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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

The Recovery Act’s Best-Kept Secret, Cont.

In an earlier post, I explained that the TANF Emergency Fund is helping to place some 180,000 low-income parents and youth who would otherwise be unemployed into paid jobs in the private and public sectors. The table below lists the estimated number of jobs in most of the 35 states that are operating jobs programs (or are planning to) using the fund.

But as I noted, most of those jobs will disappear by September 30 (and in many cases much sooner) unless Congress extends the fund. The tax “extenders” bill the House is likely to consider this week would extend the fund for a year — a sensible step given that unemployment is likely to remain high for some time.

State Estimates of the Number of TANF ECF Subsidized Job Placements by September 30, 2010
State Number of Placements Planned through September 30, 2010 Comments
Alabama 500
Arkansas 600
California 35,000 Includes 15,000 summer youth in Los Angeles
Delaware 66
Colorado 1,600
Connecticut a
District of Columbia a
Florida 10,425
Georgia 20,000 Includes 15,000 youth, ages 14-18
Hawaii a
Illinois 15,000
Kentucky 1,000
Maryland 100
Michigan a
Minnesota 800
Mississippi 3,500
Montana 265
New Jersey 1,500
New York 5,000
North Carolina 2,000
North Dakota 350
Ohio a
Oklahoma 2,100 Includes 1,500 summer youth
Oregon a
Pennsylvania 20,000
Rhode Island 2,000
South Carolina 1,400
Tennessee 1,150
Texas 51,000 Includes 27,000 summer youth
Utah 2,000
Vermont a
Virginia a
Washington 5,140
West Virginia 1,200
Wisconsin 2,500
Total 186,196