How Many Weeks of Unemployment do I get?

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If you're wondering just how many weeks of unemployment you're eligible for, the people at the center of budget and policy on priorities produced this interesting chart that shows that much of the nation is able to receive 99 weeks of unemployment checks.

Many states such as Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois get the full 99 weeks of payments. Other states such as Wisconsin, Texas and New York get 93 weeks of unemployment benefits; while the dakotas and Nebraska get the least---60 weeks (which really isn't all that bad because it's still over a year of subsidies).

Illinois' June Unemployment Rate tops 10%

The ranks of the unemployed in Illinois swelled to 10.3% in June 2009---That's 0.8 percentage points greater than the national average (9.5%) for the same month.

The state lost 5,400 construction jobs and 2,800 manufacturing jobs in June. The total number of unemployed Illinoisans in June was 683,300. That's more than in any month since November 1983.

9.4% of Illinois Workers Are Jobless

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Illinois' unemployment rate climbed to 9.4% in April 2009--That's up 0.4 percentage points from March 2009 and up 3.2% points from April-2008's 6.2% rate---That means in one short year, there are 50%+ more unemployed workers in Illinois looking for work thant what there was in the prior year.

Illinois' unemployment rate at 9.1% in March 2009

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The State of Illinois has posted a 9.1% unemployment rate for March 2009---This is up a half percentage point from February's 8.6%---And the bls has restated the entire prior 12 months (some up, some down, some the same).

This unemployment rate is worse than the national average (8.5%) and the worst that Illinois has seen about a quarter of a century.

Many Areas in Illinois are seeing double-digit unemployment

According to the Chicago Tribune the state of Illinois saw unemployment rates rise in every single metro area during the month of February.

In February, the state's unemployment rate was 8.6%---With Rockford, IL having the state's highest rate (14%) followed closely by Kankakee-Bradley (12%) and Danville, IL (11%). Decatur, IL rounds out the Illinois metro areas with double-digit unemployment rates (10%).

Things are the rosiest in the Bloominton-Normal area, where the unemployment rate is 6.4 percent.

13 States won't get Tier 3 unemployment benefits

According to the San Francisco Gate there are some states that have laws on the books that prevent them from being able to give the jobless an additional 20 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that were included in the Obama stimulus package.

According to the story:

The states are Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Tennessee.

These 10 States have the Highest Rates of Unemployment

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data today for the January, 2009 unemployment rates by state... These 11 states have the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rates in the U.S.

1. Michigan ---11.6%
2. South Carolina -- 10.4%
3. Rhode Island -- 10.3%
   
4. California--10.1%
5. Oregon -- 9.9%
   
6. North Carolina --9.7%
7. Nevada -- 9.4%
   
8. Indiana -- 9.2%
9. Ohio -- 8.8%
   
10. Florida -- 8.6%
11. Georgia -- 8.6%
    
12. Tennessee -- 8.6%

To compound the issues 23 states experienced at least a 1 percentage point increase in unemployment in one month---And EVERY STATE experienced an increase in unemployment (December 2008 vs. January 2009)---Clearly the unemployment trend is geographically broad and deep.

These 15 states have the highest rates of unemployment

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics these 15 states had the highest levels of unemployment in the United States during December 2008. Each of these states also had levels of unemployment that exceed the US average unemployment rate in December, 2008 (7.2%).

They were:

• Michigan 10.6%
• Rhode Island 10.0%
• South Carolina 9.5%
• California 9.3%
• Nevada 9.1%
• Oregon 9.0%
• Washington DC 8.8%
• North Carolina 8.7%
• Florida 8.1%
• Georgia 8.1%
• Mississippi 8.0%
• Tennessee 7.9%
• Kentucky 7.8%
• Ohio 7.8%
• Illinois 7.6%
  

Unemployment rate rises throughout the US

A reader recently sent me this article that was posted on careerbuilder that gives some pretty interesting statistics on the current unemployment situation in the United States.

The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics* showed six states recording rates of 9 percent or more. Overall, 10 states had significantly higher jobless rates than the average and 18 had similar rates. Michigan recorded the highest unemployment rate at 10.6 percent, followed closely by Rhode Island at 10.0 percent.

The largest numerical decrease in employment since November 2008 was in California, which lost 78,200 jobs, followed by Michigan, New York, Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina, respectively. Idaho saw the largest percentage cut in employment since December 2008 (1.6 percent), followed by Michigan, Hawaii and Indiana.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia had considerable jobless rate increases since December 2007. Rhode Island had the highest rate increase over the year (4.5 percent), followed by Arizona and Idaho (4.3 percentage points each), Michigan (4.1 percentage point each) and Indiana(3.7 percent). Nine other states and the District of Columbia recorded increases of 3 percentage points or more since December 2007 and 36 states had smaller, but still significant, increases.

Unemployment rate by state--December 2008

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The unemployment rate by state continued to get worse in December, 2008. In fact every state experienced an increase in the unemployment rate from November 2008 to December 2008. Looking at the map above you can see things are worse in the gray states--10%+ Unemployment (Michigan & Rhode Island). And things are pretty bad in the purple states as well--7 - 9.9% unemployment rate--(Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine.)

Caterpillar to layoff 20,000 | Sprint to layoff 8,000

Caterpillar will be laying off ~20,000 employees according to a press release issued today. The Illinois based company is predicting that 2009 will be the toughest year since the end of WWII.



Sprint-Nextel today announced that they will be laying off 8,000 workers. The Missouri based company hopes to save over $1 billion in costs.

Which States are eligable for Tier 2 Unemployment Benefits

According to this site as of 12/28/2008, there are 22 states that are eligible for extended unemployment insurance benefits and a handful of others that are about to have UIC benefits begin. The Tier 2 benefits come when there has been an unemployment rate of over 6% for 3 months.

Specifically, the states which currently have Tier 2 unemployment insurance benefits are:

• Alaska
• California
• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Washington

Additionally, Arizona, New Jersey and the US Virgin Islands will have Tier 2 benefits beginning in 2009

Motorola to Layoff 4,000

According to a press release this afternoon Motorola is going to be laying off 4,000 people in 2009.

"Motorola will further reduce its workforce in 2009 by approximately 4,000 positions. This reduction will include approximately 3,000 positions associated with the Mobile Devices business and approximately 1,000 positions associated with corporate functions and other business units. The workforce reductions announced today are expected to begin immediately and are incremental to the 3,000 workforce reduction actions previously announced during the fourth quarter of 2008."

This will hurt Illinois unemployment rate---which was at 7.3% in October & November, 2008

Maximum Unemployment Insurance Benefit by State

Today Business Week published a slide show that shows the Maximum Unemployment Insurance Benefit by state. I decided to show the "Top-10" and "Bottom-10" states, according to Business Week.

*Note---Some States had a range for "Maximum Benefits", but most had a single value. Massachusetts for example was shown as "$600 - $900/week"---I have plotted, the high end of the range. I believe that some states may pay more to people with families than to single workers with no dependents.

Illinois Unemployment Rate Statistic of the day

As you can see in the chart below the unemployment rate for the state of Illinois has jumped by 200bps in the past year to 7.3%.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for the "Chicago-Naperville-Joliet" area was slightly lower than that of the entire state at 6.9% in October-2008.



If you're unemployed in the state of Illinois, you should check out http://www.ides.state.il.us/ for up-to-date information on how to file for unemployment insurance.