As of June 13, over 19.5 million Americans drew unemployment benefits. Since the enactment of the CARES Act in March, these benefits have been more generous in terms of quantity and duration. A person who files for unemployment today may be able to receive benefits until the end of the year. For some of those weeks, the unemployed worker will receive a substantially higher amount than what is received through regular unemployment benefits. These unemployment benefits and other government sponsored payments have had a substantial impact on personal income. If the jobs do not return to pre-COVID levels, what happens to the consumer when these programs expire?
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