IT: 📊 States cutting unemployment aid early saw no clear job gains, and... Do you support extending student loan repayments?

Welcome to Monday, August 9th, solars and lunars...

The U.S. unemployment rate hit a new pandemic-era low in July, and data suggests that employment hasn’t increased in states that ended federal unemployment benefits early.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday released its jobs report for July 2021, which found the U.S. economy added 943,000 jobs and the unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage points to 5.4%. The report exceeds the Dow Jones forecast of 845,000 jobs and a 5.7% unemployment rate.

Twenty-six states, largely Republican-led, had cut at least some unemployment benefits, saying the benefits were keeping people from looking for work. Mounting evidence, however, suggests that the policy gambit hasn't yet paid off.

According to a report from Homebase, a payroll management firm, employment fell 0.9% in states that cut benefits between mid-June and mid-July--but rose 2.3% in states that kept them.

How do you feel about the state of the job market?

Student Loan Repayment Pause

The Biden administration announced Friday that it is extending the pause on federally-held student loan payments through January 31, 2022, for the final time.

The pause initially began in the spring of 2020 pursuant to the bipartisan CARES Act, was extended on two occasions by the Trump administration, and President Joe Biden extended through September 2021 shortly after taking office. 

Do you agree with Biden’s extension of the student loan payment pause?

Debt Limit Deadline

The Treasury Dept. announced Sunday that it has begun using the “extraordinary measures” at its disposal to fulfill the federal government’s financial obligations and prevent a default after it reached the end of the debt limit suspension on Sunday, August 1st. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to congressional leadership warning that failing to raise the debt limit by the time the extraordinary measures are exhausted in the next few months “would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy and the livelihoods of all Americans.”

How do you feel about the national debt?

All the Memes Fit to Post

And, in the End…

Think about those who were here first:

—Josh Herman

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