Originally published: . Volume 12, No. 6. Source pages: 4.
Business Community to Gov. Edwards: Time to End Enhanced Unemployment
With a worker shortage impacting businesses statewide, Louisiana’s leading trade associations joined together in May to ask Gov. Edwards to discontinue the state’s use of federal enhanced unemployment benefits, according to a press release from the Louisiana Association of Business & Industry.
The letter notes that the state’s unemployment rate remains higher than it was pre-pandemic. Yet there are thousands of vacant jobs throughout the state needing to be filled. Business owners are turning potential customers away at the door because they struggle staffing their companies: companies which are now able to return to full capacity but for lack of employees.
“Talk to any small business owner on Main Street right now and they’ll tell you that their biggest problem is finding workers,” said LABI President and CEO Stephen Waguespack.
Signatories of the letter include Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), the Louisiana Business Group on Health, the Louisiana Homebuilders Association (LHBA), the Louisiana Manufactured Housing Association, the Louisiana Oil Marketers and Convenience Store Association, the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA), the Louisiana Retailers Association, and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
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