Palmetto State News

As South Carolina ends federal unemployment benefits, unemployed workers are returning to the workforce, the state said.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced that the state was ending its participation in the the $300 weekly federal pandemic unemployment compensation program on June 30. He justified his decision by saying that eliminating the extra unemployment benefits will incentivize unemployed workers to return to the workforce.

“South Carolina’s businesses have bore the brunt of the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” McMaster said in a statement. "Those businesses that have survived – both large and small, and including those in the hospitality, tourism, manufacturing and health care sectors – now face an unprecedented labor shortage. This labor shortage is created in large part by the supplemental unemployment payments that the federal government provides claimants on top of their state unemployment benefits. 

“In many instances, these payments are greater than the worker’s previous paychecks,” the statement continued. “What was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.”

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that South Carolina’s current unemployment rate is 4.6%, down significantly from the state's unemployment rate of 11.5% in April 2020 during the outset of the pandemic. The state has returned to its pre-pandemic unemployment operations and, as of July, claimants can collect from $42 a week to $326 a week for up to 20 weeks, according to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

Georgia also ended its participation in the program with benefits expiring June 26, according to the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL). As of July 2021, Georgia unemployment benefit claimants can claim from $55 to $365 in state unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks.

Rates of unemployment in Georgia have steadily dropped since last year. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia’s current unemployment rate is 4.1%, compared with 12.5% unemployment in April 2020, the peak unemployment rate during the pandemic.

Rachel Greszler, research fellow in economics, budget and entitlements for the Heritage Foundation, posted an article in support of eliminating federal unemployment bonus subsidies.

“It’s time for the federal government to stop stimulating demand and restricting supply by pumping more deficit-financed spending into the economy and by proposing trillions of dollars in new government programs," Greszler wrote. "Employers already face high costs from government taxes and regulations. They don’t also need the government competing with them. Policymakers should end the federal unemployment insurance bonus payments now.”

Twenty-five states across the nation have set a date to end their participation in the federal supplemental unemployment benefits program, all of them Republican-led, according to Multistate.