The national unemployment rate currently stands at 7.9 percent.
/ WNWO File
A new Congressional Budget Office report finds unemployed Americans have collected over a half a trillion dollars in state and federal unemployment benefits over the past five years.
The federal safety net is expected to be the subject of intense debate in Congress, which first enacted the federal benefits package in June 2008.
Lawmakers will decide whether to extend the deadline to file for federal benefits beyond the end of the year as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations.
About 55,000 Ohioans are among the long-term unemployed expected to lose jobless benefits which are set to end Dec. 29.
(CNN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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