State labor officials and unemployed workers will be watching state job counts closely over the next few months to see whether Colorado joins the “99ers.”
That refers to longtime unemployed workers who in some states are eligible for a full 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.
Right now, Colorado workers who lose a job through no fault of their own are eligible for a maximum of 93 weeks, although that could soon change.
If Colorado’s unemployment rate, which reached 8.5 percent in November, holds at that level or increases in December and January, then jobless workers in the state will gain another six weeks of benefits.
“If our unemployment rate stays as high as it has been, we will likely trigger . . . in late January,” said Bill Thoennes, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
When workers exhaust their initial 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits, they become eligible for another 34 weeks of federal unemployment benefits.
In states such as Colorado where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent for three consecutive months, they can then claim another 13 weeks of federal benefits.
After those are used up, another two tiers of state extended benefits kick in, one for 13 weeks in all states and a second tier of seven weeks in states where the unemployment rate has averaged above 8 percent.
Colorado crossed that threshold on a seasonally adjusted basis in April and is not far away from reaching the post-Depression high unemployment rate of 8.8 percent reached in late 1982.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
Tiers of benefits
Workers move through several tiers of benefits the longer they remain unemployed:
State regular unemployment benefits
26 weeks
Federal extended benefits
Tier 1: 20 weeks available
Tier 2: 14 weeks available
Tier 3: 13 weeks available
Tier 4: Six more weeks in states with three consecutive months of unemployment above 8.5 percent; Colorado not eligible yet
State extended benefits
Tier 1: 13 weeks
Tier 2: Seven weeks available in states with three consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent; Colorado qualifies
Source: Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
