Business organizations call for changes to unemployment benefits

Jun. 17—Ahead of the state's reopening earlier this week, a group consisting of 20 business organizations from around California sent a joint letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom calling for the state to address concerns raised by employers that enhanced federal and state unemployment benefits are stalling economic recovery by incentivizing job seekers to stay home rather than accept available jobs.

The United Chamber Advocacy Network (UCAN) sent the letter on Monday, which cited recent employer surveys and government statistics to make the case for immediate policy changes. The Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce was included as one of the entities calling for changes.

"Our members are telling us the government is competing with them for employees," said Marni Sanders, CEO of the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce, in a press release. "After 16 months of health restrictions, these enhanced benefits are keeping our small businesses from building back after COVID."

A recent survey by UCAN found that 78 percent of participating employers have current job openings and, among those, 78 percent said they were having difficulty hiring employees. Of that group, 56 percent said prospective employees indicated they would prefer to accept current COVID benefits than accept a job.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported there were more than 9.3 million job openings available at the end of April and 9.8 million unemployed Americans, a single month increase of 1 million openings, and more than 2.5 million job openings have been added in 2021.

In their letter, the group called on Newsom and the state Legislature to immediately reinstate the requirement for job seekers to demonstrate they are seeking work, which was suspended at the beginning of COVID; require EDD to conduct a 30-day analysis to verify employers' concerns and determine if indeed job seekers are turning down jobs in favor of COVID relief; call upon local Workforce Investment Boards to do the same to "fact check" the EDD report; not extend any current COVID benefits beyond their current expiration date, pending the EDD analysis; and urge the Legislature to consider the status of enhanced COVID benefits based on the EDD and WIB findings.

"As organizations representing small, medium, and large employers, we are ready to reopen California and rebuild businesses by helping our members do what they do best, serve their customers," said Dave Butler, with United Chamber Advocacy Network, in a letter addressed to Newsom.

On Thursday, California's Employment Development Department stated it planned to reinstate the requirement for job seekers to demonstrate they are seeking work in order to receive unemployment benefits starting July 11.