<p>[Most</a> of the unemployed no longer receive benefits | General Headlines | Comcast.net](<a href=“Discovery Hub - News & Technology”>Discovery Hub - News & Technology)</p>
<p>I thought this was an interesting article on how this recession is different as many americans are no longer eligble for unemployment benefits and continue to not be able to find jobs.</p>
<p>"…The number of unemployed has been roughly stable this year. Yet the number receiving benefits has plunged 30 percent.</p>
<p>Government unemployment benefits weren’t designed to sustain people for long stretches without work. They usually don’t have to. In the recoveries from the previous three recessions, the longest average duration of unemployment was 21 weeks, in July 1983.</p>
<p>By contrast, in the wake of the Great Recession, the figure reached 41 weeks in September. That’s the longest on records dating to 1948. The figure is now 39 weeks.</p>
<p>“It was a good safety net for a shorter recession,” said Carl Van Horn, an economist at Rutgers University. It assumes “the economy will experience short interruptions and then go back to normal.”</p>
<p>Weekly unemployment checks average about $300 nationwide. If the extended benefits aren’t renewed, growth could slow by up to a half-percentage point next year, economists say.</p>
<p>The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that each $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates up to $1.90 in economic growth. The CBO has found that the program is the most effective government policy for increasing growth among 11 options it’s analyzed…" quoted from the above article</p>