Unemployment Insurance in US / Worse than most other developed countries (video)

Long-term unemployment in the U.S. is twice as high as it was before the financial crisis. That\’s according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Yet Congress did not extend unemployment benefits in the latest budget deal.

Less well known is how the U.S. has one of the least generous unemployment insurance systems in the world, both in terms of what it pays and how long it lasts.

Now joining us to discuss this is Ross Eisenbrey. He\’s the vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, as well as a lawyer and former commissioner of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Thank you so much for joining us, Ross.

ROSS EISENBREY, VICE PRESIDENT, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: It\’s my pleasure.

NOOR: Ross, what\’s your response to Congress failing to extend unemployment benefits? Now, your organization, the Economic Policy Institute, found that extending those benefits would support 310,000 jobs in 2014.

EISENBREY: That\’s right. The cost of extending the benefits, as they have been over the last year, for another year is $25 billion. And putting that $25 billion into the pockets of the unemployed means that they\’ll have money to spend on groceries and, you know, gifts for the holidays and paying their rent, paying for gas, all the things that people have to pay for. When Congress cuts that off on December 28, as it appears that it will, those people will–they will have no source of income. One-point-three million people on December 28 will be cut off from the only income source they really have. And that will be disastrous for jobs. It means that businesses won\’t have those people as customers.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via US Unemployment Insurance Worse Than Most Other Developed Countries.

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