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Those without Pennsylvania Jobs Get Benefit Extension

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January 28, 2011


While many states across the country saw a rise in unemployment during June, Pennsylvania’s jobless rate stayed flat at 8.3 percent. Although this is below the national average of 9.5 percent, it is significantly higher than the rate the state reported a year ago. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 5.3 percent of people could not find jobs in Pennsylvania in June of 2008.
Despite the fact that the state has a jobless rate that is lower than the national average, people are still struggling to find work in Pennsylvania. According to a recent press release from the governor’s office, approximately 18,000 people in Pennsylvania were scheduled to exhaust their unemployment benefits earlier this month. Thankfully, a bill passed in the Senate, which will stop this if it becomes law.
Under this bill, those who have already used up their jobless benefits will receive another seven weeks of unemployment compensation. The bill passed in the House of Representatives on July 7th with a vote of 197 to 1. After this, it moved to the Senate where it passed with the addition of a technical amendment, which will now cause it to need one more vote in the House. If it passes once again in the House, then Gov. Ed Rendell will be able to sign it into law.
“Through December, nearly 60,000 people could receive the additional seven weeks of benefits with no additional costs to businesses,” Rendell said. “This bill will put money in people’s pockets and put $145 million into the economy this year.”
If this bill passes into law, then the federal government will cover the full cost of extending these benefits for all individuals who used to work in either the private sector or for non-profit employers. Because of this, the bill will not impact the state’s unemployment compensation trust fund in anyway.
At this time, Pennsylvanians who have lost their job for reasons out of their control are eligible to receive 72 weeks of unemployment benefits. The bill will only offer an extra seven weeks of payments, but this may be all some need to find a new job.
So far, 29 other states have signed similar legislation in order to extend unemployment benefits to help out those who have been affected by the national economic recession.

Originally posted by joel cheesman

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