The coming Unemployment Insurance bottleneck

We should let people collect their extra UI as a "hiring bonus" if they get a job early

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

An acquaintance recently told me that he’d been offered his bartending job back now that things are opening up again, but he’s actually making more money thanks to bonus Unemployment Insurance. So what he’s going to do is just do some shifts unpaid and collect tips off the books.

This is not how the system is “supposed to work,” but in practical terms, it’s a win-win. I also heard a story of a restaurant owner who considered offering that deal to a former employee who doesn’t want his old job back, but the owner decided it’s not worth it given the risk of getting caught. So the guy is just going to continue collecting UI for a bit and see what happens.

Anecdotes are not data! And two examples aren’t even a proper trend.

But I do think there’s a real issue here, as a policy that was designed for a world of widespread restrictions on business activity is rapidly colliding with a reality that basically everything will be open all s…