Reid, labor secretary discuss $25.6M for state’s jobless

By Brian Eckhouse

Monday, June 8, 2009 | 1:49 p.m.

The Labor Department formally announced today that Nevada will get $25.6 million in stimulus dollars toward unemployment benefits.

The state also will get $34.1 million toward a number of social programs, including $5.5 million for administrative costs of funding unemployment insurance, $14.3 million for dislocated workers and $3.4 million for state employment programs.

“This is not only beneficial for workers, but it’s good for the state’s economic recovery,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a midday conference call with reporters.

Nevada has an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, more than a point higher than the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the unemployed need more money during an economic downturn some have labeled The Great Recession.

“People won’t be putting it in their savings accounts,” he said. “They’ll be spending it because they’re broke.”

Under the $787 billion stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama in mid-February, Nevada will get at least $1.5 billion. Thus far, Nevada has received less than $300 million.