Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Just Expired — Here's Which States Will Get Hit Hardest - Matthew O'Brien - The Atlantic
Jared Sperli stashed this in economics
Stashed in: Economics
MATTHEW O'BRIENJAN 2 2014, 7:13 PM ET
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ReutersOn December 28th, 1.3 million people lost their long-term unemployment benefits. Over the next year, 4.9 million people will get fewer benefits than they otherwise would have.
And there are still nearly 3 unemployed people for every job opening.
When the economy imploded in 2008, Congress gave the unemployed a longer lifeline. It increased jobless benefits from a maximum of 26 to as many as 99 weeks. That time limit has since fallen with the unemployment rate, but things are still bad enough that there were states where you could recently get as many as 73 weeks of benefits.Â
No more. Republicans are refusing to extend these extended benefits any longer. They think we have to get benefits "back to normal" even if the economy isn't—that taking benefits away will give the jobless a needed swift kick in the you-know-what to go get a job.
6:11 PM Jan 02 2014