|
President Barack Obama just signed a 20-week extension of unemployment benefits into law on the same day the national employment rate was reported at 10.2 percent, the highest rate since the early 1980s.
Several thousand West Virginians will benefit.
West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Director Mike Moore said, "Currently, we have some 4,000 people on extended benefits... If they fail to find a job or go back to work, they qualify for these additional weeks."
But there is some kind of a catch, Moore says.
"We have folks now that are on extended benefits. We have some folks that are on emergency unemployment compensation, what we call Tier 2. This would provide a Tier 3 and a Tier 4 as long as our total unemployment rate remains above 8.5 percent."
West Virginia will likely remain above the 8.5 percent unemployment figure.
The 20-week extension is entirely federally funded.
| 
