The States Most Affected by Unemployment Insurance
With the Senate gearing up to consider unemployment insurance extension legislation next week, the National Employment Law Project has a useful chart breaking down the number of Americans losing their jobless benefits by month and by week, state by state. I took that data and Census Bureau state population data to determine the number of people per 10,000 who might lose their unemployment insurance in April if the Congress fails to act. (I lopped off the top half of the chart to make it readable, so only 25 states are depicted.)
The 10 states with proportionally the most people due to lose benefits are Indiana, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, and Ohio. (The state least affected? Montana.) Of these, two have elected senators who voted against extending unemployment insurance the first time around — Wyoming and South Carolina. That provision passed 78 to 19.
Click to enlarge:
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