Wave goodbye to federal jobless aid: Abbott pulls Texas out of COVID-19 program amidst 'booming' economy

Public Policy
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Gov. Greg Abbott has chosen to pull Texas out of the federal COVID-19 program, which provided extra assistance to those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, according to a press report. | Facebook

Gov. Greg Abbott has chosen to pull Texas out of the federal COVID-19 program, which provided extra assistance to those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, according to a press report.

According to Abbott, who claimed that the Texas economy is not only rebounding but thriving, the aid will be phased out in order to incentivize individuals to return to work.

"The Texas economy is BOOMING," Abbott stated in a Tweet, "The number of job openings are almost identical to the number of Texans receiving unemployment benefits. And almost 20% of unemployment claims filed during the pandemic appear to be fraudulent. Texans are ready to get back to work."

Abbott defended his decision by citing data from the Texas Workforce Commission, which reported that there were currently more job opportunities available now than there were before the pandemic reached Texas.

"I had the Texas Workforce Commission dig into the numbers and provide me with the numbers, and here they are," Abbott told Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Tuesday. "We now have more job openings than we do people who are on unemployment. We have 60% more job openings today than we did the month before the pandemic hit the state of Texas."

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, 850,000 job openings were posted to the agency's two job boards, WorkinTexas.com and MyTXCareer.com; additionally, this figure was combined with the number of Texas job postings uploaded to private job sites such as Indeed and Monster.com using third-party software.

"The exact point of the software is to determine the number of jobs without double counting since most jobs are posted on multiple sites," Texas Workforce Commission spokesperson James Bernsen stated.

The Texas Workforce Commission also discovered 1,022,000 job postings on state and private job sites, with some of them representing several jobs; reportedly, this amount should be somewhat higher than the current unemployment rate of 1,029,890 Texans.

In addition, the governor eliminated a federal benefit for freelancers and gig workers who are normally ineligible for unemployment benefits but were during the pandemic.

Abbott is one of 18 Republican governors who have also declined to receive additional federal unemployment benefits this month.