New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Lamont offering $1,000 ‘signing bonus’ for return to work
Connecticut’s long-term unemployed who go back to work will be paid $1,000 “signing bonuses,” Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Monday.
Eligible recipients in the $10 million incentive program must be out of work for at least eight to 12 weeks, and retain their new jobs for two months. Applications for the program, which Lamont said would be administered by the state departments of Labor and Revenue Services, start May 24.
“You see the big athletes get a signing
bonus. Why don’t you get a signing bonus as well?” Lamont said, addressing people out of work and hesitant to jump back in.
The need is real, employers say, especially at restaurants and food service businesses. Despite high rates of joblessness, over 8 percent in Connecticut, employers around the country are having trouble hiring people.
That’s partly because of the aging work force, a long-term issue in Connecticut. But it’s also the effect of COVID-19 and its aftermath, as people left work and federally backed unemployment payments add $300 a week to regular benefits.
“I want people to have a real incentive when they go back to work,” Lamont said.
Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, said after Lamont’s late-afternoon announcement that the state’s industry is trying to hire 30,000 workers in attempt to get back to the pre-COVID workforce of 160,000, about 10 percent of the state’s working population.
“So many restaurants are having a hard time finding staff,” Dolch said. “It’s like small businesses across the board have similar problems. If we want a better recovery, we need to hire. We need to feed the region as best as we can.”
While the state’s unemployment rate is trending down slightly, Lamont said too few people are looking for work.
Another reason: With the closure of schools in the initial phases of the pandemic last year, many people, mostly women, were forced to stay home with their children, Lamont said. “Day care was very expensive and they didn’t find it affordable for them to get back to work.”
Connecticut will join states including Arizona and Montana in offering cash incentives for a reluctant workforce. In some cases, unemployment benefits, with the added support from the federal government, pay more than some hourly wages available in professions including restaurants.
Unlike Arizona and Montana, which are eliminating the $300-a-week “trueup,” the extra benefit will remain in Connecticut for people still out of work.
“I can tell you that in health care there are 12,000 to 13,000 jobs open right now, if that’s of any interest to you,” Lamont said during a news conference from the State Capitol. “There are 65,000 job openings right now that we need filled.”
According to March statistics from the state Department of Labor, the unemployment rate was 8.3 percent. The state had regained 176,400 of the 292,400 jobs lost in the pandemic.
“This pandemic disproportionately struck women, people of color, and low income workers, and it happened almost overnight,” state Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby said in a written statement. “The successful vaccine rollout and the focus on getting childcare back in place will allow many workers to go back to their jobs and start to rebuild. I applaud Governor Lamont for providing this assistance to help families return to the new normal.”
Lamont said the $10 million, enough to pay $1,000 to 10,000 workers, will be used from last year’s CARES Act federal stimulus — with an executive order. Starting June 1, the state will require people on unemployment compensation to begin proving that they are searching for new jobs.
“I’m doing everything I can to get people off unemployment; give them all the incentives they need to get work; make it easier for them to get back to work; make sure they have the financial incentives; make sure they have the child care and day care support they need, which is open to everyone, by the way,” Lamont said. “I think at the end of the day it probably saves the state money because we’ll have less people on unemployment and more people working.”
Stew Leonard Jr., the CEO of his family’s regional chain of grocery stores, who was Lamont’s guest Monday during his Monday update on the COVID response, said he is looking to hire 200 workers, including butchers, bakers and cashiers. “A thousand dollars is exciting. People need people to work right now and that’s a great incentive.”
“There’s are a lot of people that would not rather work and collect money right now, and that’s what I’m hearing from our suppliers,” Leonard said in answer to a reporter’s question. “That’s one reason that all weekend everybody’s talking about food inflation, right now. I don’t think people getting paid to stay home right now is helping the price of food, not only food but a lot of other things.”
Leonard said that employers cannot exceed their budgeted costs for employees. “Otherwise, you’re not going to make any money,” he said. “Look, I’m all for more wages. We pay really well at Stew Leonard’s. We have great benefits. We have very little turnover here.”