Jobless Rate Holds Steady

So the good news is fewer jobs than expected were lost in February, but the not-so-great news is that the jobless rate held steady at 9.7 percent.

How is this possible? Well, even though employers shed 10,000 more jobs last month than they did in January (36,000 as compared to just 26,000,) they also started to hire again, resulting in no net change in the jobless rate. Still, economists were expecting as many as 68,000 people to lose their jobs because of the bad weather across the Northeast and the Midwest, which ground a lot of business to a halt, so things are better than expected.

"The job market was strong enough to withstand the avalanche of snow that hit a major part of the country in February," Alan Krueger, chief economist at the Treasury Department, told ABC News.

Still, for many Americans, layoffs earlier in the downturn have led to chronic unemployment and many are about to see their benefits run out. More than 11 million Americans are collecting unemployment insurance benefits, reports ABC, paid for by a mix of state and federal money. As much as 40 percent of those have collected benefits for at least six months.

Currently, there are three unemployment benefits programs. State-paid benefits last about 26 weeks, and amount to a few hundred dollars a week (which is taxable income). Once those benefits expire, those who remained unemployed qualify for extended federal benefits, followed, finally, by an extended benefits program, for up to 20 weeks.

Luckily, President Obama signed the $10 billion appropriation bill into law Tuesday, which not only covers the cost of extended unemployment benefits, but also includes tax incentives for employers who hire new workers.

Photo by Moriza via Flickr.