160,000 jobless Michiganders at risk of losing safety net, By Katharine Yung, December 5, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Unless Congress acts to continue extended unemployment benefits, it could be a grim holiday season for nearly 160,000 Michiganders. An end to the extended benefits would immediately impact 61,000 state residents who are getting this federal aid after exhausting their 26 weeks of state-funded assistance. Another 98,743 people who are receiving state benefits would no longer get additional help if they are still jobless after 26 weeks…”
Jobless benefits a holiday uncertainty, By Catharine Candisky, December 4, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “For the second year in a row, thousands of unemployed Ohioans face the holidays uncertain about whether their jobless benefits will continue into the new year. Nearly 77,000 jobless Ohioans – more than a quarter of whom rely on unemployment to pay their mortgages, utility bills and grocery bills – will exhaust benefits in early January unless Congress agrees to fund another extension of federal assistance. By early April, 107,000 more workers would fall off the rolls, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said…”
Clock ticking on Mainers’ unemployment benefits, By Susan McMillan, December 4, 2011, Morning Sentinel: “Maine is bracing for a new wave of need as extended federal unemployment benefits near their end. If Congress does not reauthorize extended benefits, 17,000 Mainers will see their benefits run out by May, Department of Labor spokesman Adam Fisher said. The department and its 12 regional Career Centers will increase outreach to unemployment claimants and add workshops to help the long-term unemployed find work…”
Poverty rate in Asheville area rises faster than the nation’s, By Mark Barrett, December 4, 2011, Asheville Citizen-Times: “The Great Recession pushed Buncombe County residents into poverty more rapidly than Americans as a whole, U.S. Census Bureau figures suggest. Buncombe County’s poverty rate reached 17.1 percent last year while the national rate stood at 15.3 percent, according to Census Bureau estimates released last week. That’s a switch from the middle of the last decade, when the poverty rate in Buncombe was lower than the national rate…”
Poverty in county on rapid rise, By Uriel J. Garcia, December 4, 2011, Arizona Daily Sun: “Almost all Arizona counties have seen a rise in poverty rates during the recession, and six — including Coconino County — posted ‘statistically significant’ increases, according to statistics released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increases in poverty levels from 2007 to 2010 were reflected in the state as a whole, where at least 1.1 million Arizonans, or 17.6 percent, were living in poverty in 2010. That was an increase from 14.1 percent in 2007. The county numbers released Tuesday showed a range of poverty rates, from 12.7 percent in Greenlee County to 34.5 percent in Apache County…”
