WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the recession eases, companies are cutting fewer jobs. Yet they remain reluctant to hire, leaving potentially millions of people without any financial aid long after their unemployment benefits run out.
That grim picture was reinforced Thursday by the latest government report on jobless benefits. The number of first-time claims -- a proxy for the pace of layoffs -- remained below the peak levels of the spring. At the same time, though, the total number of people receiving unemployment aid topped 9.1 million.
"We are left with a bifurcated job market, with fewer newer claimants but a rising tide of long-term unemployed," said Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics. "Some will exhaust all their benefits and be at wit's end to make ends meet."
The National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, projects that 540,000 people will use up their unemployment benefits by the end of September. It estimates 1.5 million will have run out by year's end.
Those benefits include up to 53 weeks of emergency extended coverage, on top of the standard 26 weeks of aid typically provided by most states.
The loss of all unemployment aid for so many jobless Americans could lead to calls for further benefits extensions. Congress first provided federal emergency benefits last year. Those benefits were extended in February by the Obama administration's stimulus package. more at link
