Thirty-five States End Emergency Jobless Benefits
August 9, 2012
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After this week, no state will provide additional weeks of emergency unemployment insurance. More than a half million workers will be affected.
“Emergency benefits will no longer be available in any state, not because most states’ economies have improved to anywhere near pre-recession conditions, but because they have not significantly deteriorated in the past three years,” explains the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Congress reauthorized Extended Benefits in February, but GOP legislators forced provisions in the law that did not allow states to keep the program if their unemployment rates had not risen compared with a corresponding period three years ago. The highest level of unemployment benefits in the states is now 79 weeks, down from 99 weeks. Eligibility has fallen to as low as 46 weeks in 11 states.
Congress must protect long-term unemployed Americans. Click here to join the Union of Unemployed’s (UCubed) “Bee Mad @ the GOP” campaign. Join the Swarm in delivering a stinging defeat to the GOP on election day, November 6th.
