Jane Oates: $600 Unemployment Benefits Still Matter

Steven Mnuchin, Mark Meadows — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, left, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, right, speaks to members of the media following a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. as negotiations continue on a coronavirus relief package on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020.

Aidan Connelly is a production assistant on Boston Public Radio. A graduate of Emerson College with a B.A in journalism, his work has appeared on WBUR, KCRW, and The Marketplace Morning Report.

August 05, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

On Wednesday, WorkingNation president Jane Oates called in to Boston Public Radio, where she chided debate among conservatives in Congress over whether to extend $600 per week unemployment benefits for the 30 million jobless Americans living through the coronavirus pandemic.

Pointing to 19 consecutive weeks with over 1 million new unemployment applicants, Oates said the United States isn’t ready to lose its unemployment safety net.

"Remember, most of the people who are unemployed are the people who couldn’t work remotely, or whose employers couldn’t stay open,” she said. “I just don’t see the data yet to show that those employers have opened with the same robust employment availability that they had pre-COVID."

Jane Oates is the president of WorkingNation, a nonprofit campaign that raises awareness about the challenges facing the U.S. workforce. Jane previously served as Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration in President Obama's Labor Department.

Aidan Connelly is a production assistant on Boston Public Radio. A graduate of Emerson College with a B.A in journalism, his work has appeared on WBUR, KCRW, and The Marketplace Morning Report.