Jobless Fear Looming Cutoff of Benefits WASHINGTON - Mary Helen Gillespie of Londonderry, N.H., is about to lose her last government lifeline. Since being laid off from a large banking firm in April, Ms. Gillespie, 57, has been living on little more than her unemployment insurance payments of $384 a week. She has burned through her savings and moved back in with her parents. "There are times where I'll go two, three, four days where I only have five dollars in my wallet and no money in my checking account," said Ms. Gillespie, who worked as a corporate compliance officer at her previous employer,choking up as she described the difficulty of finding a job, any job, after her second extended period of joblessness since 2007. I've been making decisions such as: Do I buy groceries or do I buy prescriptions? Ms. Gillespie's 26 weeks of state benefits ran out this month, but she remained eligible for the emergency federal unemployment-insurance program, which has provided as many as 73 additional weeks of checks in states with high jobless rates. Unless Congress acts - suddenly and unexpectedly - that recession-era initiative will expire at the end of the month. About 1.3 million current beneficiaries will lose aid. Also affected are an estimated 1.9 million more who would have been eligible for the program in the first half of 2014 after their state benefits ran out. Democrats in Congress are pushing for an extension, which would cost the government an estimated $25 billion through 2014, while providing a modest lift, according to the Congressional Budget Office, to overall economic activity. "If Congress refuses to act, it won't just hurt families already struggling," President Obama said last week. It will actually harm our economy. Unemployment insurance is one of the most effective ways there is to boost our economy. But the bipartisan budget deal introduced by Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, does not include the extension. Republicans contend that they would be willing to negotiate one, if its cost were offset with spending cutbacks elsewhere. But congressional aides described that as unlikely to happen - and certainly not before the end of the year. "We've worked all year to get our economy going again and to help produce better jobs and more wages," John A. Boehner of Ohio, the speaker of the House, told reporters this week. When the White House finally called me last Friday about extending unemployment benefits, I said that we would clearly consider it as long as it's paid for and as long as there are other efforts that'll help get our economy moving once again. I have not seen a plan from the White House that meets those standards. Many Republicans are more adamantly opposed to an extension, on the grounds that unemployment insurance payments tend to lengthen the time a jobless worker remains without work and thus raise the unemployment rate. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, for instance, has argued that another extension of the program would be a "disservice" to the jobless. Economists generally agree that long-term unemployment payments can act as a disincentive for some people by encouraging them to hold out longer for a better job. But most say that the reason the vast majority of the nation's unemployed cannot find work is because of the weak economy. Today, the official unemployment rate stands at 7 percent, with about 11 million Americans looking for work, including four million who have been looking for more than six months. Many millions more have dropped out of the labor force altogether or been forced to take part-time jobs when they want full-time work. Barry Iverson, a 34-year-old online content manager from Washington State, has a college degree and a solid work history. Since getting laid off from a failing start-up in June, he has applied to scores of jobs. "I can't even get a job mopping floors," he said. Mr. Iverson's income dropped by nearly two-thirds when he lost his job and started accepting about $490 a week in unemployment insurance payments. He said that his family had pared back spending to the essentials: things like groceries, gas and utilities. Even then, he said, they have maxed out their credit cards. He carefully watches their bank account to make sure their checks do not bounce. He and his wife, who have two small children, are not sure what they will do if his unemployment insurance payments run out before he can find another job. "It's really tough to think about," he said. "Christmas is just a hurdle to get through," he said. I don't want to call it a stressor, but it's just one of those things where you have to put on your best smile and get through it and try to focus on the positive. For job seekers like Ms. Gillespie and Mr. Iverson, the labor market remains punishing even though the economy has been on a modest upswing for more than four years. The hiring rate has scarcely increased, and competition for positions remains fierce. The unemployment rate has come down mostly because workers are dropping out of the labor force, and businesses are no longer letting large numbers of workers go. Many employers refuse to even look at the résumés of the long-term unemployed, leaving them unable to secure jobs even if they are qualified and willing to work for less. "I've tried for minimum-wage jobs, just to bring some income in," Ms. Gillespie said. I've been told I'm overqualified, and that I wouldn't last because if I got a real job, I'd leave. That means it's just another cycle of hearing no and no and no over and over again. The end of the jobless payments, by removing a modest source of consumer spending, will actually cost the economy jobs. Economists estimate that losing the emergency benefits will reduce economic growth by about 0.4 percentage points in the first quarter of next year below what it otherwise might be. For now, hundreds of thousands of workers are bracing for the imminent loss of the payments. "I was terrified when I found out the payments were ending," Ms. Gillespie said. It is just another kick in the head.