Unemployment Benefits Drying Up For Thousands Of City Residents
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Two state agencies are looking to help New Yorkers who may be reaching the end of their unemployment benefits.
The Department of Labor and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance say 56,000 people, including more than 27,000 city residents, are in danger of exhausting their Unemployment Insurance benefits.
The groups want to remind people there are other programs to help them, including Food Stamps and the home energy assistance program.
People are also encouraged to visit career centers.
"People are getting laid off from jobs, they're disappearing, I mean they're not going to be able to go back to that same old job. And as they really need to think about retraining, and re-skilling to the emerging jobs, so that's why I think that the training services and the career counseling services at the one stops, are so critical in this economic environment," said State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith.
The commissioners also talked about the expansion of the gas card program, which helps the unemployed cover transportation costs while looking for work.
The program will be available to job seekers in the five boroughs from mid-May through the end of June.
For more information, visit mybenefits.ny.gov.