Local employment experts are hoping that the end of federal unemployment benefits will trigger the beginning of improvements in county employment.

Federal unemployment benefits tied to the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire Saturday, leaving thousands of county and state residents with the regular state unemployment compensations as the only source of government unemployment benefits.

“Employers are waiting for that to end so people will go back to work,” said Sue Bowser, site administrator for Pennsylvania CareerLink in Butler.

Programs ending Saturday are the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation.

Unemployment in the county has fluctuated during the pandemic.

The unemployment rate jumped to 16.2% in early 2020, but has fallen significantly since then. This year, the rate fell from 7.2% in February to 4.7% in May before rising to 5.4% in June and 5.7% in July, the most recent information available from the state Department of Labor and Industry. The state unemployment rate was 6.6% in July.

The county's labor force in July was 96,500 with 91,000 people employed and 5,500 people unemployed.

The federal benefits paid out to those off the employment rolls have drawn controversy.Gary Schwartz, owner of Express Employment Professionals — a staffing agency that partners with CareerLink that can conduct job interviews for its business clients and hire employees in the CareerLink office — said many people have told him that a lot of unemployed people are not looking for jobs because they are getting paid more from federal unemployment benefits, stimulus money and state unemployment compensation than they did when they were working.“We've had people tell us they're not going to look for work until unemployment ends,” Schwartz said.He said he believes some unemployed people will try to enroll for welfare and take advantage of the increased availability of food stamps after their unemployment payments run out.People have been applying for jobs since the COVID-19-induced suspension of the job search requirement for state unemployment compensation recipients ended recently, but many are not interested in going back to work until all their unemployment payments stop, said Danielle Siringer, general manager of Express Employment Professionals offices in Butler and West View.She said some people have been submitting resumes that don't include their contact information. Submitting a resume satisfies the job search requirement, she said.“We've had a large influx of applicants, but fewer actual job seekers,” Siringer said.

The Express Employment Professionals office in Butler has 150 job openings with wages ranging from $15 to $23 per hour, Schwartz said.In what could be seen as a job seekers' market, some people are leaving jobs after working for only a day or two to pursue jobs they might like more or that pay slightly more, he said.“Pre-COVID, employers had more options for people they were hiring,” Siringer said. “Now, job seekers have more options for jobs they want. We have job seekers being more picky than they were two years ago.”For the 558,000 state residents whose federal unemployment benefits are ending, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services can offer assistance through a number of programs.The Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Child Care Works programs remain available.Applications for ERAP, Medicaid, SNAP, and other public assistance programs can be submitted online at www.compass.state.pa.us. SNAP and Medical Assistance applications can also be submitted over the phone by calling 1-866-550-4355.