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'Real People With Real Needs': Jobs Numbers Spark Partisan Debate About Unemployment Benefits

A man wearing a face mask walks past a sign "Now Hiring" in front of a store amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 14, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
A man wearing a face mask walks past a sign "Now Hiring" in front of a store amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 14, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, joins Here & Now‘s Tonya Mosley to discuss why last Friday’s jobs numbers were so low and why they’ve sparked a partisan debate over whether extended federal unemployment benefits are to blame.

And Matthew DeSalvo, director of social services at the Salvation Army in Little Rock, Arkansas, explains what the working poor in Little Rock are struggling with as they try to find jobs.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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