Texas Ending Pandemic Related Unemployment Benefits Soon

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The pandemic wreaked havoc on businesses and families throughout Texas.

As businesses in Texas struggled to keep doors open and employees compensated during the pandemic, Texans scrambled to find ways to keep their families fed and bills paid.

One of the programs offered to unemployed Texans was a $300 weekly unemployment supplement from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.

Gov. Abbott announces Texas is "opting out for further unemployment compensation.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that the state will be opting out of further federal unemployment compensation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, effective June 26, 2021.

Texas is one of many states in America that are now opting out.

How many Texans are receiving unemployment benefits?

During Gov. Abbott's press conference Monday he offered a sharp comparison, “According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job openings in Texas is almost identical to the number of Texans who are receiving unemployment benefits."

These are not just minimum wage job openings either.

According to the official news release by the governor’s office which you can read fully here, of all the jobs posted onto the Texas Workforce Commission’s website, nearly 45% of posted jobs offer wages greater than $15.50 per hour, approximately 76% pay more than $11.50 per hour and 2% of posted jobs pay around the minimum wage.

Another resounding reason these benefits will be ending in June was included in the press release as well. "The Texas Workforce Commission estimates that nearly 18 percent of all claims for unemployment benefits during the pandemic are confirmed or suspected to be fraudulent, which totals more than 800,000 claims, worth as much as $10.4 billion if all claims had been paid."