Jobless Benefits – IRP Poverty Dispatch

Longer benefits keep people jobless? Maybe not, By Mark Koba, May 15, 2013, CNBC: “Despite arguments to the contrary, giving unemployed Americans extended jobless benefits of up to 99 weeks didn’t prevent them from taking jobs, according a new report. Released last month through the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the study says that the extended benefits given from 2009 to 2012 to the unemployed increased the overall employment rate by only 0.04 percentage points, which the report says is small in comparison to the peak recession unemployment rate of 10 percent…”
Pa. lags getting aid to jobless, By Alfred Lubrano, May 13, 2013, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania has demonstrated ‘continued failure’ in paying first-time unemployment benefits in a timely fashion, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Further, the commonwealth has been ‘trending downward’ in its efforts to get payments to state residents on time, the department added in a March 29 letter…”