Before this year, Ken Gibson always has been able to find work fixing computers or doing maintenance or construction jobs.
But since he was laid off from his pipe-fitting job at Jake Marshall Services in March, the 52-year-old Chattanoogan has had to rely upon his $207 weekly jobless benefit check from the government.
“I’ve never seen it this bad; it’s been a miserable year for my wife and [me],” Gibson said after searching for work again last week at the Tennessee Career Center in Chattanooga. “I don’t know what I’ll do when my benefits run out.”
Gibson is among more than 125,000 unemployed people in Tennessee and Georgia who could lose their extended jobless benefits this winter unless Congress approves an extension. Nationwide, nearly 2 million Americans could lose their extended benefits by the end of the year.
Before the Thanksgiving break, the U.S. House of Representatives fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to fast-track another extension. Republicans objected to the $12.5 billion cost of another three-month extension without cutting spending elsewhere. Benefits will begin to expire Wednesday.