New U.S. Chamber Poll of Unemployed Americans Reveals Return-to-Work Barriers, Mounting Workforce Crisis

New U.S. Chamber Poll of Unemployed Americans Reveals Return-to-Work Barriers, Mounting Workforce Crisis

Today, the U.S. Chamber released a new survey that shows many of the newly reported 9.3 million unemployed individuals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are never returning to work and nearly one in eight have turned down at least one job offer.

Some key findings include:

• Half (49%) of Americans who lost their job during the pandemic report they are not active at all or not very active in searching for new employment. Less than a third (32%) report that they are strongly active in their job search.
• Six in 10 respondents (61%) say they are in no hurry to return to work. Three in 10 (30%) say they do not expect to return to work this year, with more than half of those (13% of the total) saying they never plan to return to work.
• One in six (16%) not actively seeking work say the amount of money they are receiving from unemployment benefits and government programs makes it “not worth looking” for jobs. Even more—28 percent of all respondents—agree that “there are a lot of people who are not looking for work because they can do almost or just as well collecting unemployment benefits.”

 To read the full report, please click here.