Emergency Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits will end on December 31 for more than a million Americans who have been looking for work for at least six months. Many more who lost their jobs more recently or will lose them in coming months will get no additional help in 2014 beyond their regular state-funded jobless benefits. Emergency federal UI both helps to relieve hardship among jobseekers and their families and is widely recognized as one of the most cost-effective ways to increase demand and spur job creation in a weak economy. The percentage of the labor force unemployed for 27 weeks or more hit record highs in the recession and is still twice as high as when the last three federal emergency UI programs expired. Some 4.1 million of the nation’s 11.3 million unemployed workers have been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer. Legislation has been proposed to extend the program through 2014.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 11/21/13, UI Ending
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