After Congress reached a bipartisan agreement on a budget deal, one agenda item was left untouched: an extension on federal unemployment insurance benefits that could affect 4,056 unemployed individuals in Westchester County and 1,092 in Rockland County.
Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat who represents parts of Westchester and Rockland counties, recently met with Lower Hudson Valley job seekers and labor union leaders in her White Plains district office to discuss the local impact of Congress’ decision not to extend federal unemployment insurance benefits past Dec. 29. The insurance benefits were implemented in 2008 and meant to help families recover from the financial collapse. The aid applies to unemployed workers who have maxed out their six months of state compensation, which lasts about 26 weeks.
Paul Ryan, president of Westchester/Putnam Central Labor Body, said Westchester’s unemployment rate for laborers in the construction industry is close to 40 percent. He said “people want to work,” but “their jobs are being taken away.”
“We have skilled workers who have been unemployed for a long time,” Ryan said. “This extension of unemployment benefits is needed to sustain them.”
About 127,000 job seekers statewide and 1.3 million people nationally will lose their benefits when federal funding runs out at the end of the month. New York state’s unemployment rate is 7.6 percent. Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate dropped from 7.3 to 7 percent in November. Long-term unemployment in the nation remained at 4.1 million or 37.8 percent of all unemployed workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 718,000 long-term unemployed individuals found jobs within the past year.
Although the Tappan Zee Bridge project could spur employment, those jobs won’t be available right away, Ryan said.
“We have to wait for the steel to be put in place and for the roads to be set before electricians can start installing lights, signals, and cameras,” Ryan said. “But those jobs won’t be available until 2015.”
Lowey said she was shocked by the “failure of Congress to act,” which would “push many of our neighbors over a frightening financial cliff and hurt our economy.” She agreed Congress must retroactively extend the benefits as the first order of business when it returns in January.
Lynette Kuykendall, an unemployed woman from Yorktown Heights, said not extending the unemployment insurance benefits would prevent her from paying rent let alone take online courses for a degree in cyber security at the University of Maryland. She worked in sales before losing her job last June and has been living in her car and staying with friends on occasion. She said without the unemployment benefits, she wouldn’t be able to afford keeping a car because she doesn’t have money for gas or to pay for parking.
“I’m not asking for a handout,” Kuykendall said. “I’ve been to the department of social services multiple times for assistance, and it’s an ugly process. I show up at 8 a.m. every day, and they say come back tomorrow.”
Nationally, the budget deal will provide $63 billion for relief from the budget sequestration over two years: $45 billion in fiscal year 2014 and $18 billion in fiscal year 2015 split evenly between military and domestic programs. The deal will also provide between $20 billion and $23 billion in additional deficit reduction spread over 10 years, according to the U.S. House of Representatives budget summary.
