WASHINGTON – On the release of the July Jobs Report today, Executive Director of the Main Street Alliance, Amanda Ballantyne had this to say:
“It’s clear economic recovery is going to be a long, slow slog and we are nowhere near the end of this crisis. In addition to slowing job growth this month, unemployment barely moved at all for Black employees, highlighting the continued inequity in federal assistance. To avoid further contracted incomes just as small businesses are hitting a financial cliff with the end of their PPP loans, Congress must extend the full expanded pandemic unemployment payments, and provide continued assistance to small businesses – or the 40 million jobs we’ve lost throughout the pandemic will not return for years to come. We can clearly see the jobs are not returning quickly, and without consumer incomes from expanded unemployment the economy will be pushed over the edge.”