PA's Improving Job Picture Hurts Thousands Still In Need Of Federal Extended Unemployment Benefits
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa (CBS) -- Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is down. That's good news for those who've found a job, but bad news for thousands of others who've been out of work for a long time.
Christopher Manlove, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, says the state has been notified that it is no longer eligible for federal "extended benefits," or "EB."
"The state's declining unemployment rate is now too low to authorize the continued payment of federally-funded extended benefits – that's the EB program," Manlove said. "We believe it will affect approximately 30,000 individuals, and those folks will be notified by mail."
Manlove says extended benefits provide 13 weeks of payments for people who've exhausted 26 weeks of state benefits and several dozen additional weeks of federal emergency unemployment compensation.
He says the state's qualification for the extended benefits is not determined on a month-to-month basis, but rather a formula based on the state's unemployment rate over a period of time.
The last payable week for the extended benefits is the week ending May 12th.
