May 11, 2004

Unemployment benefits extension vote comes up short
Posted by noseworthy@bostonworks.com">Nicole Noseworthy at 4:33 PM -

The latest news on unemployment benefits may leave some in a lurch: "Senate rejects extended federal unemployment benefits"

The amendment would have offered emergency federal unemployment benefits for six months, temporarily giving 13 weeks of extra assistance to people who exhaust their state benefits typically 26 weeks.

The unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent last month as employers added nearly 300,000 new jobs. The Labor Department has reported that payrolls have risen for eight months in a row, with almost 900,000 new jobs created so far this year, most within the last two months.

Republicans seized on April's employment report as evidence that more federal unemployment benefits are not needed.

... [However,] Democrats said the extended benefits are needed because the economic recovery still hasn't replaced 1.5 million jobs lost since President Bush took office.

While new jobs may have been created recently, the question remains: what happens during the summer?

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