3 federal pandemic aid programs have expired as of Labor Day, severing millions of Americans from unemployment benefits

• Three federal pandemic benefits programs have ended as of Labor day.
• They are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and a weekly $300 in Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.
• One think tank estimated that the programs’ ending affects 7.5 million unemployed Americans.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

As of Labor Day, three federal unemployment aid programs have come to a close, cutting off pandemic benefits for millions of people in the US.

The programs – Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and an additional weekly $300 in Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (FPEUC) – have all ended as of Monday.

The ability to apply for benefits in some states ended on Saturday due to a difference in what day states end their claim weeks.

The left-leaning think tank the Century Foundation has estimated that 7.5 million people would be left without benefits, as Insider’s Juliana Kaplan and Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported.

PUA in particular created a new class of beneficiaries, allowing workers such as gig workers and freelancers to qualify.

Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, previously told Insider that the ending of the programs has come too early, saying President Joe Biden’s administration should have waited until unemployment was closer to pre-pandemic levels.

“It’s going to take consumer spending out of the economy, it’s going to slow the rate of GDP growth,” he said.

Republicans on the House Committee on Ways and Means have argued that ongoing benefits have made it difficult for recruiters to compete with the amounts offered.

Many businesses in the US are still finding it difficult to hire workers even now, however. Months after Alabama and Florida opted to cut the flow of benefits, employers have struggled to find staff, as Insider’s Grace Dean reported.

Twenty-five mostly GOP-led states voluntarily opted to cut the benefits in March, affecting 4.1 million unemployed workers at the time, Time reported.