Fewer than half of unemployed people are now receiving unemployment insurance benefits:
Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.
Another fight to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits and keep millions from losing this lifeline is gearing up in Congress. The AP points out that in 2010, 3.2 million people were kept out of poverty by unemployment insurance, and that for people who have been unemployed longer than 99 weeks and are no longer eligible for any aid, even if the reauthorization passes,
...options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.
Heidi Shierholz and Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute report that reauthorizing unemployment benefits could save more than half a million jobs.
So to recap: There have been more than four job seekers for every available job for more than two and a half years—which means that for three out of four people looking for work, there are simply no jobs. None. No matter how hard they look and how crappy of a job they're willing to take. Unemployment benefits have kept 3.2 million people out of poverty. Extending those benefits would save or create more than half a million jobs and increase the GDP by substantially more than the cost of the extension.
But Republicans say it's too expensive and requires major concessions.