LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Earlier this year house bill 4 passed changing the time range of unemployment insurance. The number of weeks granted is based on the state's unemployment average in a certain quarter. Before house bill 4, claimants could get up to 26 weeks. Now, that number is between 12 and 24 weeks. If three months averages below 4.5%, claimants get a maximum of 12 weeks of benefits.
Policy director, Dustin Pugel, with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, says, "Kentuckians have been able to depend on 26 weeks of benefits while they look for a job that matches their skills, that provides for their family, that has a similar pay as their last job did -- but house bill 4 changes that for the first time."
Yesterday the Kentucky Center for Statistics released the state's unemployment rate for September 2022 – which is at 3.8%. Making July, August, and September's average 3.6%. Now, claimants can expect to get that maximum of 12-weeks of insurance from January through June of next year. Pugel says the change in unemployment insurance will disproportionately impact certain groups.
He explains, "What we're concerned about is that we're going to end up discriminating against rural counties, black Kentuckians, and other Kentuckians who have a harder time landing a job, than say other types of workers in central Kentucky."
Jubilee Jobs in Lexington helps people with employment. A lot of their clients have barriers to employment including substance and criminal records. They provide resources, training, and connections -- that give people more opportunities.
Executive Director Mason King, says they assist clients, "Where they can make ends meet and make sure that they and their families are provided for, so i think we're going to see in 2023, when these changes take effect, that there's gonna be an increased need for workforce development partners to make resources available so that they can help people be able to find quality jobs and find them quickly."
With talk of a recession in the headlines. Pugel says house bill 4's suitability standard which can in some cases reduce salaries nearly by half could prevent workers from being able to provide for themselves and their families during an economic downturn including layoffs.
He says, "When businesses are laying off and they're not hiring, you have folks who are jobless that want to be able to work, that are able to work, that have the skills to work, but are just not able to find the jobs."
Pugel says some Kentuckians insurance can get cut as low as six weeks which is a more than 70% decrease from 26 weeks.
"In that way Kentucky really is singular. I mean there really isn't another state that provides just six weeks of benefits, and it is, it's gonna be crushing for a lot of folks when they really face that for the first time starting in January,” says Pugel.
