By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-936862.mp3
LANSING, MI –
In Michigan, it takes an average of about 10 months for an unemployed worker to find a new job. Extended benefits for workers who are unemployed more than six months are about to expire unless Congress acts before next week. As we hear from Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta, that's expected to put additional stress on public and private welfare agencies.
AUDIO:
Michigan has an unemployment rate of 12.8%. Starting December 1, the federal government will begin to phase more than 181,000 people off extended jobless benefits that can last up to 99 weeks, says Sharon Parks of the Michigan League for Human Services.
"We're talking about 11 hundred people a day every day for the next several months - between December and April. That's the magnitude of the number across the state," she says.
Parks says many of those people will turn to food banks, shelters, and public assistance for help. But she says many of those agencies are already stretched thin, and the state has not budgeted for a boost in caseloads. For example, she says the state cash assistance program for families who fall far below the poverty line is already over-committed.