More Than One Million Of The Unemployed Have Now Been Denied Aid Due To End Of Federal Program

Publication Date: March 2004

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

Author(s): Isaac Shapiro

Research Area: Labor

Keywords: Unemployment rate; Job displacement; Income diversity; Economic projections

Type: News release

Abstract:

From late December, when the federal program designed to help the long-term unemployed began phasing out, through the end of March, an estimated 1.1 million jobless workers will have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits without receiving additional aid. In no other comparable period on record have so many individuals exhausted their regular benefits and gone without additional aid.

This estimate is based on previously released data from the Department of Labor for December and January, just-released department data for February, and a new estimate by the author for March.

This analysis begins with an assessment of current exhaustion trends, including on a state-by-state basis. It then discusses three of the arguments that have been put forward recently in opposition to resuming the temporary federal benefits program, before concluding by describing the political forces that will influence whether the program is reestablished.