San José, CA – The Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program, which provides federal aid to jobless workers whose state Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits have run out will expire at the end of 2013. This will cut off 1.3 million unemployed people immediately. Another 800,000 jobless workers who would have qualified for EUC won’t be able to extend their benefits in the first three months of 2014.

Federal EUC and the Extended Benefits (EB) programs were started more than five years ago as the recession which began in December 2007 drove the unemployment rate higher. At the time the EUC started in June of 2008, the official unemployment rate was 5.6%, while the latest report released Dec. 6 on the November 2013 labor market showed a higher national unemployment rate of 7.0%. In June 2008, there were more than 1.5 million long-term unemployed (out of work for more than six months), while last month there were still more than 4 million long term unemployed.

Almost 40% of all the unemployed in November 2013 have been out of work for more than six months. While this is a bit lower than the peak of almost 45% in 2010, it is still far higher than and any previous recession since the Great Depression. In contrast, the next highest percentage of long term unemployed, which followed the 1981-1982 recession, was only about 25%.

Despite the clear need for extending federal EUC program, the House of Representatives, with its Republican leadership, is getting ready to go home for the holidays. But while jobless workers are looking bleakly at a big lump of coal for the holidays, the stock market is hitting new record highs. And why not? The latest report on Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, released on Dec. 5 shows that corporate profits were equal to about 11.1% of GDP. GDP measures the total value of goods and services produced in the U.S. This is a record high and almost twice the average of 6.1% of GDP since 1929.

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