17,880 unemployed to run out of unemployment benefits on Saturday unless the PA Senate acts

Published: Thursday, July 16, 2009

A 7 week extension of the Extended Benefits program is available to unemployed Pennsylvanians if the state Senate would enact HB 1770.

Without passage of HB 1770 17,880 laid of workers in the state will exhaust all unemployment benefits on July 18, 2009, including 4,180 from Philadelphia.

2-3,000 people in Pennsylvania will run out of benefits each week if HB 1770 is not passed. 

The extension would be paid for with federal funds that are part of the Stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA) passed in February and would cost Pennsylvania nothing.

HB 1770 passed the state House by a 197-1 vote two weeks ago.  The state Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the bill.

532,000 Pennsylvanians are officially out of work as of May and the state unemployment rate has risen to 8.2%.

Unemployment in Philadelphia has risen from 6.3% at the start of the recession in December 2007 to 10.0% in May.  Over 24,000 jobs have been lost in the city since the recession began.  Currently there are 63, 300 officially unemployed Philadelphians.

Unemployment benefits are currently 72 weeks for most workers. 

Long term unemployment in the US is at its highest level since the government began tracking the data in 1948.  Currently 4.4 million workers nationally are officially counted as long term unemployed (over 27 weeks).

Prepared by the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, 112 N. Broad St. 11th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-557-0822, www.Philaup.org