The Unemployment Emergency Continues for Women and Their Families – But Emergency Unemployment Benefits Are About to Expire

Though the recession that began in December 2007 officially ended in June 2009, jobs data released for December 2011 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the pain continues for millions of jobless workers and their families.  The ranks of the long-term unemployed have reached historic levels; as of December, over 5.4 million Americans, almost half of all jobless women and men, had been unemployed for more than six months.[1]  While the growth in jobs during the recovery has been slow overall, it has been nearly non-existent for women, who have seen their unemployment increase nationally and have gained just three percent of the jobs added to the economy since the recovery began.[2]  Widespread and prolonged unemployment has driven the numbers of women and children in poverty – and extreme poverty – to record levels.[3]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that unemployment will remain well above 8.0 percent through at least 2012[4] – but federal emergency unemployment benefits for long-term unemployed workers who have exhausted their state benefits are set to expire at the beginning of March.[5]  The grim unemployment picture for women, men and families demonstrates a clear need to renew federal benefits to help the long-term unemployed and boost the economy.

Long-term unemployment is at historic levels for women and men.

• When the recession officially ended in June 2009, the percentage of jobless workers out of work and seeking employment for 27 weeks or more was at 30.1 percent,[6] the highest rate in over 60 years.[7][EJ1] [GRK2]   Since then, the percentage has climbed to an astounding 44.7 percent in December 2011.  Long-term unemployment among women has risen from 29.3 percent in June 2009 to 45.0 percent in December 2011 – nearly a 16 percentage point increase.[8]  Men’s long-term unemployment has increased by nearly 14 percentage points over this period, to 44.5 percent in December 2011.[9]
• Many of the long-term unemployed have been looking for work for much longer than 27 weeks, making continued federal benefits critical for both women and men.  For example, during 2011, more than one out of four jobless women (25.5 percent) and jobless men (27.7 percent) were still looking for work after a year of searching.[10]

Women have gained few jobs over the course of the recovery. 

• Between June 2009 and December 2011, while the economy added 1.4 million jobs, women gained 43,000 net jobs – just three percent of all net jobs gained.[11]

• Job losses in the public sector, which are continuing, are driving the bleak jobs picture for women.  Between June 2009 and December 2011, women lost 377,000 public-sector jobs, 64.4 percent of all the public-sector jobs lost.[12]  During the same period, women gained just 420,000 private sector jobs, 21.1 percent of all the private sector job gains.

Unemployment rates for women have risen since 2009 and are especially high for women of color and single mothers.

• The average annual unemployment rate for women rose from 7.5 percent in 2009 to 7.9 percent in 2011, while the average annual unemployment rate for men declined from 9.6 percent in 2009 to 8.7 percent in 2011.[13]  
• Black women’s average unemployment rate for 2011 was 13.2 percent.  Black women have not experienced another annual average unemployment rate this high in over 25 years.[14] 

• Hispanic women’s average unemployment rate in 2011 was 11.1 percent, down only slightly from their 2010 annual average unemployment rate of 11.4 percent, which was their highest in over 25 years.[15]
• The average annual unemployment rate for single mothers in 2011 was 12.4 percent, their highest annual average rate since these figures were first recorded in the 1960s.[16]

Continued emergency unemployment benefits are warranted by persistently high unemployment and long-term unemployment rates.

• On June 30, 2008, with unemployment at 5.6 percent,[17] President Bush signed into law a new Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (known as EUC08) to extend unemployment benefits beyond the maximum 26 weeks generally provided through the standard federal-state unemployment insurance (UI) program.  Congress has enacted similar emergency extensions during seven previous economic downturns over the past 50 years.[18] As amended by subsequent legislation, the EUC08 program allows unemployed workers who have exhausted their state benefits to qualify for successive tiers of additional unemployment benefits.  An individual may receive up to 20 weeks of tier I benefits; if she remains unemployed after exhausting tier I, she may be eligible for up to 14 weeks of tier II benefits.  Tier III provides up to 13 weeks of additional benefits to workers who have exhausted tiers I and II and live in states with a total unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.  Recipients who have exhausted the previous tiers and live in states with a total unemployment rate of at least 8.5 percent may qualify for up to six final weeks of benefits under tier IV.   
• In addition, most states provide another 13 to 20 weeks of benefits under a separate permanent federal program called Extended Benefits (EB).[19]  Historically, states were required to split EB costs evenly with the federal government, and few states chose to participate.  However, under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and subsequent legislation, Congress authorized full federal funding for EB benefits, which incentivized more qualifying states (those with unemployment rates above 6.5 percent) to take up the optional program.[20]  
• During the past 50 years, Congress has not allowed federal emergency unemployment benefits (like EUC08) to expire when the unemployment rate was above 7.2 percent – and the current unemployment rate is 1.3 percentage points higher than that.[21]

Unless Congress extends them, federal unemployment benefit programs will expire in March 2012. 

• Unemployed workers who had qualified for a tier I, II, III, or IV EUC08 benefit by the week ending on or before March 6, 2012 (i.e., by March 3, 2012) will be “grandfathered” for their remaining weeks of eligibility for only that specific tier.  Those who exhaust state unemployment benefits after March 3, 2012 will not be eligible for EUC08 benefits at all.  Federal funding for the EB program is also set to expire in early March, and workers receiving EB will face a hard cut-off of benefits as states terminate their programs.[22] 
• If federal unemployment benefits are not renewed for the remainder of 2012, over 3.3 million unemployed workers will lose access to benefits by the beginning of June.[23]

Continuing federal UI benefits helps unemployed workers, their families, and the economy.

• Due in large part to federally funded benefits, UI kept over 3.2 million people (including nearly 900,000 children and over 1.0 million women) from falling out of the middle class and into poverty in 2010.[24]  
• Because recipients generally spend UI benefits quickly to meet basic needs, the benefits generate approximately two dollars in GDP growth for every federal dollar invested.[25]  
• The Economic Policy Institute estimates that close to half a million jobs will be lost in 2012 if federal UI benefits are not renewed.[26]

Failure to continue federal unemployment benefits while unemployment and long-term unemployment remain painfully high would have devastating consequences for workers, their families, and the economy.

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The Unemployment Emergency Continues for Women and Their Families – But Emergency Unemployment Benefits Are About to Expire