354,000 Exhaust Jobless Aid In March, Setting A One-Month Record

Publication Date: April 2004

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Isaac Shapiro

Research Area: Labor

Keywords: Income diversity; Economic inequality; Welfare

Type: Report

Abstract:

The number of individuals exhausting their regular state unemployment benefits in March without qualifying for any additional federal unemployment assistance eclipsed the record high that was set just two months ago, in January 2004. New Labor Department data show that in March about 354,000 jobless workers exhausted their regular benefits without being able to receive additional federal aid. In no other month on record, with data available back to 1971, have there been so many “exhaustees.”

Further, from late December, when the federal program designed to help the long-term unemployed began phasing out, through the end of April, nearly 1.5 million jobless workers will have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits without receiving additional aid. For a period of this length, this is also a record number of exhaustees. (This analysis includes state-by-state data on the number of exhaustees from late December through April.)