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The US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the \u201cfiscally irresponsible\u201d decision to end long-term unemployment benefits, a Harvard economist said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Professor Lawrence Katz based his assessment on official forecasts of the impact to the economy of 1.3 million jobless Americans losing benefits<\/p>\n
The benefits, which apply to people who are unemployed for longer than six months, expired last week after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending for the next two years failed to include a reauthorisation of the program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Democrats have launched a sustained push<\/a> to reintroduce the federal program, and a Senate vote on a bipartisan bill to restore the benefits for three months is expected early next week.<\/p>\n On Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives released a state-by-state breakdown<\/a> of Labor Department figures, showing the number of people who lost federal benefits when they expired on Saturday. The 1.3 million affected Americans are losing on average $305 per week. In total, Democrats said $400m had been \u201ctaken out of the pockets\u201d of job seekers across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would mean there is almost a billion dollars we are losing from the economy because of not extending unemployment insurance benefits,\u201d Katz said in a conference call organised by House Democrats.<\/p>\n