Unemployment Benefits

Prolonged Aid to Unemployed Is Running Out

 

Over the coming months, as many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits, ending what for some has been a last bulwark against foreclosures and destitution.

 

Because of emergency extensions already enacted by Congress, laid-off workers in nearly half the states can collect benefits for up to 79 weeks, the longest period since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s. But unemployment in this recession has proved to be especially tenacious, and a wave of job-seekers is using up even this prolonged aid.

 

…Currently, people can draw benefits for up to 79 weeks in 24 states and from 46 weeks to 72 weeks in others…

 

Tens of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year.

 

Unemployment insurance is now a lifeline for nine million Americans, with payments averaging just over $300 per week, varying by state and work history. While many recipients find new jobs before exhausting their benefits, large numbers in the current recession have been unable to find work for a year or more.

 

Even if the recession begins to ease, economists say, jobs will remain scarce for some time to come.

 

Traditionally, many economists have been leery of prolonged unemployment benefits because they can reduce the incentive to seek work.

 

Erik Eckholm

New York Times, August 2, 2009