Extending unemployment will help women and workers of color find higher-paying jobs

Allana Akhtar

Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

People find higher-quality jobs when given extended unemployment insurance, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, first reported by CNBC. 

The paper compared which jobs laid-off workers found during the 2009 Great Recession, when unemployment insurance averaged 79 weeks, and during the 2002 recession.

The paper found extended UI allowed workers time to choose jobs "better suited to their skills;" without UI, workers were more likely to take whatever job they're first offered. 

Women, people of color, and less-educated workers are more likely to find better jobs with extended UI, the paper found, because these groups tend to have less savings to fall back on.

Women have less in workplace retirement savings plans than men, and Black and Hispanic households have far less personal savings than white ones.

Americans laid off due to the coronavirus received a $600 weekly federal bonus on top of state unemployment payments up until August , when congress failed to extend the program.

Since jobs have not rebounded to their pre-coronavirus level — and some experts say many jobs have disappeared permanently — 16 million people still need unemployment benefits, per the Labor Department.

President Donald Trump has indicated he supports extending federal unemployment insurance, and Republicans have proposed cutting the benefits to $400 a week