KPLU Local News
(2009-08-20)
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OLYMPIA, WA
(N3) -
Another economic wave is about to crash ashore in the Northwest. Thousands of job-seekers will soon exhaust their unemployment benefits. That means the pressure is on to find work in what is still a tough job market. KPLU's Austin Jenkins reports.
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The standard limit on unemployment benefits has been 26 weeks. But because of the recession, the federal government patched together a series of extensions. So now most job-seekers qualify for triple that benefit - 79 weeks roughly a year-and-a-half. Even so for many unemployed workers it won't be enough. Sheryl Hutchison is a spokeswoman with Washington's Employment Security Department. She says by years' end some 18-thousand Washingtonians will have received their last unemployment check.
Sheryl Hutchison, WA Employment Security Dept: "In July we had about 500 people run out of benefits. If you go from September to December losing about 3000 a month you see how exponentially it's going to grow."
It's a similar story in Oregon where an estimated 10-thousand job-seekers will exhaust their benefits by January. About 6-thousand of those will get a reprieve this fall when a state-approved 13-week extension kicks in. [There is talk that as waves of job-hunters across the country hit the maximum benefit, Congress will be forced to take action again.] I'm Austin Jenkins in Olympia. © Copyright 2012, N3
