The House voted in overwhelming support to extend jobless benefits on Tuesday night, but some states are looking for longer-term solutions to the worsening unemployment situation that so many Americans are facing.
The Senate is expected to approve the extension quickly, and if it’s signed, the measure would provide more than 1 million jobless people, whose benefits are set to expire before the end of the year, with an additional 13 weeks of compensation. Only those who live in states with an unemployment rate 8.5% or higher would be eligible for the extension.
Many are asking, “What about those who will exhaust their benefits next summer?” New Jersey is among the states looking for a longer-term solution to the growing unemployment problem and last week the state announced a $2,400 incentive for any business that hires an idle worker, whose jobless benefits have been exhausted. Officials and experts in other states are also contemplating options like using tax credits to create jobs and allocating existing federal funds to generate temporary jobs.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobless23-2009sep23,0,557568.story?track=rss
Tags: benefits, consumer, economy, unemployment
Do you Want to say something?