1.3M Losing Unemployment Benefits Saturday

More than a million Americans who have been out of work for long periods of time are bracing for their long-term unemployment benefits to expire this weekend. The emergency benefits, instituted during the 2008 recession, let many people collect unemployment for up to 99 weeks while looking for a job — but lawmakers, after extending the program 11 times, failed to reach an agreement this time around to keep it going. A bipartisan team of senators is pushing for a short-term fix once Congress returns in January — but in the meantime, Americans who haven't been able to find work since getting laid off are fretting about losing their homes, or worse. One single mom who was laid off from a non-profit in 2012 told NBC News that she's been applying for minimum-wage jobs to no avail. "I couldn't have survived this long without an unemployment benefit," she said.

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