Just when you thought we were out of the woods... there's another crisis brewing.
Thousands of workers have already exhausted their benefits. And the numbers will only soar in the next few months... reaching 500,000 by the end of September, and 1.5 million by the end of the year, according to The National Employment Law Project, a private research group.
You can only imagine what a surge of jobless folks stripped of their support, right as unemployment passes 10%... 11%... will do to the economy.
As a result, Congress is under pressure to extend benefits again. Legislation already bumped unemployment programs to 79 weeks... which just about triples the norm. And there's already talk of a 13-week extension for states with 9%+ unemployment... at a cost of around $70 billion.
According to The New York Times, unemployment insurance is the lifeline for nine million Americans, with payments averaging about $300 a week. And while many of these people find new jobs before exhausting benefits, there are substantial numbers of people that have been unable to find work for more than a year.
And you thought foreclosures were bad before this news? You haven't seen anything yet.
