The Washington Times reports results from an economic
study published by the
National Bureau of Economic Research. WT writes:
If you pay people not to work, they won’t work — and cutting off their payments sends them scurrying back into the job market, according to new research by three academics who looked at the federal government’s extended unemployment benefit program and concluded that it actually deepened, rather than helped, the jobs recession.
Nearly one million workers who would have sat it out and taken unemployment benefits instead got jobs in 2014 because their benefits ended, the researchers said. And when knock-on effects are included, “nearly all” of last year’s new jobs can be attributed to the end of the federal program.
The
NBER study's abstract concludes:
Benefit extensions raise equilibrium wages and lead to a sharp contraction in vacancy creation, employment, and a rise in unemployment (emphasis theirs).
I know an individual who treated extended unemployment benefits as a government-funded "sabbatical" - a mid-career break for personal growth and renewal.
