long-term jobless Americans forced off federal extended benefits program
May 11 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood ,NJ Over 200,000 long-term jobless Americans in California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas will lose their unemployment checks this week, when eight states roll off the federal extended benefits program.
Nearly half of them live in California. The federal extended benefits program has provided the jobless with up to 20 additional weeks of unemployment checks after they’ve run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.
But the extended benefits program is expiring throughout the country as the the Obama administration claims the economy improving. States must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% or more to be eligible for the program .
State unemployment rates have been falling as more and more workers exit the workforce and the job market shrinks .
Already, 25 states have rolled off the extended benefits program, with 15 of them exiting last month alone. But more unemployed folks will be affected by this week’s cessation than April’s, when about 135,000 people saw their payments end.