May jobs report surprise ‘isn’t solace’ to unemployed workers
Enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire this summer, even as millions of Americans remain unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now lawmakers are trying to figure out what to do next.
As part of the CARES Act, lawmakers added an extra $600 per week to unemployment benefits, but that extra boost is currently scheduled to expire on July 31.
“What I’m afraid of is that August 1 will come and we will have millions of Americans who just simply won’t have any pathway whatsoever,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). “You don’t wait until then to figure it out.”
Menendez spoke to Yahoo Finance ahead of Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia’s testimony on Capitol Hill, about unemployment insurance amid the pandemic.
“Our economy has turned the corner against the coronavirus,” said Scalia in his opening statement. “We celebrate it…not because we think the job is done, but because we