Cutting off unemployment benefits did little to return Mainers to work

Maine’s negative job growth reflects what’s going on across the nation, said James Myall, a policy analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“As expected, coercing people back to work isn’t working. We need to be supporting workers rather than trying to cajole them in one way or another,” he said.

Myall explained, “Maine’s numbers are consistent with what we saw from the research from the states that ended their expanded benefit programs back in July. In those places, only about one in eight workers were able to return. The same barriers preventing people from returning to work still exist, so cutting off benefits is just adding a huge hardship.”

Click here to read the full story, first published October 26, 2021, in Beacon.