New claims for unemployment benefits in Texas fell for the fourth consecutive week, indicating that layoffs across the state may be slowing.
About 62,000 people in Texas applied for unemployment benefits last week, a near 20-percent decline from about 77,000 a week prior.
Initial jobless claims in Texas have fallen in recent weeks after a midsummer spike driven by a surge in COVID-19 cases. While jobless claims in Texas are the lowest levels since shutdown orders began in March, claims are still running four times higher than pre-pandemic; typically, about 14,000 people apply for unemployment benefits each week in Texas.
Nationally, initial jobless claims fell last week to 1.2 million from 1.4 million a week prior. It’s well below the nearly 7 million per week in late March. Before the pandemic, around 218,000 claims were filed in the U.S. each week.
Congress is debating extending expanded unemployment benefits. An extra $600 per week in benefits, added to state benefits and authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, expired at the end of July. For Texans, due to a quirk in the calendar, the week ended July 25 was the last week claimants received the additional $600.
The $600 benefit, on top of state benefits, was intended to bring most claimants’ total relief to close to what they were making at their job before coronavirus-driven shutdown orders.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Recovering or relapsing? Texas economy showing mixed signals after COVID surge
Since its passing, Senate Republicans have argued that the level of unemployment benefits is too high and could reduce the incentive to work. A recent report from economists at Yale University found no evidence that the expanded benefits has reduced employment.
That aligns with surveys of employers conducted with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While employers seeking to hire new workers - among them grocery stores and other front-line businesses - have complained of difficulties in hiring while unemployment benefits remain high, employers seeking to bring their same employees back to work cite COVID-19 infections, not unemployment benefits, as preventing a recovery in economic activity.
Lawmakers are trying to reach an agreement on a new stimulus package that may include an extension of unemployment benefits, but the benefit level remains to be seen.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would be prepared to support a stimulus package that contains the expanded $600 benefits if the president and Democrats came to an agreement on it.
In Texas, employees aren’t allowed to refuse returning without losing unemployment benefits, except in very limited situations related to COVID-19.
Reasonable reasons to refuse work, the Texas Workforce Commission said, include being 65 or older, being diagnosed with COVID-19, living with someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19, being quarantined because of close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19, living in a household with a high-risk person, such as an elderly parent, or caring for a child if no other childcare options are available.
erin.douglas@chron.com
Twitter.com/erinmdouglas23
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Texas jobless claims plunge again, a sign layoffs may be slowing - Houston Chronicle
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