New Unemployment Data: 40,000 NY Jobs, 200,000 NYers At Risk -- Gillibrand Urges Extension Of Emergency Unemployment Assistance

Statement

According to a new report out today from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, New York State would lose more than 40,000 jobs over the next year if Congress fails to extend emergency unemployment assistance. More than 200,000 New Yorkers, who are currently looking for work, could lose their assistance by the end of the year if an extension is not passed.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand issued the following statement urging Congress to pass an extension of emergency unemployment assistance:

"This report shows that if we do not get bipartisan cooperation to pass unemployment assistance then New York's economy could lose 40,000 jobs. Unemployment assistance is not only critical for the families that depend on it, but it has a positive and important effect on our economy.

"What we are seeing right now is failed economic leadership and failed moral leadership. The stonewalling is disastrous for unemployed workers and bad for our entire economy.

"Republicans want to borrow $700 billion from China to extend Bush tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires and simply turn their back on thousands of Americans who are sick and dying from 9/11 related diseases, middle class families who need tax cuts, and 200,000 New Yorkers who will lose unemployment assistance by the end of the year."

Source