More than 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers depending on cash assistance will be going through tougher times after the government has decided to end its five-year "emergency unemployment compensation" that has extended the jobless benefits, according to MSN News.
The federal government's five-year program, which provides those who remain jobless, extends a $1,166 monthly stipend.
According to the report, the end of the program may prompt a drop in the nation's unemployment rate, but it doesn't mean unemployed people will find work. With the emergency unemployment compensation, the long-term unemployed worker receives benefits while they seek employment. However, and with the benefits disappearing, some jobless will be discouraged to find work out of frustration and will no longer be counted as unemployed, the report said.
out of work are required to look for work to receive unemployment benefits. As benefits disappear, some jobless will stop looking for work out of frustration and will no longer be counted as unemployed.
"We could let one of our cars go, but then you can't get to work - it's a never-ending cycle," Greg Chastain,43, told MSN News, while accompanying his wife Barbara to an Orange County employment center. Chastain is one of millions of people who are trying to make ends meet after his T-shirt business went bust. The Chastains said they may eventually try their luck in a less expensive state like Arizona or Texas with hopes of landing a manufacturing job there.
Since 2008, the emergency unemployment compensation extended monthly benefits to the unemployed after their 26 weeks of state benefits ran out. During the program's peak, it offered the jobless up to 73 weeks of federal benefits - which are typically offered during periods of high unemployment - to the long-term jobless, the report said.
"I don't know what we're going to do," Richard Mattos, 59, from Salem, Or. told MSN News. "We could end up homeless because of this."
Mattos was laid off as a case manager at a social services organization and has been out of work since March.
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