Ernst Highlights Iowa Businesses Struggling to Hire Workers

(Washington) U.S. Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, spoke on the Senate floor to highlight the challenges Iowa employers face with getting employees back to work due to the enhanced federal unemployment dollars.

Ernst called on the need for Congress, the Biden Administration, and state leaders across the country to take action and help get America up and running again.

The Senator from Red Oak says the number of available jobs has reached a record high. She stated 8.1 million positions need to be filled, and 44-percent of business owners have openings they can’t fill. Ernst says currently, there are more than 62,000 jobs listed on the Iowa Workforces Development Website.

The Iowa City Police Department is hiring 10-Police Officers and offering a $5,000 signing bonus to recruits.

Last week, Ernst applauded Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds for curbing the additional federal unemployment benefits that have helped lead to this problem—and joined a bicameral effort to repeal them at the federal level.

Ernst says the Get Americans Back to Work Act decreases the extra federal unemployment benefits to $150.00 per week at the end of this month and fully repeals them at the end of June.