New Unemployment Insurance Report: 3.6 Million Americans Have Now Lost UI Benefits

Opposition to Helping the Long-term Unemployed Misreads History and Overlooks Benefits to Economy

WASHINGTON—(ENEWSPF)—October 1, 2014. A new report from Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) shows the number of people in each state who have lost access to federal unemployment benefits through September as a result of the termination of the program and illustrates why opposition to helping the long-term unemployed misreads history and overlooks the benefits to the economy. Through the end of September, more than 3.6 million people have been cut off unemployment insurance because of the expiration of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program last December, according to new data from the Department of Labor. The report cites several studies that highlight the program’s benefits to the economy and millions of Americans since it was enacted in 2008, including evidence that federal unemployment insurance helped prevent 1.4 million foreclosures between 2008 and 2012 and that unemployment insurance helped more than 12 million people avoid falling below the poverty line between 2008 and 2013. The report is available here.

“Evidence proves that federal unemployment benefits played a critical role in preventing the recession from collapsing into a depression and should be part of the nation’s effort toward continued economic recovery,” Ranking Member Levin wrote in the report. “The positive impact of unemployment insurance in the recession was substantial – improving consumer spending, job creation, labor force attachment, poverty, and the rate of home foreclosures. Unfortunately, 3.6 million long-term unemployed Americans have been denied the value of this program since December and our economic recovery has suffered as a result.”

The new state-by-state data in the report is copied below:

Estimated Number of People Cut Off Emergency Unemployment Compensation through Sept. 2014

STATE	Number Cut off Dec. 28*	Number Cut off Since Dec. 28**	Total
AK	6,100	13,300	19,400
AL	12,400	24,400	36,800
AR	9,200	19,400	28,600
AZ	13,800	33,500	47,300
CA	240,100	460,700	700,800
CO	18,300	37,200	55,500
CT	23,700	40,000	63,700
DC	4,300	9,900	14,200
DE	3,400	6,600	10,000
FL	60,200	108,600	168,800
GA	54,300	64,100	118,400
HI	2,000	7,400	9,400
IA	5,000	20,900	25,900
ID	2,300	9,200	11,500
IL	81,400	113,800	195,200
IN	19,900	29,900	49,800
KS	4,600	20,900	25,500
KY	17,100	21,000	38,100
LA	6,700	13,800	20,500
MA	37,700	63,700	101,400
MD	24,100	41,100	65,200
ME	3,300	10,700	14,000
MI	43,900	87,800	131,700
MN	9,500	40,400	49,900
MO	21,300	42,300	63,600
MS	11,700	14,600	26,300
MT	1,800	7,500	9,300
NC***	–	0	0
ND	700	6,300	7,000
NE	2,000	8,800	10,800
NH	1,300	4,200	5,500
NJ	74,100	121,300	195,400
NM	6,000	13,700	19,700
NV	16,400	25,200	41,600
NY	123,900	160,000	283,900
OH	39,000	52,600	91,600
OK	4,100	17,000	21,100
OR	20,200	32,100	52,300
PA	84,500	108,800	193,300
PR	21,000	31,300	52,300
RI	5,300	11,000	16,300
SC	14,500	18,100	32,600
SD	300	800	1,100
TN	17,600	31,100	48,700
TX	75,000	150,800	225,800
UT	2,800	11,400	14,200
VA	9,400	39,200	48,600
VI	1,500	1,000	2,500
VT	700	2,800	3,500
WA	29,300	45,400	74,700
WI	24,200	44,300	68,500
WV	6,100	12,500	18,600
WY	800	3,400	4,200

Total:	1,318,800	2,315,800	3,634,600

Source: US Dept. of Labor Office of Unemployment Insurance * Estimated Claimants Cut Off EUC at Program Expiration 12/28/2013 Regular UI exhaustees that would have potentially been eligible for EUC were it available.Includes actual regular exhaustees through August and estimated exhaustions for Sept, 2014. * Estimates exclude NC who ended their EUC08 program in July 2013.