New CBO Report Demonstrates Value Of The Income Support Provided By Unemployment Insurance, And Confirms High Level Of UI Exhaustions

Publication Date: March 2004

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

Author(s): Isaac Shapiro

Research Area: Labor

Keywords: Economic projections; Unemployment rate; Economic inequality; Income diversity

Type: Report

Abstract:

A just-released Congressional Budget Office report examines what the most recent available data indicate about the incomes of long-term recipients of regular, state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, and the degree to which UI benefits are of use to them. The study examines income data just prior to the enactment of the temporary federal benefits program in March 2002. The study also reviews the level of unemployment insurance exhaustions in the past two years. Due to data limitations, CBO cautioned that the focus should be on the “qualitative findings of the analysis rather than on the precise estimates,” but CBO also tested the “robustness” of its study by comparing it with some older studies, and concluded that the results generally were consistent.