Unemployment Benefits in US – The total value is half what it was in 2003 writes Krugman

Only 26 percent of jobless Americans are receiving any kind of unemployment benefit, the lowest level in many decades. The total value of unemployment benefits is less than 0.25 percent of G.D.P., half what it was in 2003, when the unemployment rate was roughly the same as it is now. It’s not hyperbole to say that America has abandoned its out-of-work citizens.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Those Lazy Jobless – NYTimes.com.