A ventilator is the last line of defense against covid-19’s assault on victims’ lungs.

But when it comes to the economic impacts that have accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, that intensive care comes in another form: unemployment compensation.

Until Sept. 4.

That is when half a million Pennsylvanians will lose their financial life support.

From July 25 to Aug. 7, 77,743 unemployed people received the regular state unemployment compensation — a payment from a fund that covers about half of claimants’ paychecks until they go back to work or run out of covered weeks.

For a lot of Pennsylvanians, just like others across the country, those weeks were used up in May or June 2020. But between the closed-down businesses and the other complications of the pandemic, many have been using a different pool of money created for the occasion, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation. The last totals on those rolls were 174,572 — more than twice the number collecting regular unemployment.

Then there are the people who don’t normally get unemployment. That would be contractors and artists, musicians and other gig workers. The people who are self-employed or get 1099s instead of W2s. Because they don’t pay into unemployment, they generally don’t collect. Special pandemic rules made an emergency exception.

The number collecting from Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in the last round of claims was 387,932. That’s five times the normal claims.

That assistance disappears in September, potentially leaving more than 4% of the state without a way to pay the bills.

For those people, that must be terrifying, and the end of the checks could just be the start. Food banks could see disbursements already at a high point in even greater demand. Housing and utility programs could be the same. Gasoline is at its highest point in years. It’s a bad time to be without money.

But it also may be what is necessary to see other job problems fixed. While the unemployment is its own problem, the mirror image is the demand to fill jobs throughout the area, especially in public-facing positions like retail and food service as well as slots at schools about to reopen.

Many of those employers have bumped up hourly rates to entice workers to get back on the job. Unemployment programs ending could send thousands back into the market at higher wages than they left a year ago.

The temporary unemployment programs were always meant to be just that — temporary. They couldn’t go on forever. But if a shortage of workers has made employers better appreciate the people filling their necessary jobs and provide higher wages in return, maybe the end of unemployment will give workers a renewed appreciation for the opportunities a good day’s work provides.

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