Get ready for this one, Save Jerseyans!
Governor Murphy announced on Monday that the State of New Jersey (read: you, or at least those of you who pay taxes) will start paying the unemployed $500 to go back to work.
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“The new Return and Earn program will provide a $500 incentive for unemployed workers reentering the workforce and receiving job training from businesses with 100 or fewer employees,” explains the DOL page cited by Murphy. “Employers can complete this form to express interest in this program and receive application information as it becomes available.”
There’s little doubt that employers need help incentivizing employees to return to work.
Congress’s expansion of the unemployment benefits system expired this month. Phil Murphy, for no known logical reason, waited until the end of the summer to turn off the spigot here in the Garden State. It’s almost as if Murphy was TRYING to hurt thousands of Jersey Shore small businesses that had a bear of a time finding help over the summer months. Some operated with limited hours or capacity not because of government regulations (like last year) but because help was too hard or expensive to find.
Murphy isn’t doing anything else to help the situation. His four years in office have been a never-ending parade of regulations, taxes, and other policies which make doing business in New Jersey next-to-impossible. Then the Murphy lockdown killed one-third of the state’s small businesses. It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that New Jersey’s current rate of job growth means the state won’t replace the jobs it lost over the last 18 months until at least 2023.
Next up? A scheduled payroll tax bump in October.
“For thousands of employers that barely survived lockdown restrictions, pandemic-related losses, and recent storm and flood damage, the governor’s next hit may be the knockout blow,” said State Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13).
Business owners couldn’t be blamed for stating the obvious: another $500 handout is far too little and far too late from a governor who doesn’t even pretend to care about them.
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