Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits will end for about 24,000 long-term unemployed Wisconsin workers Saturday.
According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, because Congress has not renewed the federal program enacted during the Great Recession, federal unemployment benefits will soon expire after 26 weeks. Currently, they are available for 54 weeks.
The WBP, a nonpartisan Wisconsin Council on Children and Families initiative, indicates the expiration of the EUC program will cost Wisconsin workers $35.1 million per month.
Another 42,000 unemployed Wisconsinites will exhaust their 26 weeks of unemployment benefits in the first half of 2014, the Budget Project said.
In total, 2.2 million Americans will use up their unemployment benefits immediately or in the first half of 2014, according to the National Employment Law Project.
According to The Associated Press, the economy could be impacted by the move because Americans will spend less money on consumer products.
