News Item ( Man Bites Dog Department)
By The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Montana is ending its participation in the federal unemployment program that gives people extra weekly unemployment benefit payments as the state struggles with a worker shortage, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday.
Beginning June 27, unemployed workers in the state will no longer receive $300 in weekly extra benefits funded by the federal government through Sept. 6.
For those who return to work and keep their job for 4 weeks Montana will pay them a bonus of $1200. The governor approved $15 million in funding for the incentives from federal coronavirus relief money allocated to the state in March.
Montana has 10-14,000 few workers than it did pre-pandemic so this move underscores that Congress did far more harm than good with its bonus jobless benefit, and it could help the job market recover faster by repealing it. A conclusion of most economists months ago.