Update: Where Things Stand for the Unemployed

With tomorrow’s monthly jobs report in mind, we’ve updated our table showing the number of weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits available in each state, along with each state’s latest three-month average unemployment rate.

Congress’ failure to restore emergency federal jobless benefits, which expired in December, means that only regular state UI benefits are available to qualifying workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own.  As a result, jobless workers can receive a maximum of 26 weeks of UI benefits in most states (eight states provide fewer weeks and two provide more).  Yet last month’s jobs report showed that well over a third (35.8 percent) of the 10.5 million people who are unemployed — 3.7 million people — have been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer.

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