On Monday Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas will halt the $300 supplemental federal unemployment benefits available to unemployed Texans. The additional payments have been made available throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Abbott joins twenty other Republican governors in putting an end to extra federal aid in the last two weeks.

The extra federal benefits will end on June 26. This is more than two months before they would end under Congress’ emergency outlay. The program is called the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. He also cut benefits to gig workers, self-employed people, and others who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment benefits that have come from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Governor Abbott points to the “booming” economy in Texas and employers hiring throughout the state. Many other states soften the loss for their unemployed residents by offering bonuses to those who find and keep a job. Abbott isn’t doing that in Texas.

Arizona, for instance, is offering a $2,000 bonus for anyone who returns to full-time work and keeps collecting a paycheck for 10 weeks. Gov. Doug Ducey announced last Thursday that his state would cut off the $300 weekly benefit on July 10.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who set a June 27 cutoff, offered a $1,200 back-to-work bonus when he became the first governor to announce an end to federal payments on May 4.

According to Abbott’s statement, the number of job openings is almost identical to the number of Texans receiving unemployment benefits. He notified the U.S. Department of Labor that Texas will opt out of further federal unemployment compensation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He paints a rosy picture of current employment opportunities as the state bounces back from the pandemic.

“The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities throughout the state,” said Governor Abbott. “According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job openings in Texas is almost identical to the number of Texans who are receiving unemployment benefits. That assessment does not include the voluminous jobs that typically are not listed, like construction and restaurant jobs. In fact, there are nearly 60 percent more jobs open (and listed) in Texas today than there was in February 2020, the month before the Pandemic hit Texas.”

The current job openings are good paying jobs. According to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), nearly 45 percent of posted jobs offer wages greater than $15.50 per hour. Approximately 76 percent pay more than $11.50 per hour. Only 2 percent of posted jobs pay around the minimum wage.

At this stage of opening the state 100 percent, the focus must be on helping unemployed Texans connect with the more than a million job openings, rather than paying unemployment benefits to remain off the employment rolls.

Abbott also included a reference to fraudulent unemployment claims in his statement. The TWC estimates that nearly 18% of claims during the pandemic are confirmed or suspected to be fraudulent. This amounts to more than 800,000 claims that would have been worth $10.4B if all claims had been paid.

The reason the effective date was set for June 26, 2021 is because federal law requires the date of the change to be at least 30 days after notification is provided to the Secretary of Labor.

Dozens of business advocacy groups have been calling for Abbott to end the payments as an incentive to get people back to work. They see the additional benefits as a discouragement for workers to begin to get back to more normal times as the pandemic wanes and the state recovers from the job losses caused by the pandemic. Last week the Texas Association of Business and other business groups sent a letter to Governor Abbott and the TWC asking that the $300 benefit be cut.

The first governor to make such a move was Montana Governor Greg Gianforte. He set a June 27 cutoff date and added a $1,200 back-to-work bonus to encourage job seekers. Many governors point to the additional federal assistance which is on top of normal state unemployment benefits as a reason that jobs are going unfilled. They say that people aren’t looking for jobs if they can stay home for the same amount of money or more.

Labor unions and worker advocacy groups are not letting the pandemic crisis go to waste. Instead of returning to pre-pandemic times, “the world has changed” and now we see demands for such benefits as child care costs, for example. This falls in line with Biden’s announcement of the beginning of monthly child care benefits going directly into bank accounts of working parents each month – a new entitlement program.

“We can’t even imagine the thinking behind Gov. Abbott’s callous decision to strip the remaining federal Unemployment Insurance benefits out of the pockets of Texas working families,” Rick Levy, president of the large labor group Texas AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “If he took the time or had any interest in understanding the challenges working people face, Gov. Abbott would see clearly that folks across Texas desperately need these funds as they try to navigate their way through the economic carnage of the pandemic.”

Coronado, the economics professor, said despite a desire to “return to normal,” the world has changed.

“Our perceptions of risks and rewards have changed — navigating child care, navigating our own personal vulnerabilities,” Coronado said. “This notion of people being lazy — are you lazy if you have an elderly mother at home and you don’t want to go work in a bar? No, you’re probably a good son or daughter. People are making choices on a lot of dimensions, not just the pay.”

Yes, the world has changed. The American economy was on fire before the pandemic brought the country to a screeching halt. Unemployment rates were at historic lows and all demographics were reaping the rewards of a booming economy. Now Joe Biden is in office and the far-left is determined to go the route of socialist countries at every opportunity. Free everything is their solution, until all that free money runs out, of course.