Extended unemployment benefits help about 250 in region

By Rodney L. Sherman, Clarion News Editor

HARRISBURG - Local residents who exhausted their state unemployment benefits likely were relieved when Gov. Ed Rendell earlier this month signed legislation allowing those people to draw an additional seven weeks of payments.

The extensions will benefit about 250 people in the four-county region.

According to state Department of Labor and Industry information, the move meant about 60 Clarion County residents were able to receive another seven weeks of benefits averaging about $282 per week.

With the extension, Pennsylvanians who are out of work through no fault of their own may qualify for up to 79 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Individuals who are eligible for the additional extended benefits were automatically notified by mail with instructions on how to file for the additional benefits.

In Venango County, the extension will help about 90 people receiving an average weekly benefit of $261.

In Jefferson County, extended benefits will help about 90 people with an average of about $295 per week.

And, in Forest County, the extended benefits apply to about 10 people receiving about $251 per week.The extended benefits are federally funded through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for workers laid off by private-sector and nonprofit employers.

Because the benefits are federally funded, the extension will have no effect on the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. More than 30 other states have adopted similar legislation.

According to the Keystone Research Center and based on state Department of Labor and Industry statistics, unemployment has steadily increased in the four-county region from June 2008 to June 2009.

In Clarion County, unemployment climbed from between 5 and 6 percent in June 2008 to between 9 and 10 percent this June.

In Venango County during the same period, unemployment grew from between 5 and 6 percent to between 8 and 9 percent this year.

In Jefferson County, the unemployment rate grew from between 5 and 6 percent in June 2008 to more than 10 percent in June 2009.

In Forest County, unemployment climbed from between 7 and 8 percent in June 2008 to between 9 and 10 percent this June.

According to its website, the Keystone Research Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that promotes a more prosperous and equitable Pennsylvania economy.

The Keystone Research Center asserts this recession also has disproportionately impacted rural Pennsylvania, which has seen the largest increases in unemployment rates during this downturn.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, the unemployment rate in rural portions of the Commonwealth was 4.9 percent, compared to 4.4 percent in urban areas.

By the second quarter of 2009, the overall unemployment rate in rural portions of Pennsylvania, at 8.9 percent, was a full percentage point higher than the urban rate.