Friday’s jobs report is expected to show continued sluggish job growth, with unemployment remaining around 8 percent. Policymakers have never let a federal emergency unemployment insurance (UI) program expire when unemployment was above 7.2 percent, but the current program — through which workers who exhaust their state-funded UI benefits can receive extra weeks of benefits (see map) — is slated to expire in just two months.
If that program (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) expires, jobless workers will receive no UI benefits beyond what states provide, typically for up to 26 weeks — though several states have cut back in recent years.