In the News

After working for 14 years as a billing specialist, Uzorigwe Alintah has not earned a paycheck for a year. He is among many in the Seattle area and one of 4.1 million nationwide — nearly 40 percent of the 10.9 million jobless — who have been unemployed for more than six months.

This week, Alintah joined another unenviable group: He is among the millions who are out of work but no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Alintah’s weekly unemployment checks are stopping because Congress didn’t renew emergency aid that had stretched the normal 26 weeks of state benefits by additional 37 weeks. Benefits for 25,000 Washington residents and 1.3 million people around the country ran out on Dec. 28.

As a result, only about a quarter of out-of-work Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, the smallest share since such federal record-keeping began in 1950, according to the National Employment Law Project.

“I’m worried, you know. How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to live?” Alintah said Thursday at a round-table in Seattle organized by U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina.

DelBene and her fellow congressional Democrats want to make restoring the expired benefits a political priority as they return from the holiday recess. Senate Democrats are scheduled to hold a vote on a three-month extension Monday.

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