INSTITUTE INDEX: Will NC lawmakers push long-term unemployed off a cliff?

Date on which a North Carolina law takes effect that will end federal extended unemployment benefits for jobless residents: 7/1/2013

As a consequence, number of long-term unemployed North Carolinians who will stop receiving benefits after June 30: 71,000

Total number of North Carolinians who could lose access to unemployment benefits because of the law, which was pushed by the N.C. Chamber, the state's leading business lobby: 170,000

Per-employee annual increase in federal unemployment taxes that businesses were paying -- which the N.C. Chamber said "wasn't sustainable" -- to reimburse the federal government for money borrowed to finance state-funded benefits after unemployment spiked in 2008 following years of unemployment tax cuts: $21

Amount of federal benefits to which unemployed North Carolinians will lose access to under the law: $780 million

North Carolina's current unemployment rate: 8.8

Rank of the state's unemployment rate among the highest in the nation: 5

Rank of the state's unemployment rates for African Americans among the nation's highest: 4

Factor by which the unemployment rate for black North Carolinians exceeds that for whites: more than 2

Maximum number of weeks North Carolinians could receive extended unemployment benefits previously: 78

Number of weeks under the new law: 20

Number of other states that have chosen to end extended unemployment benefits: 0

Under a proposal rejected last week by the N.C. Senate, effective date to which the state law would have been changed, sparing people an abrupt loss of income: 1/1/2014

Estimated amount that the extended federal benefits pump into North Carolina's economy each week: about $20 million

Number of North Carolina advocacy groups that are calling on state lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory to take immediate action to stop the cutoff of extended unemployment benefits: more than 20

(Click on figure to go to source.)