It feels like he tried to say unemployment wasn’t a foremost factor, but listeners are unsure.
Because at another point, he seems to be suggesting it is…
Biden issued a good statement to get back to the people into the workforce. But there’s a problem with this logic. If people aren’t out there applying for jobs, how will they enforce this? In order to get offered a job, one has to be looking and submitting applications.
People can be forced by putting deadlines onto the employment checks and to receive checks they must be looking for work. Here is what the White House website says about this one provision Biden was talking about:
Clarifying Rules of UI Programs: The Department of Labor will clarify that, under all UI programs including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program put in place last year, workers may not turn down a job due to a general, non-specific concern about COVID-19 and continue to receive benefits. Under the PUA program, a worker may receive benefits if the worker certifies weekly that one of the few specific COVID-related reasons specified by Congress is the cause of their unemployment.
These reasons include, for example, that the worker has a child at home who cannot go to school because of the pandemic or that the worker is offered a job at a worksite that is out of compliance with federal or state health requirements. Moreover, workers may not misreport a COVID-related reason for unemployment. The President is directing the Department of Labor to take concrete steps to raise awareness about these and other requirements.
It seems like the wrong direction, it is in the right direction. The administration really needs to push states to allow kids back into schools and take away this child-at-home caveat under the PUA. That alone would make it much stronger and somewhat a little weak.