The federal government's supplementary $300 per week unemployment benefit faces steep opposition among Republicans and only gets tepid support among Democrats and independents, according to a new poll from the New York Times and SurveyMonkey. About half (52%) of people overall say the additional unemployment benefits should end now (80% among Republicans, 50% among independents, 27% among Democrats), while 30% say the benefits should continue until September and 16% say they should continue indefinitely.
Among those who are not employed but still in the labor force, one third (33%) say they are looking for a job but haven’t been able to find one that is worth taking, 21% say they cannot work right now due to family responsibilities, and 11% say they don’t feel safe returning to work because of the pandemic. Another 34% gave another reason for not working, including many that overlap with the options above as well as mentions of health problems and a general lack of jobs for their occupation.
For more detailed results, click through the interactive toplines below.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
