Partly due to job growth, over 22,000 Texans will be losing extended benefits (EB) this month. The cuts stem from a congressional agreement this year that will reduce the maximum duration of unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 79 weeks as the nation’s jobless rate declines. The federal extended benefits program provides up to twenty weeks of unemployment checks after the use of state and federal emergency benefits, which together last up to 79 weeks.
The extended benefits program will expire throughout the country as the economy improves. A state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10 percent higher than it was in at least 1 of the past 3 years to be eligible for these benefits.
Including this month, over twenty-five states have rolled off the extended benefits program, with fifteen of them leaving last month alone.
By the beginning of September, the benefits will disappear in another seven states, leaving Alaska as the sole place to offer it.
The National Employment Law Project has been tracking all the state cutbacks in this chart.