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Connecticut announced plans to give thousands of long-term unemployed people $1,000 after two months of working at a new job.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, unveiled the state’s “Back to Work CT” program this week as a means to incentivize those pushed out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic for an extended period of time to reenter the workforce.<\/p>\n
The initiative promises to provide 10,000 long-term unemployed Connecticut residents who obtain new jobs with a one-time $1,000 bonus after they have worked for eight consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n
Lamont called the program “the latest tool in our toolbox to maximize our state’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic” in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n
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The program is being administered by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, which will provide an application form on its website in the coming days.<\/p>\n
“The Back to Work CT initiative offers a tangible incentive to those taking affirmative steps to transition from unemployment back to the workforce,” Mark D. Boughton, the state’s revenue services commissioner, added in a statement. “These and other innovative efforts will continue to fuel economic growth and with it, Connecticut\u2019s comeback.”<\/p>\n
The program will be funded by Connecticut’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, which includes federal funding obtained through the March 2020 CARES Act.<\/p>\n
Connecticut’s announcement comes after a dismal employment report last month from the Labor Department, which showed employers added 266,000 jobs in April. The job gains were far fewer than expected, and led a handful of GOP lawmakers to argue that enhanced unemployment insurance benefits were deterring people from returning to work, claims largely refuted by economists.<\/p>\n
Lamont said in the same statement announcing the $1,000 payments that the Connecticut Department of Labor will reinstate work-search requirements for unemployment insurance recipients at the end of the month. The pre-pandemic work search requirements for those receiving unemployment were waived last year during the height of the crisis when jobs were especially scarce.<\/p>\n
As of last month, the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 6.1%. Just before the pandemic struck, in February 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5%.<\/p>\n
Connecticut hasn’t released figures for unemployment in April. In March, it was 8.3% compared with 3.8% a year earlier.<\/p>\n