In President George W. Bush’s waning months in the White House and our economy hurtling into a deep recession, long-term unemployment began a steep climb from which it has yet to descend. More than four in 10 jobless Americans have been out of work for longer than six months, essentially double the rate of any previous economic downturn since the Great Depression.
This is no time to be dramatically scaling back unemployment insurance, as House Republicans continue to push. Their bill would lead to a 40-week decline in federal unemployment insurance, resulting in 2.8 million Americans losing unemployment benefits, new Department of Labor data shows.
