Unemployment insurance at lowest level in three decades

NNPA - With no federal unemployment insurance and rapidly disappearing state coverage, the percentage of people benefiting from unemployment insurance is at its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.

EPI said the unemployment insurance recipient rate tumbled to 23.1 percent in December 2014, beating the previous record low of 25 percent set in September 1984.

State lawmakers continue to slash jobless benefits, enacting policies that make it harder for the programs to work effectively. The policies have a disproportionate impact on unemployed Blacks who often face greater challenges than Whites, as they struggle to stay connected to the labor market and make ends meet while they search for jobs.

“Many critics of UI programs wrongly assume that the lion’s share of jobless workers get benefits,” stated the report. “This is plainly wrong over the history of UI and especially in the more restrictive states. The U.S. short-term recipient rate was 34.7 percent in 2014, meaning that over 65 percent of short-term jobless workers did not get state UI benefits.”