FILE: Gov. Spencer Cox speaks at a COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. Photo: Jeffrey Allred, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says paying people not to work is not working. He is talking about the push to end enhanced unemployment benefits.
Cox told CNN State of the Union on Sunday that the biggest problem in Utah is finding workers for unfilled jobs.
Host Jake Tapper asked Cox if other governors’ plans to start rolling back those benefits are a good idea. Cox said, “unfortunately yes.”
“It is a terrible jobs report, not what we were expecting at all, but that’s what happens when we pay people not to work,” said Gov. Cox, referring to Friday’s unemployment numbers. “Now, there are families struggling, we want to help them out, but at some point, have to roll that back.”
The White House says the enhanced unemployment is not a disincentive to working. A position that other reports say isn’t true. For example, restaurants say they can’t even get people to apply.
“The biggest problem we have in the state of Utah is finding workers for the jobs that are available. and as we talk to workers, we find it is a disincentive,” said Cox.
Some governors are planning to roll back the enhanced benefits, including the governors of Montana, South Carolina and Arkansas. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said, “employees are as scarce today as jobs were a year ago.”
Slowing job growth in Utah, elsewhere, could be result of labor shortage