Nevada’s Jobless Feel the Sequester

As of this week, unemployment insurance payments going out to more than 20,000 of Nevada’s long-term unemployed shrunk a whopping 59 percent, with the across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration to blame.

It is just one example of how sequestration is starting to have a more powerful effect at the end of the budget year, which officially comes to a close on Sept. 30. Many agencies and offices required to make the mandatory 5 percent cuts, like the state of Nevada, waited to carry them out. They are now rushing to hit their budget targets, necessitating deep cutbacks.

According to data compiled by the National Employment Law Project, states including Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin cut their federally financed Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs soon after sequestration officially hit in March. They were able to make relatively small reductions to checks â€" about 11 percent â€" because the budget pain was spread out over a longer time frame. But many other states waited, and therefore needed to cut more. The single worst-hit state thus far has been Nevada, whose state unemployment rate is the highest in the country at 9.5 percent.

The cuts affect Nevadans who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks, and hit emergency unemployment payments that can last as long as an additional 47 weeks. The average weekly benefit had been about $309, meaning the 59 percent cut would have slashed it to about $127. The 59 percent reduction will last through this month. Come October, the new fiscal year begins, and sequestration should cut about 8 percent off the emergency jobless payments before the entire federally financed program expires at the end of the calendar year.

It’s not just unemployment programs that are feeling the pinch, either. The cuts that many school districts absorbed are coming into full effect this week, as teachers and students return to class. And on top of the cuts, hundreds of state, local and federal offices that rely on dollars from Washington are dealing with significant budget uncertainty: The continuing resolution financing the government runs out on Oct. 1, and there is no obvious solution to the budget impasse in Congress.