Even less for jobless

POST FALLS - Amy Szafransky remembers exactly what she thought, when she opened the letter announcing that her extended unemployment benefits would be reduced.

"Oh, crap," she said.

The Rathdrum mother of two, unemployed for a year, is one of 6,000 Idaho claimants who will see their extended unemployment benefits, and extension balance, cut by 10.7 percent.

The reduction starts with recipients' March 31 weekly payment, and will last at least through the week of Sept. 22.

The slimmed benefits are the result of federal budget cuts, or sequestration, the Idaho Department of Labor announced on Thursday.

"There's that much less money available to finance extended benefits through the end of September," explained Bob Fick, Labor spokesman.

For Szafransky, who has a teenager and a 2-year-old child, this means further belt tightening on basic living expenses that unemployment checks have covered.

"I'll be trimming, for sure," she said on Thursday, when she sat at the Post Falls Department of Labor office to job search online. "(The checks have been) very helpful. At least it's something helping my family."

It also means she'll step up her job search, she added, though the unemployed customer service representative hasn't succeeded so far.

"Hard," she said of what it's like finding office work. "You're up against a lot of people."

The extended benefits program adds an extra 10 to 28 weeks of unemployment payments, beyond the regular 10 to 26 weeks.

The average weekly unemployment benefits check in Idaho is $250. It will be $25 less a week, with the reduction.

The more than 17,000 jobless workers receiving state benefits between just 10 and 26 weeks aren't affected by the shaved benefits.

But claimants who transition from regular to extended benefits, at least through the end of September, will be collecting smaller checks.

There are 520 extended benefits claimants receiving checks in Kootenai County.

It isn't certain whether the benefits will be fully restored after September, Fick said.

"What happens in the budget debate beginning in October is still undetermined," he said. "They haven't decided what spending will be at the federal level for the next fiscal year."

Of course the reduction will leave a dent in claimants' quality of life, Fick added.

"That's 10.7 percent less they'll have to pay their bills, buy goods, pay the rent," he said.

While the economy is timidly recovering, he noted, there are still roughly 48,000 unemployed. That doesn't count those who are underpaid, or working part-time when they desire full-time.

"The competition for jobs is still pretty intense," Fick said. "That's the reason there are extended benefits. Because it's taking people more time to find work."

That's been the case for Toni Gordon, laid off in January from a job she had held for eight years.

Filling out an application for janitorial work on Thursday, the 64-year-old predicted she will probably end up collecting extended unemployment benefits.

"You can't get a job. It's not for lack of trying," Toni said.

"We'll have to go to North Dakota," joked her husband, Ryan, who said the Post Falls couple now wonders how to afford a new roof and water heater. "It's been quite a change."

But Eric Cobb had a brighter forecast of his employment future.

The Post Falls man, who lost his security guard job on Friday, was grateful to already be on unemployment, covering living expenses for himself and his unemployed wife.

But as Cobb clicked on job openings at a Department of Labor computer, he vowed he would never need extended benefits.

"I'm going to find a job," he said. "I truly believe that."