Banaian; This Week’s Unemployment Report Will Be Telling

The latest unemployment report will be released Friday.  St. Cloud State University Economics Professor and Dean, School of Public Affairs joined me on WJON today.  He says that report will should us one of two things that more people went back to work in the past month or more people are now looking for jobs.  The $300 weekly supplemental unemployment checks from the Federal Government ran out for most people in mid September.  Banaian says if it is correct that the $300 payment was keeping people from going back to work we'll see a big increase in employment or a big increase in unemployment.  He says he thinks there will be a big increase in the unemployment rate not because people were laid off but because more people are actively looking for work.

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Banaian says when people are collecting unemployment money they need to show they've been looking for work but during the pandemic that rule was suspended because people weren't encouraged to physically interact with others.  He says the biggest age group of people who have not returned to work since the pandemic is ages 55-70.  Banaian says many older Americans decided the risks of contracting COVID-19 outweighed the reasons to go back to work.  He says there was no way of seeing this coming because we haven't dealt with a pandemic before.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with King Banaian it is available below.