Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Expire; Long-Term Unemployment Falls

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Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Expire; Long-Term Unemployment Falls

By Randall Holcombe

Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.7% at the end of 2013 to 6.1% in August 2014. That decline is primarily the result of the expiration of long-term unemployment benefits.

 

Unemployment compensation usually expires at the end of 26 weeks of unemployment, but during the last recession Congress extended that period, and many states paid benefits for well over a year. If we pay people to be unemployed, we should expect more unemployment, and that’s what we got. The long-term unemployment rate skyrocketed during the recession because we paid people to be unemployed longer.

 

In August 2013, when people were eligible for extended unemployment benefits, people unemployed for 27 weeks or more made up 38% of total unemployment. In August 2014, after extended unemployment benefits had been eliminated, only 31.2% of the unemployed had been unemployed that long.

 

Looking at this table from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we see that the number of people unemployed for less than five weeks has actually risen from August 2013 to August 2014, while the number unemployed 27 weeks or more has declined by more than 30%.

 

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Jobs

Posted on

 

8 September 2014

by eehines

1

According to Friday’s jobs report, the headline number, the unemployment rate, dropped a skosh to 6.1%. But there’s more to it than that.

§ the long-term unemployed dropped to 3 million, but they’re still over 30% of all of US unemployed

§ the employment-population ratio was 59% for the third consecutive month

and

§ the civilian noninstitutional population was 248,229,000, up 206,000 from July,

 

http://aplebessite.com/2014/09/08/jobs-7/