Labor & Employment Law

If Jobless Benefits End, Cold Holidays in Store for 1.2 Million

By Mike Hall

If Congress allows the extended unemployment insurance benefits program to expire, Nov. 30, 1.2 million jobless workers will lose their benefits by the end of the year according to new analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released today.

NELP Executive Director Christine Owens says cutting off unemployment insurance would produce a double whammy, hurting workers and their families and businesses during the height of the holiday and retail season. “Unless Congress continues the federal emergency extensions for jobless Americans,” jobless workers

who have been laid off through no fault of their own and are desperately looking for jobs…would be snapped from the lifeline of jobless benefits just as the holiday season kicks into high gear.  Congress will have to act fast when it reconvenes to avoid a catastrophe.  The clock is ticking.

Click here to sign a petition to Congress to act quickly and extend the UI program before it expires Nov. 30.

According to the report, Out in the Cold for the Holidays, the Nov. 30 insurance cutoff would come during one of the worst job downturns in decades, with just one job opening for every five unemployed workers and a U.S. unemployment rate that has exceeded 9 percent for 17 months in a row.

The report provides state-by-state estimates of the numbers of workers prematurely denied benefits if Congress fails to act by Nov. 30. Other key findings include:

• Since the unemployment insurance program was created in response to the Great Depression, Congress has never cut federally-funded jobless benefits when unemployment was this high for this long, over 9 percent for 17 consecutive months.

• Businesses and the struggling economy?especially the critical retail sector?will take a major blow if Congress fails to continue the federal jobless benefits during the holiday shopping season.

• In 2009 alone, the increase in the number of people in poverty would have doubled were it not for unemployment insurance benefits.

• With the average unemployment extension check of $290 a week replacing only half of the average family?s expenditures on transportation, food, and housing, jobless workers have a major incentive to look for work, notwithstanding the modest assistance their benefits checks provide.

Congress does not return to work until Nov. 15 and then will adjourn again for the Thanksgiving holiday, leaving just a few days when lawmakers are in town to extend the lifeline that has been so vital as unemployment continues to hover near 10 percent. But for the past two years, Republicans have tried to block every extension of the extended UI program. Says Owens:

Cutting off unemployment benefits at the end of November will hit families and businesses hard during the peak holiday season, throwing yet another damper on the recovery.  The nation simply cannot afford another round of prolonged and destructive Congressional gridlock that imposes more delays and undermines the economy.

Click here for the full report and be sure to visit UnemployedWorkers.org to mobilize support and push Congress to act before the Nov. 30 deadline.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 22, 2010 (boomark / email).