Will cutting unemployment benefits in America ease labour shortages?

AS AMERICA REOPENSUIUI for business, labour shortages continue to worsen. Firms are advertising over 9m vacancies, the highest on record. Bosses complain they are unable to find people to serve drinks, staff tills or drive trucks. So in an attempt to eliminate the shortages, half of states are ending a $300 weekly top-up to unemployment insurance (), in place since January, as well as other pandemic-related programmes. Is this change having the desired effect?It depends whom you ask. On June 27th the ran an article on Missouri, a state that abolished the supplement on June 12th, claiming that people were flying off the unemployment rolls. The very same day the ran an article also on Missouri, which drew almost exactly the opposite conclusion. The reality is somewhere in between these polarised extremes. Making benefits less generous may help America’s jobs market a little—but other factors do more to explain labour shortages.