Consumer

Financial expert says in order for next stimulus to work, people must be confident to go out

The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that an additional 1.2 million jobless Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time this week.

This comes as Republicans and Democrats work to iron out the next round of stimulus. The biggest hang-up standing in the way of approving that stimulus is the extra $600 unemployment benefit that just ran out last week.

Both sides hope to have a consensus by next week.

Thursday afternoon, Channel 2 anchor Justin Farmer spoke with financial planner and “Money Matters” host Wes Moss about what another round of stimulus will mean for metro Atlantans.

"The stimulus in the past has been super important, and I think it's important to get this next deal done as well," Moss said.

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In Georgia, unemployment has continued to come down. The state’s Department of Labor reported it paid out $134 million in unemployment last week and that number has fallen every week since July 4.

The number of Georgians filing for unemployment benefits also fell 50,000 week to week.

Moss said those are all good signs, but the next phase of stimulus won’t work until people are comfortable going out.

“We’ve recovered a lot of the jobs that were lost. But the next phase — to kind of get back to where we were pre-COVID — will really take consumers being totally confident again to go out and about, to go to restaurants that are not just outdoors, to go one flights, to go stay in hotels,” Moss said.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there will be no August recess for senators while negotiations are still in the works.