“With the unemployment rate at 9.1 per cent in August, about 7.3m US workers collect some form of unemployment insurance benefit, according to the National Employment Law Project, with the average weekly benefit just under $300 a week. This compares with 2.8m in December 2007. Typically, state bodies pay 26 weeks of payments of benefits and federal government pays up to 73 weeks more. But as rising unemployment has forced more people to rely on the benefit, state and federal government increasingly want to limit pay-outs.”

Read the full story at The Financial Times