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Unemployment
Benefits Expiring for Many Workers
The
Economy: How Bad Is It?
Here are
five indicators of the impact of the nation’s economic
downturn since March 2001, when the nation fell into a recession:
- More
than 2.1 million jobs have been lost in the
private sector.
- About
1.3 million additional Americans fell below
the poverty line in 2001.
- Long-term
unemployment
(number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more) is up
about 125 percent.
- Overall
economic growth
is at about 1.4 percent per year (from the first
quarter of 2001 through the second quarter of 2002)
- State
budget deficits totaled about $40 billion
for fiscal year 2002 and about $50 billion for fiscal year
2003.
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More than one
million laid-off workers have exhausted unemployment benefits that
were extended by Congress for an additional 13 weeks in March, and
these numbers are expected to increase dramatically in December.
Congress adjourned
in late November without agreeing on new legislation to extend unemployment
benefits into next year. As a result, the current extension of unemployment
benefits will expire on December 28, causing an additional 800,000
people to lose their benefits immediately. An estimated 95,000 more
people will lose their benefits each succeeding week unless Congress
acts to provide a new extension. The House and Senate are expected
to take up the issue again in January when a new session of Congress
gets underway.
Meanwhile, workers
are exhausting their unemployment benefits at a faster rate than
in previous recessions, according to a report by the Center on Budget
Policy and Priorities. From March through September 2002, the report
said, “three times as many workers exhausted their federal
unemployment benefits as did so during a comparable period of time
in the early 1990s.” In September alone, more than 370,000
laid-off workers got their last extended unemployment checks and
remained out of work.
In the early
1990’s recession, unemployment benefits were extended for
26 weeks in most states. Under the current extension, benefits have
been extended for only 13 weeks in most states.
See
unemployment rates by state
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