Boston Globe: Thousands of Mass. residents to lose jobless benefits
Daniel Hodge, director of the Economic and Public Policy Research group was quoted in a Boston Globe article that looked at the pending expiration of extended jobless benefits, collected by over 1.3 million people, including nearly 60,000 Massachusetts residents.
The federal unemployment benefits, which have helped support consumer spending, have been eliminated just as the plodding economic recovery appears poised to accelerate. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a forecasting firm in West Chester, Pa., said the benefit cuts will suck some $25 billion from the US economy over the next year, slowing job growth the economy desperately needs.
In Massachusetts, the loss of the benefits could further buffet an economy that has seen unemployment rise more than a half-point since spring, to 7.1 percent last month. Hodge estimated that the total economic impact to the state could be a loss of $750 million to $900 million over the year, largely due to reduced consumer spending.
“It will be a drag on the economy,” he said. “Anytime you are not extending this program, which has provided a fairly substantial amount of income benefit to the long-term unemployed, it means less income and spending in the economy and more hardship for those families.”
Read article: Thousands of Mass residents to lose jobless benefits
December 28, 2013
