10 states to end enhanced unemployment benefits June 26

Ten states will exit the enhanced unemployment benefits at the end of the week — impacting roughly 2.5 million workers. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Utah will all be ending the $300 federal supplemental benefits in their states, joining 12 other states that previously opted out of the benefits in the past two weeks, as the U.S. emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, 26 states are ending the enhanced federal benefits before they're set to expire in September. All of the states but one are run by Republican governors who began announcing the termination of benefits last month, claiming the increased unemployment benefits were causing workforce shortages by discouraging people from returning to work, even as pandemic-related restrictions eased. In all but two of the states exiting the enhanced benefits June 26, Florida and Ohio, federal unemployment programs for gig and self-employed workers, as well as those unemployed long-term, will also end. Because of that, more than 1.1 million unemployed workers will see all unemployment benefits end, including more than 700,000 people in Texas alone.