Long-term unemployed bear brunt of U.S. budget cuts, study says

The long-term unemployed are feeling the brunt of the automatic federal budget cuts that began this spring, according to a state-by-state analysis from the National Employment Law Project.

The New York-based advocacy group said sequestration, government parlance for the budget cuts, reduced the average weekly unemployment benefits payment of $289 by $43.

As the budget cuts rolled out, states began slashing unemployment benefits. The benefits are paid out by the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and affect as many as 3.8 million long-term unemployed people, meaning those unemployed for 26 weeks or more.

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In California, where there are about 355,000 recipients of the federal unemployment benefits, the cuts began taking effect April 28. The weekly percentage cut was about 17.7%, the Employment Law Project said. Those cuts are limited to new claimants and those moving to next tier.

The average weekly benefit in California is $303 -- a 17.7% cut amounts to $54. The maximum benefit of $466 a week will be reduced by $80, the study found.

“These harsh and needless cuts in the federal unemployment benefits the long-term unemployed rely on to get by are a stark testament to Congressional lawmakers’ callous disregard for the hardships being faced by millions of unemployed workers and their families and the senseless logic of the sequester,” said Christine Owens, the group’s executive director.

The think tank singled out North Carolina for its steep cuts. That state, with the country’s fifth-highest unemployment rate of 8.8%, recently opted out of the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program as a way to pay down federal debt more quickly, officials have said.

Beginning Monday, an estimated 70,000 residents in that state will no longer receive the benefits.

The study noted that the sequester does not affect regular state unemployment insurance programs or benefits paid to former federal workers or newly discharged veterans.

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ricardo.lopez@latimes.com