Eight States Will Roll Of Federal Extended Benefits Program This Week

11 May 2012

Over 200,000 long-term jobless Americans are losing their unemployment checks this week, when 8 states roll off the federal extended benefits program.

Almost 1/2 of them reside in California, and the rest live in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas.

The federal extended benefits program has afforded the jobless with up to twenty weeks of unemployment checks after they have run through their state and their federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.

But the extended benefits program will expire throughout the country as the economy improves. A state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10 percent higher than it was in at least 1 of the past 3 years to be eligible for these benefits.

State unemployment rates have been dropping as the jobless find new positions or leave the workforce. For instance, Nevada records the highest state unemployment rate at 12 percent, but it’s still below the 14% it recorded in October 2010.

Already, twenty-five states have rolled off the extended benefits program, with fifteen of them leaving last month alone. But more unemployed Americans will be affected by this week’s cessation than April’s, when about 135,000 people saw their payments stop.

Eight States Will Roll Of Federal Extended Benefits Program This Week | Galaxy Stocks