New data shows unemployment benefits do not discourage job hunting
Governors and legislatures around the country are hoping that ending Unemployment Insurance (UI) will light a fire under those who are seeking jobs. But a new study shows the end to those benefits hasn’t had the anticipated outcome.
“To evaluate the impact of the expiration of additional (unemployment insurance) payments, we asked respondents whether this expiration will influence the time and effort they devote to job search or their financial planning,” the survey report reads. “Over 90% of respondents state that the expiration of (unemployment) benefits will have no impact on their effort devoted to job search or their savings behavior.”
Finance professor Nathan Seegert thinks Utah’s strong economy puts workers in a good position to negotiate.
“The model would predict if wages from unemployment insurance went down, you’d be more likely to accept a lower wage to get out of unemployment,” Seegert said. “But that’s not at all what we’re seeing and in our survey, no one said they’d take a lower wage job.”
Read Seegert’s full comments, and more about the survey, in The Deseret News.
