Stimulus Unemployment Update: Arizona changes state law to extend jobless benefits 13 weeks; adds another 7 weeks (emergency bens?)…

The Governor has signed the bill to change the trigger to extend UE in AZ….I wish the journOlists would be clear on how many weeks go to extended benefits under this new trigger and if the second part, the 7 weeks is the emergency benefits DOL is tracking triggers on..I am going with yes until we hear otherwise….

PhoenixBusinessJournal:

…The Legislature and Brewer have approved a bill to offer 13 to 20 extra weeks in jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed. The state’s jobless rate stands at 7.8 percent with double-digit unemployment in Pinal County, Yuma and Nogales…

East Valley Tribune:

…Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed legislation that alters state law to extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks once the unemployment rate hits 6.5 percent and stays there for three months. Arizona already is there, having passed that figure in December.

And the law adds another seven weeks on top of that once the jobless rate hits and stays at 8 percent for three months.

The state Department of Commerce already is predicting that the figures for this month, to be released in May, will reach 8 percent. And Dennis Doby, the agency’s senior director of research administration, is saying unemployment will only go up from for the foreseeable future.

Brewer had urged lawmakers to make the change once it was determined that any extra cost will be picked up entirely by the federal government. The funds are part of the stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law in February by President Barack Obama.

Arizona provides 26 weeks of unemployment benefits paid for by a tax on state employers. Other federally funded programs already have extended that another 33 weeks.

Liz Barker, spokeswoman for the Department of Economic Security, said the most immediate beneficiaries will be about 7,000 people who already have exhausted their 59 weeks of payments…