Mississippi ends extended unemployment benefits during COVID pandemic
Add Mississippi to the list of states turning down the federal government’s extended unemployment benefits in an attempt to help fill jobs.
“It has become clear to me that we cannot have a full economic recovery until we get the thousands of available jobs in our state filled,” Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday on Twitter.
Montana, South Carolina and Arkansas were the first three states to announce last week they were ending the extended benefits. Alabama also opted out on Monday.
“The purpose of unemployment benefits is to temporarily assist Mississippians who are unemployed through no fault of their own,” Reeves said. “After many conversations over the last several weeks with Mississippi small business owners and their employees, it has become clear that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and other like programs passed by the Congress may have been necessary in May or last year but are no longer so in May of this year.”
Reeves said he informed the Mississippi Department of Employment Security to inform the Biden Administration that Mississippi is opting out of additional federal unemployment benefits as early as federal law allows, which is June 12.
Reeves said he also directed MDES “to prioritize pre-pandemic enforcement of all eligibility requirements for any individual to receive employment benefits under state law.”
Mississippi also ended the extended benefits for those still unemployed after Hurricane Katrina when employers were having trouble filling jobs more than a year and a half after the hurricane.
This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
