AFL-CIO Urges Congress to Pass Extended Unemployment Benefits Now

Increase “long overdue,” according to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

June 09, 2008 -- Today AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged members of Congress to aid working people hit the hardest and boost the our floundering economy by extending unemployment benefits.

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“Our economy is in free fall. Gas prices are four dollars. Millions of homes are going into foreclosure. There are now more than two jobless workers searching for every available job. The number of workers who have been unemployed for more than six months is higher than the last two times Congress enacted federal unemployment extension benefits. It is shameful that Congress has not yet extended unemployment benefits for these one and a half million long term unemployed workers,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “It would provide desperately needed help to them and it is a proven way to give the economy the boost that is equally needed.

Long-Term Unemployment

• The total number of long-term unemployed is 1.55 million.
• The total number of log-term unemployed is higher than it was the last two times Congress enacted federal extension programs (October 1991 and February 2002).
• The percentage of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (18.3%) is far higher than it was the last two times Congress enacted federal extension programs (2/02: 14.9%; 10/91: 14.0%).
• The percentage of workers who are exhausting their regular state unemployment benefits without finding work is now 37 percent—as high as it was when Congress enacted the last federal extension in 2002, and higher than it was at the beginning of the last five recessions.
• The number of workers who have exhausted their regular state unemployment benefits has risen to 2.77 million for the last 12 months (as of April)—more than 600,000 higher than at the beginning of the last recession (2/28/01: 2.16 million).
• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 3.5 million workers will exhaust their regular state benefits in 2008 without finding work

Unemployment Benefit Claims

• There are 3,085,750 people now collecting UI benefits (four-week average as of 5/24/08).
• That’s the highest number since May 2004, and almost 600,000 more than a year ago.
• It’s also 500,000 more than when the last recession began (as of 3/3/01).

The May Jobs Report

• Overall unemployment increased by .5% to 5.5% in May, the largest one-month increase in 22 years.
• In May payrolls declined by 49,000, for the fifth month in a row.
• Since December 2007, public and private sector payrolls have declined by 324,000, and private sector payrolls have declined by 411,000.
• In May the percentage of unemployed workers who have been jobless more than six months increased from 17.8% to 18.3%.
• In May the total number of unemployed workers increased by 861,000, and has increased by 1.6 million over than last 12 months.
• In May the under-employment rate increased to 9.7%, up from 8.3% last year.

Support for Federal Extension of Jobless Benefits
• CBO and most economists believe that extending unemployment benefits is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus because laid-off workers have little choice but to spend the money quickly.
• The National Governors Association strongly supports a federal extension.
• The House Ways and Means Committee voted 23 to 13 in favor of an extension bill (H.R. 5749).
• The extension bill approved by House Ways and Means (H.R. 5749) has eight Republican cosponsors.
• The House and Senate have both passed war supplemental appropriations bills that include a federal extension of unemployment benefits (H.R. 5749).
• The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times have all editorialized in favor of an extension.
• The Bush administration’s statement of policy on the House and Senate war supplemental bills expresses concern about the extension of unemployment benefits, but does not specifically threaten to veto an extension.

Source: AFL-CIO