Seventy-two percent of Former President Donald Trump’s supporters and an overall majority of voters believe that the excessively generous unemployment benefits are to blame for lackluster employment growth, poll results published Thursday show.
Participants of the new Hill-HarrisX poll were asked to choose the most accurate out of two statements explaining current U.S. labor market conditions and the unemployment rate, according to The Hill.
NEW POLL: Plurality of voters say unemployment benefits causing job growth slowdown https://t.co/o7rxce1ATQ pic.twitter.com/AiMYsNKB8k
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Forty-four percent of the respondents agreed that many are relying on unemployment benefits rather than trying to go back to work, compared to only 19% holding low wages and poor working conditions as the reasons preventing people from looking for work, the report says.
Twenty-seven percent said that both statements are equally accurate, while only 10% rejected both options. (RELATED: Alabama Becomes Latest State To End $300 Unemployment Bonus)
Forty-four percent of registered voters in the May 14-15 survey said the first statement came closest to their views, compared to 18 percent who said the second statement did. Twenty-seven percent said both statements came closest to their views, and 10 percent said neither did. (Screenshot/YouTube/The Hill)
Conservative respondents predominantly favored the first option. Sixty-five percent of Republican voters and 72% of those who said they voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election cast unemployment benefits as the reason people are not returning to work despite a growing number of job openings.
The trend was somewhat reversed with respect to Democrat voters. Only 31% of those who self-identified as Democrats named unemployment benefits as the reason, while a majority, 36%, said both the benefits and poor working conditions have contributed to the phenomenon.
The $1.9 trillion relief package passed by Congress in March extended unemployment benefit payments of $300 through September. Analysts say this may have exacerbated the general unwillingness of the jobless to join back the labor force, since receiving the benefits, which average at $318 a week, brings in more income than working full time for $15 an hour, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points and was administered online to 932 voters.