Is Ending Extra $300 Unemployment Benefits Good Or Bad?

The Biden Administration has decided not to extend the extra $300 unemployment benefits when it expires September 6.

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The extra benefits have been a bone of contention with many local businesses seeing it as a major problem when trying to find employees.

The extra money is an incentive for laid-off workers to stay home, some say making it hard for businesses to hire.

Others think factors like child care and COVID play a role in hiring. But the truth is likely somewhere in the middle, according to the experts.

The states that chose to end the $300 Benefit early found that it hasn’t done much to help the struggling labor market.

After months of the extra benefits being given out, local businesses are still struggling to hire employees.

Some restaurants have had to close early or run short-staffed just to survive.

According to NEWS 4 (WIVB-TV) Lloyd's Taco Factory has had to adjust operations  Human resources department head Tiffany Gee said...

“Our truck department is not running and hasn’t been running this summer and that is because we’ve been having a hard time to find drivers for the trucks,” Gee said.

This past spring and summer Lloyd's hired a lot of people, but many of them were returning, making up for the people they had to furlough during COVID.

..."We’re facing the same struggles that all businesses are right now,” she said...

She said in an effort to find more employees they plan on attending two upcoming job fairs next Wednesday, through Catholic Charities and the other through Buffalo and Erie County Workforce Development. The fairs run from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.