Nearly 4,000 Mainers received their last unemployment checks this week because Congress continues to debate legislation that would extend payments. The Maine Department of Labor says calls continue to come in from out-of-work Mainers concerned about how they'll pay their bills.

The number of Mainers who'll no longer receive federal unemployment insurance checks is growing. "Upwards of 3,900 people have received their last benefit payment. In addition we're going to see probably about 1,400 people a week exhausting in the near future, probably over the last couple of months," says Ned McCann, deputy commissioner at the Maine Department of Labor.

McCann says those most at risk of losing benefits immediately are people who are at or nearing the end of either their regular state benefits or one of four federal extensions.

"There have been several extensions and that gets a little confusing," he says. "But folks who are going to be exhausting, they have been out of work for awhile -- up to 93 weeks for some of these folks, you know, close to 2 years. These are people for whom savings are most likely to have been depleted or nearly depleted. These are folks who generally speaking are most likely to have had to live on their credit card for awhile. So people are going to be very, very hard hit by a lack of another extension."

The state is informing those people who are going to stop receiving checks. Before the extended benefits programs ran out, the state was seeing about $9 million a week in unemployment benefits pumping up Maine's economy.

"Other folks who will be concerned about the lack of another extension will be landlords, people who are waiting for utility bills to be paid, general assistance offices and other forms of public assistance that people will be forced to turn to, food banks," McCann says. "So it's a pretty serious multiplier effect in the economy."

McCann encourages unemployed Mainers to visit one of the 12 Career Centers located around the state. He says there are 2,700 jobs open right now.
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The United States Senate has not yet voted on its version of the bill to extend benefits through the end of November. On Wednesday, a procedural vote to move forward on the bill failed to get the necessary 60 votes. All four members of Maine's congressional delegation have said they are in favor of extending unemployment benefits.