Unemployment Benefits Explained In Three Charts

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities does an excellent job of putting the nation's long-term unemployment benefits crisis into perspective.

The emergency federal unemployment program started in 2008 – in the middle of the Great Recession – to provide up to 47 weeks of benefits for jobless Americans still looking for work after their state unemployment benefits ran out. When Congress failed to renew the program last month, it left 1.3 million Americans without that vital lifeline:

This is the number of weeks of jobless benefits available across the country if those benefits had continued:

Unfortunately, the benefits expired. This is what the country looks like today for unemployed people:

The good news is that this week Democrats are pushing to renew the program. Today the Senate voted 60-37, overcoming a Republican filibuster, to take up a three-month extension. 

CWA President Larry Cohen said, “We commend the Senate for today’s vote to proceed on consideration of extending emergency benefits to 1.3 million Americans, and applaud Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid for making this issue the top priority as the Senate returned to work this week. Not only is this a moral issue, but it’s an economic one as well. These dollars flow back into the economy, and the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that every dollar spent on unemployment benefits yields $1.60 for our economy.”