Unemployment policy should include New Deal-style work programs

The long-term unemployment benefits Congress passed after the 2008 financial crash expired at the end of December; 1.3 million people immediately lost their benefits, and another 4.9 million people will be affected over the next year. Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg traces the history of unemployment insurance and other policies to help the jobless, concluding that the U.S. needs to revisit the New Deal model of actively putting the unemployed to work.