To many, the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration may seem like an abstraction, but Michigan long-term unemployed workers are feeling it in a very real-world way.
Workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks collect Emergency Unemployment Compensation until they find a job. Because EUC is fully federally funded, it is subject to the across-the-board cuts demanded by sequestration.
For Michigan workers collecting EUC, this translates into a 10.7% cut in their weekly benefit beginning with their first payment this month.
Click here for interactive map
The average weekly benefit for EUC is $275 per week, so the average cut is $29.47 per week (or $117 per month). That money can buy a half tank of fuel, a couple pairs of children’s jeans or some groceries, or could cover most of the month’s water and electric bills.
There are more than 75,000 workers in Michigan receiving EUC as they continue to look for work. For just the week ending April 6, Michigan lost more than $2.2 million in federal dollars, much of which would have been spent in local economies.
Everybody wants long-term unemployed workers to find employment, most of all the unemployed themselves. But until more jobs become available, the safety net for unemployed workers, their families and their surrounding communities needs to provide an adequate benefit.
To see how the sequestration cut to weekly EUC benefits has affected your county, click here or on the map above.
– Peter Ruark
Still unemployed? Sequestration hurts! Michigan:
