The White House on Monday claimed that increased unemployment benefits from the federal government aren’t the reason people aren’t going back to work.
Following an embarrassingly lackluster report of 266,000 new jobs having been added to the U.S. economy in April – a far cry from the 1 million jobs the liberal media were projecting – the Biden administration is now saying there’s no evidence that increased unemployment benefits are the reason people aren’t seeking out work.
“We don’t see much evidence that the extra unemployment insurance is a major driver in people not rejoining the workforce,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki during Monday's briefing.
“We’ve always believed there would be ups and downs in our jobs reports. That is historically how it has gone,” she added.
She then suggested that companies could encourage new and former employees back to work by offering higher pay.
Of course, that’s a bit hard to do when you’re competing against government handouts and high unemployment benefits, which, contrary to Psaki’s lame explanation, do incentivize some people to stay home and collect their welfare checks rather than go out and get a job. The federal government recently extended its $300-per-week unemployment bonus through September, on top of what a person is already getting through their state program.
According to Forbes, the average weekly benefit from the state is about $354, meaning that when coupled with the extra $300 in federal money, a jobless person collecting unemployment is banking an average of $654 per week, or $2,616 per month. In a two-person household, that amount increases to easily over $5,000.
But I'm sure getting paid to sit on their butts isn't keeping anyone from going back to their waitressing job, Jen. And while we're on the subject, water isn't wet and the sky's not blue.