As part of the jobless bill passed today (March 10th), the Senate voted to extend eligibility for unemployment benefits and COBRA through the end of 2010. Today’s Senate bill adds to the legislation passed on March 2nd, which extended eligibility through the end of March.
The House of Representatives still needs to vote on the new bill, which is expected to happen before the end of the month.
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Extended Unemployment Benefits
- Extended unemployment benefits were set expire on February 28, 2010.
- The bill passed on March 2, 2010 renews the unemployment extensions that were enacted during 2009.
- As a reminder, there are currently up to 99 weeks of unemployment insurance available. The maximum benefits apply if the unemployment rate in your state is at least 8.5%.
- Regular unemployment: 26 weeks
- Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC): up to 33 weeks
- Extended Benefits (EB): up to 20 weeks
- Additional EUC: up to 20 weeks
- The new bill extends eligibility for the 3 additional “tiers” of unemployment benefits through the end of March.
Free Financial Assistance
- The U.S. government urges Americans to pay down credit card debt.
- There are currently programs in place to help you do this.
- You can legally cut your credit card debt: reduce your principal balance, stop late fees, and lower your interest rate. Very few people know how to take advantage of these programs.
- Fill out the quick form (it’s free & takes less than a minute) to lower your credit card bills.
COBRA Subsidy
- The 65% subsidy of COBRA health insurance payments has also been extended.
- Workers who lose their jobs through the end of 2010 are eligible for this subsidy.
Additional Unemployment Extensions
- The current bill maintains the $25 weekly increase in benefits put in place last year.
- Congress continues to discuss further unemployment extensions.
- To receive updates about the latest extension developments and to receive the free report, enter your email above.
Since the current recession began in 2008 there has been a lot of talk about how the current unemployment rate compares with historical unemployment rates.
To put things in context, below is a graph that show the United States unemployment rate back to the 1940s (i.e. post-Depression era).
As the chart demonstrates, we are currently experiencing the highest unemployment rate since the early 1980s. Back then, the national unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% in November and December of 1982. When you dive into the data on the state and city levels, there are more interesting statistics that emerge:
- West Virginia experienced the highest unemployment rate among all 50 states during the 1980s, peaking at over 18% in March of 1983.
- South Dakota witnessed the lowest levels of unemployment compared with the other 49 states, reaching a level of only 5.9% during October of 1982.
- Certain metropolitan areas have been hit particularly hard during the current recession. Fresno, California is a prime example, with a stated unemployment rate above 29%
If you’d like to see a quick graph of the historical unemployment rates in your state or county, check out Google Public Data. This graph shows Los Angeles county, and can be compared with other counties, states, or even the United States as a whole.
