Earlier this week, Governor Hogan announced that Maryland will become the 24th state to discontinue enhanced pandemic federal unemployment benefits. In addition, the state will reinstate work search requirements for recipients of unemployment insurance.

These changes will be made effective Saturday, July 3, 2021. The following programs will be discontinued:

• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides an additional $300 per week
• Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC)
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) 
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)

Beginning the week of July 4, the Department of Labor will reinstate the standard requirement for all regular state unemployment insurance claimants to actively search for work by engaging in three “reemployment activities” each week.

Since March 2020, the State of Maryland has paid out more than $12.3 billion in unemployment benefits to 730,759 recipients, resolving more than 97% of claims. Maryland’s unemployment rate was 6.2% in April, in line with the national average of 6.1%.

State Director for Maryland, Mike O’Halloran, released the following statement:

“Small business owners have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis. While they are seeing their sales grow amidst a steady economic recovery, a record 44% of owners reported job openings that could not be filled in NFIB’s latest jobs report. Some members are telling us they are still operating at a reduced capacity. But not because of mandated closures. Because they do not have enough workers to fill openings. If people are unwilling to work, then our economic recovery will quickly stagnate.

“The Governor is right to call this a ‘critical problem.’ Now that capacity restrictions and closings are behind us, we’re hopeful these jobs will quickly be filled as the summer is unofficially underway.”

This statement was quoted in an article written by the Baltimore Sun.