Today Congress demonstrated overwhelming support for extending unemployment benefits for 3.8 million workers.  If just five Republicans had switched their votes to help unemployed workers, there would have been enough votes to override the veto threatened by President Bush this morning.

It is unconscionable for the White House and House Republicans to continue opposing extended unemployment benefits for jobless workers.  It’s obvious that our economy is simply not working, from record high gas prices and home foreclosure rates to huge spikes in the unemployment rolls and the loss of family-supporting jobs. 

Yet President Bush and the House Republican leadership continue to offer petty excuses for opposing unemployment benefits.  Even today’s overwhelming margin in favor of extending benefits shows how tragically difficult it is to do the right thing for our economy and struggling workers with a hostile White House.

We look forward to tomorrow’s vote in the House, when members of Congress will have another opportunity to show their support for unemployed workers.

Some facts about long-term unemployment and unemployment benefits:

Long-Term Unemployment

·    The total number of long-term unemployed is 1.55 million. 

·    The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will provide benefits to 3.8 million workers who will run out of benefits over the next nine months, and 3.5 million workers will run out of state benefits this year.

·    The total number of log-term unemployed is higher than it was the last two times Congress enacted federal extension programs (October 1991 and February 2002).

·    The percentage of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (18.3%) is far higher than it was the last two times Congress enacted federal extension programs (2/02: 14.9%; 10/91: 14.0%).

·     The percentage of workers who are exhausting their regular state unemployment benefits without finding work is now 37 percent—as high as it was when Congress enacted the last federal extension in 2002, and higher than it was at the beginning of the last five recessions.

·    The number of workers who have exhausted their regular state unemployment benefits has risen to 2.77 million for the last 12 months (as of April)—more than 600,000 higher than at the beginning of the last recession (2/28/01: 2.16 million).

Unemployment Benefit Claims

·     There are 3,085,750 people now collecting UI benefits (four-week average as of 5/24/08).

·    That’s the highest number since May 2004, and almost 600,000 more than a year ago.

·     It’s also 500,000 more than when the last recession began (as of 3/3/01).

The May Jobs Report

·      Overall unemployment increased by .5% to 5.5% in May, the largest one-month increase in 22 years.

·      In May payrolls declined by 49,000, for the fifth month in a row.

·      Since December 2007, public and private sector payrolls have declined by 324,000, and private sector payrolls have declined by 411,000.

·     In May the percentage of unemployed workers who have been jobless more than six months increased from 17.8% to 18.3%.

·      In May the total number of unemployed workers increased by 861,000, and has increased by 1.6 million over the last 12 months.

·      In May the under-employment rate increased to 9.7%, up from 8.3% last year.

Support for Federal Extension of Jobless Benefits

·      CBO and most economists believe that extending unemployment benefits is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus because laid-off workers have little choice but to spend the money quickly.

·      The National Governors Association strongly supports a federal extension.

·      The House Ways and Means Committee voted 23 to 13 in favor of an extension bill (H.R. 5749).

·      The extension bill approved by House Ways and Means (H.R. 5749) has eight Republican cosponsors.

·     The House and Senate have both passed war supplemental appropriations bills that include a federal extension of unemployment benefits (H.R. 5749).

·     The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times have all editorialized in favor of an extension.

·     The Bush administration’s statement of policy on the House and Senate war supplemental bills expresses concern about the extension of unemployment benefits, but does not specifically threaten to veto an extension.

For interviews with unemployed workers, please contact the AFL-CIO Media Outreach Department at 202-637-5018.