Swenson: Taking away unemployment was political

June 15, 2021
News

David SwensonDavid Swenson, research scientist, was interviewed for a June 15 WHO-TV story, "Economists react to end of federal unemployment benefits in Iowa."

Iowa State University Economist Dave Swenson agrees it will take a while to recover economically, but thinks taking away unemployment benefits was a political action rather than a strategic one and might do more harm than good.

“Logic says if you take money away from people, people are going to seek money,” Swenson says, “but if you can’t find suitable work, taking away unemployment assistance doesn’t provide you with the job if you can’t find suitable work. And you and I can’t do any job. And any person, an unemployed manufacturer can’t become a cook. An unemployed cook may not be suitable for being an assemblyperson or a truck driver or a nurse, which is the top category of jobs that we’re needing right now. So you see a lot of this stuff, we just have to wait and see how it works out.”


This story also covered by

IPR News, June 14

But Iowa State University Economist Dave Swenson says he disagrees that this will help increase the state’s labor force. “Cutting off unemployment doesn't have anything to do with the labor supply. The people who have dropped out of the labor force aren't receiving unemployment, by definition, they're not in the labor force.”

WOI-TV, June 14
KCAU-TV, June 15

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