With 793,000 Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits last week, the need for relief and a boost to the economy is apparent. Heather Boushey, a member of the Biden administration's Council of Economic Advisers, told Cheddar the number of new jobs added across the country has been on a steady decline.
"A couple weeks ago we got data for January's employment situation, and there we saw that the pace of job growth has slowed," she said.
The drastic sweep of job losses has been felt disproportionately by women, many of whom left the workforce to take on family care responsibilities full-time as schools and daycare centers closed in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
According to Boushey, prioritizing economic stimulus initiatives and circulating critical supplies is a surefire way to rejuvenate the economy and will ultimately help schools and daycare centers reopen safely — effectively allowing many women to get back into the labor force.
"The most important thing that we need to get people back to work, to get back to business as usual, is to contain the pandemic, and that's why the American Rescue Plan starts by adding resources for communities and states all across the country to contain the virus, to get those vaccines out, to make sure people have protective gear, to make sure that there's testing widely available, and then the package provides resources to help families, especially those who are out of work, weather this crisis," Boushey noted.
The big question Americans pose now is: when will relief come? Components of the COVID relief bill are being hashed out, particularly whether or not to include a boost to the federal minimum wage of $15. The House of Representatives approved the bill that included the minimum wage hike but Senate Democrats do not appear to be on the same page and might not have the votes to achieve the goal.
"Right now, Congress is working on the legislation. They're doing hearing markups and the extent to which they can move quickly and get their work done and get it to the president's desk to sign," Boushey said. "That is when we'll know when folks can get checks, but it can't happen until Congress acts."
