An overwhelming majority of economists surveyed this month by the Wall Street Journal said that the economic benefits of additional jobless benefits to help laid-off workers outweighed concern that the extra payments could deter people from going back to work. About 82 percent of economists in the Journal’s survey said that they agreed more with the idea that the extra cash boosted the economy than the idea that it held back the labor market’s recovery. Many of them said that the benefits should be extended to support the recovery. President Trump on Saturday signed an executive action to provide an extra $300 a week in federally funded jobless benefits, a short-term solution to keep some of the money flowing while Congress and the White House continue to negotiate over a larger stimulus package. Republicans and Democrats have been at odds over the size of the extra benefit. Democrats favor keeping the payments at an extra $600 a week, which were in place April through July as part of an earlier stimulus plan. Republicans favor a smaller figure, in part because many workers were receiving more in jobless benefits than they were earning in their prior jobs. Without an extension of benefits, “there will be an air pocket in the economy” in the third quarter, said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US. Many economists said the extra payments both boosted spending and partly inhibited people from going back to work. But they indicated that the positive effect on the economy from the added spending was stronger than the negative consequences of keeping people out of the labor force.
