3.9 Million Americans Ran Out Of Unemployment Benefits In 2010: Report

Last year, 3.9 million Americans ran out of unemployment insurance benefits, according to a new analysis provided to HuffPost by the National Employment Law Project.

Those 3.9 million are not necessarily still unemployed, and not all of them are necessarily "99ers" -- people who exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of benefits currently available in 25 states -- but the number offers a dramatic reminder that the longest-ever unemployment lifeline is still not long enough for some Americans to climb out of the deepest jobs hole since the Great Depression.

"These numbers demonstrate the grave nature of the long-term unemployment crisis and should lead all lawmakers to realize that it is imperative to put partisan fights aside and concentrate on job-creation efforts that are targeted to the longest of the long-term unemployed," NELP lobbyist Judy Conti said.

The Congressional Research Service has estimated that as of October, roughly 1.4 million Americans have been unemployed for 99 weeks or longer, a tenfold increase from three years ago.

In December, the White House estimated that another 4 million would exhaust their unemployment benefits during the course of 2011.

The federal government provides up to 73 weeks of benefits for workers in the hardest-hit states who exhaust the standard 26 weeks of state benefits. The average unemployment spell now lasts 36.9 weeks, and those who remain out of work longer than that are at serious risk of getting stuck.

Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to give the long-term unemployed in all states an additional 14 weeks of benefits, but that measure faces steep odds in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

For those who run out of unemployment benefits, not much help is available besides Social Security, food stamps or charity. Rhonda Taylor, a 42-year-old 99er who traveled to Washington from Rhode Island this week to lobby Congress for additional benefits, told HuffPost on Wednesday that her family of five is getting by on little more than $600 a month from her son's Social Security disability benefits. She said her unemployment insurance ran out in March after she lost her IT job in 2008.

Taylor said life since the cutoff has been "awful" and "devastating."

Patty DiMucci of Cary, N.C., told HuffPost this week she's been out of work since losing her job as a director of event planning for a beauty products retailer in March 2009. She said her unemployment benefits will run out this month.

"This is the first time in my career I'm struggling to find a job," said DiMucci, 42. "I've applied for hundreds of jobs. The rejection takes its toll on you -- that is, when you even get a response from a company."

She's worried that the big employment gap on her resume is itself an obstacle to finding new work. "Am I deemed unemployable?" she asked.

Comments

[Tired of the Bullies]

12:44 PM on 02/28/2011

Just so you know....Rhonda Taylor got a benifactor to help her get to washington...She didnt want charity to just help her family but rather wanted to use it to help all 99ers...Bottom line is there is no jobs out there so stop tryng to take the focus on the fact that the recession has lasted longer than 99 weeks....The jobs are overseas...And we deserve to fight...We dont deserve the today we have been handed much less the future that is being forced down our throats.

[media4me]

01:20 PM on 02/17/2011

According to Pelosi, wasn't unemployment good?

[ligligl]

12:00 AM on 02/15/2011

Soylent Green?

[TybeeBoBo]

10:06 AM on 02/14/2011

There are so many people looking for work and no jobs to be found.
We all agree – create new jobs, but how? Look back in time to our history-
What created the American’s power and wealth? – tobacco and cotton. Let’s do
it again by legalizing marijuana. The pot industry will create hundreds of thousands of
jobs and enough tax money to pay off the deficit. What are we waiting for?

[Social Construct]

10:05 AM on 02/14/2011

And the neo-con answer is to turn our economy into some free-for-all cage death match of Ron Paul/ Hayek/ Austrian School capitalism. Let the Games begin! Good grief, and good luck to us all.

[farmilyman]

06:33 AM on 02/14/2011

I wonder what percentage voted GOP?

[nkurland]

11:08 PM on 02/13/2011

We elected a guy who we thought was FDR, but was no more equipped to handle the crisis than Herbert Hoover (no, I'm not saying the recession is his fault). Where do we go from here?

[democrats for life]

01:07 AM on 02/14/2011

lot of people are going North to Canada

[democrats for life]

10:48 PM on 02/13/2011

we could have 100 million people unemployed and the unemployment rate would still be 9 percent

[ligligl]

12:03 AM on 02/15/2011

Call it creative statistics. Change you can believe in.

[media4me]

01:20 PM on 02/17/2011

Obama controlled stats.

