What Happened when Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Ended

During the pandemic, the federal government authorized an extra $300 per week to be paid to unemployed Americans. This included self-employed business owners and contractors whose businesses were affected by the pandemic. Although it took some states several weeks to implement the PUA program, thousands of Massage Therapists and millions of other Americans benefited from this program.

This extra assistance helped therapists to pay their office rent during the shutdown and afterward. It also helped with household and family expenses. It especially helped therapists who were older or immuno-compromised or had a family member who was older or had a vulnerable condition. They were able to wait out the worst of the pandemic before going back to work.

Those therapists that went back to their offices after the lockdown ended were able to keep their finances afloat. And it helped them pay for air filters and other supplies as they slowly built their businesses back up to some kind of “normal”.

The federal PUA program ended this past September. However, 25 states ended the pandemic unemployment assistance program early. Many of these states ended the program in June – nearly three months earlier than the rest of the country. With state economies sputtering to climb out of the pandemic slowdown, they believed that ending PUA would push people to “get up off their butts and get back to work”.

Did ending PUA push people back to work?

If you or someone you know utilized the PUA program at some point during the last year and a half, you might want to know what happened when it ended. Especially if you’re in one of those 25 states that ended the program early.

Did people go back to work because of not getting that extra $300/week? Or did the elimination of this program affect massage therapists and other workers negatively without accomplishing the stated goal? Losing $3,000 because of state government interference in a federal assistance program was no small matter for many Americans.

The people I know who received PUA assistance were not simply “sitting on their butts” expecting government handouts. They had good reasons to not go back to work in the middle of a pandemic. In many cases, they or a family member were more vulnerable to serious illness or death if they got covid. Some lived in areas with extremely high numbers of covid hospitalizations and deaths. Many of them would have loved to get back to their job or their business.

Were those governors right or wrong when they took that $3,000 away from their constituents and communities?

In my opinion, it takes a coldly demeaning mindset to assume that people just want to collect money and not go to work. Perhaps, some people fit that description. With regard to massage therapists and other practitioners, the ones I know absolutely LOVE their work! It is deeply fulfilling to help other people feel better when dealing with back pain, neck soreness, headaches, etc. And there are many other occupations where people Love their work.

I wonder why these predominantly conservative governors and legislatures have such a negative opinion of their constituents. The policy of “trickle-down economics” in the 80’s has triggered numerous tax decreases and loopholes for the ultra rich corporations and individuals. The strategy is that if the rich have more money, they’ll create more jobs and “trickle-down” wealth and opportunity to the masses.

However, by every economic measure, it didn’t work. The gap between the top 1% and the rest of the population has only gotten bigger every year since the 1980’s. The result is that more and more wealth is concentrated within a smaller number of people, and real wage growth for everybody else has stagnated for 40 years. The value of most people’s income is less than it was 40 years ago.

This caused people to have to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. It also forced both parents to go into the workforce and spend less and less time with their children. Is it possible that people are just tired of being forced into that lifestyle?

What do the actual numbers say?

When these states announced their plans to cut off those $300 weekly checks, many people argued that it would Not push people back to work. The politicians believed otherwise. And they were happy to eliminate that cash flow to their constituents and to their local communities. Who was right?

Recently, the Associated Press analyzed the numbers of people who were in the workforce just before the PUA benefits were cut off (May) and after the federal program ended (September). They did this for all states, including those that continued the program until its scheduled end. The numbers were very interesting!

The analysis shows that there was NO significant increase in the workforce across all the states between May and September. In fact, many of the states that ended PUA early had a LOWER number of people in their workforce in September than they did in May! These include Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

There was No evidence whatsoever that ending the PUA three months early spurred more workforce participation. None.

Why did millions of people Not go back to their previous jobs?

You might think that if people are getting less financial assistance, they would be forced to go back to their old jobs or find new ones. But this didn’t happen. There are many reasons why. And you may know some folks who chose to stay out of the workforce even as the pandemic has started to ease. Here are some of the reasons economists have discovered:

Some felt that they or a loved one were still too vulnerable to covid, especially in jobs where they work directly with the public every day, like massage therapists
The lockdown caused many Americans to re-think their priorities and their lifestyle
Some found that staying home was less expensive and stressful than going to a job and paying for daycare
Many decided that staying home with their children and living on one parent’s income was worth it
Many parents found that they enjoyed home-schooling their kids
Some people found it more convenient to work from home part-time than to go back to a previous job
Some started small businesses that allowed them to stay home and work less than before
Many found ways to get by without going back to a low-paying menial job, such as in fast-food, hotels, retail, or daycare centers
Many people, including many massage therapists, decided to retire a little earlier than they had expected
Although the lockdown was very stressful in some ways, it also demonstrated to a lot of people what it was like to live with less stress in other ways

The bottom line is clear

Taking that $3,000 of pandemic unemployment assistance away from those who could benefit from it did not have the intended result. People did not “get off their butts” and run back to their old jobs in droves. The governors and legislatures that initiated these misguided policies were dead wrong. As a result of ending PUA early, their states and local communities did not benefit from the extra cash flow. And they completely misjudged the intentions and priorities of their people.

There are pending cases and appeals in some states to force them to allow people to claim that PUA money that they were already approved for. These states include Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida. However, since the federal PUA program ended in September, it’s uncertain as to what will actually happen if any of these cases succeed.

I hope you’ll read it and let me know your thoughts and experience with the PUA program. You can reply to this email or comment on the post on the Ray of Light Training facebook page.

On another note, soon I will be posting my in-person classes for the new year. These will include Direct-Indirect Technique (DIT) classes, Cranial-Sacral Therapy (CST), Muscle Balancing, and Muscle Anatomy and Assessment. When I complete the schedule, you can visit the Ray of Light Training website to see when and where our 2022 classes will be by going to this page:
https://roltraining.com/class-schedule/

The Ray of Light Training Online Courses (and DVDs) are always available. They are approved for CEU credit for massage therapists through the NCBTMB, which covers most states, and CE Broker (Florida and Georgia):
https://roltraining.com/product-category/courses/

In the meantime, stay well,
John

John Joseph Ray
Ray of Light Training
John is a Board Approved Continuing Education Provider through the NCBTMB
Member of the Fascia Research Society