state where they're from. And under the American Rescue Plan, those programs are set to expire on September 6. So workers are getting 10 to 12 weeks less in unemployment.
We have Arizona, Montana, and Oklahoma being the only three states to give a return to work bonus. So only three out of 21 are giving the so-called incentive to return workers back to their jobs. The incentives vary state by state, but what we see is around 1,200 or 2,000 of benefits going to workers who stay at their job for a period of time, for example, four weeks or six weeks, depending on the state. So we're yet to see if more states will implement such incentives, which, generally, are smaller than the benefits those workers would have got if they stayed on unemployment.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, thanks so much for that update, for staying on top of that for us, Denitsa Tsekova.