[AMERICAN WOMEN]

08:00 PM on 02/13/2011

It looks to me like millions of Americans will be living in or near poverty, Americans who never thought they would be in such dire economic circumstances. The job market will not pick up for years to come. Even Bernanke admitted to that. Anyone with any sense could have said the same thing. Many people will never work again. Others will never get back to where they were. The economic wizards did a fine job destroying the U.S. economy. They won't be putting the U.S. economy back together anytime soon. I do see the U.S. as a nation in true and intractable decline. I don't how much longer Americans will take it.

[ken607]

03:30 PM on 02/13/2011

3.9 MILLIION reasons to INVEST in america! and not cut the projoects like high speed rail, which will help us into the next century.are you republicans listening? where are te job bills from republican leader boener? not a peep. just repeal healthcare, and put a "noose" around this administrations abilty to GROW the economy. a metaphor for you republicans that youl be able to understand!

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:54 PM on 02/13/2011

I feel for em, but I filed my unemployment claim the first week of January, and have yet to see a penny from my state on that. From my perspective, the unemployment system is just kind of broken, or they hate me, or something. Oh, well. Time to get the food handler's card again, and go back to my old, low-paying profession as 'pearl diver'(nee: hydro-ceramic sanitation technologist).

[Xenia Ch]

05:36 AM on 02/13/2011

I challenge just one Republican to step into the life of a 99er. You walk into work to receive three weeks notice. At first you think you'll be fine; you're a professional, educated, you've supported yourself for years. But the problem is you are one of millions. As you search, you try to pay your bills on unemployment, less than half your normal income. First your savings are gone, next your retirement. Now you've exhausted your last UI extension. You sell possessions if you're still lucky enough to have a home. You've sent out thoursands of resumes, maybe landed a few interviews. You've been close a few times, but someone was just a little more ... Or you've been out of the job market so long you're obsolete. And no, McDonalds is not clamoring to hire an MBA. Really, is our solution to turn professionals into working poor? As a nation we bail out banks, corporations, even other nations. Yet we quibble over providing a crucial lifeline to people that worked hard, want to work, are asking for help to survive just a little longer? Maybe those few weeks are enough to land that job. Because I don't see 3 million new jobs next week, do you? So, Congressperson, oppose this bill, come live a week here, and show us how to support a family with no job or income. These people's taxes paid your salary for years. I think you can find a way to pay for it.

[Robert SF]

12:14 PM on 02/13/2011

You could challenge a lot of Democrats to do the same. Partisanship has largely led us to this situation. We are so caught up in winning and proving once and for all that everything is the other side's fault, that we don't stop to notice the top 10% aren't partisan at all as they loot the country, destroy the middle class, and turn us into a nation of dog walkers and manservants. It's not that the Republicans are good; it's the Democrats are just as bad. It's a good cop, bad cop game they're playing with us. Don't fall for it.

[read matt taibbi]

11:50 PM on 02/13/2011

Exactly. The left and right division is completely fake.
Divide and conquer.

[MeinNH]

09:56 AM on 02/14/2011

All Congressmen and women and Senators should be required to live like this for 3 months....then maybe they will think before they speak on a subject that they know nothing about.

[Xenia Ch]

07:40 PM on 02/14/2011

Yes I agree; I have this concept for a reality show where Wife Swap meets Face the Nation. Politicians trade lives with real Americans. Long term unemployed, teachers struggling with overcroweded classrooms and budget cuts, senior citizens living on social security and Medicaid, small business owners trying to stay afloat... Pick a category--every time you hear an uniformed comment, that politician steps into that life for 3 months. Just a thought.... I think somewhere along the way we have lost the concept of the government representing "We, the People."

[Charles Deihl]

01:24 AM on 02/13/2011

Sad part is more people going onto welfare and losing their homes,but don't worry,they have a plan.Yea right and we have a say on our childrens futures.We all need to wake up from this dream of one day,The day has come and all we are doing is chatting on line and not doing action in the real world to stop it.Fantasy is over,Reality is NOW !!

[democrats for life]

01:42 AM on 02/13/2011

as soon as the safety nets are gone and used up, then you will see panic you never seen before

[AMERICAN WOMEN]

08:01 PM on 02/13/2011

I bet you are right about that.

[IH464]

08:37 AM on 02/15/2011

its Called walk like a Egyptian!!! coming to a state near you

[democrats for life]

11:01 PM on 02/12/2011

it may get to the point to where we have to open co-op factories, buy stocks and become part owner and guarantee yourself a job as part owner. create your own "pull"

[Robert SF]

12:15 PM on 02/13/2011

The more people do that, the less it work. Its logical conclusion is that we wind up selling apples and pencils to each other on street corners.