DO THE UNEMPLOYED GET BUSY AS BENEFITS WANE?

posted by Michael Chihak

Economic analysis exists to show that people take longer to find new jobs when they are receiving unemployment payments.

That is according to Stephen Slivinski, a senior economist with the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank. "Studies show that people put off their search for work until their benefits are about to run out," Slivinski said. He will expand on his comments on Arizona Week Friday.

Meantime, George Cunningham, chair of the Grand Canyon Institute, which describes itself as a centrist think tank, said the payments are needed to bridge people to new jobs and to boost the economy. "This is not about lazy people, this is not about people with entitlement. This is about economics, this is about bringing money into this state.”

Cunningham, also on Arizona Week Friday, argued that the multiplier effect of infusing money into the economy would make the 20 extra weeks of benefits being considered for out-of-work Arizonans worth more than $167 million to the state's economy.

Slivinski said even if such payments are approved, they shouldn't come before an audit to show that people are complying and the money is being properly spent.