NASHVILLE – Manuel Smith, of Soddy-Daisy, says he has been in a slow-motion downward spiral after Tennessee officials let federal extended unemployment benefits end for him and thousands of other longtime jobless people on April 16.
“I’ve been sitting here without any cash in my pocket for weeks, begging,” said Smith, unable to find work since he was laid off from his forklift-driving job during the recession. “I’m 61 years old. You can’t get no job.”
But Smith and as many as 28,000 other unemployed Tennesseans are now getting some help from the state. Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday signed into law a bill restoring federally funded relief for longtime jobless Tennesseans.
The federal program provides an additional 20 weeks of benefits after 26 weeks of state benefits and 53 weeks of other federal aid runs out.
Tennessee’s unemployment rates stood at 9.6 percent in April. The Commercial Appeal of Memphis this week reported that nine of the state’s 10 metropolitan statistical areas made up nearly half the cities nationwide where unemployment rose in April.