SYRACUSE -- For most of the past year, Mike Boyzuck's job has been to look for a job. He lost his position at a local hospital and found twelve months of stress and uncertainty about the future."Even at home life - you just toss and turn and try to lay there and sleep and you think about things," said Boyzuck
Boyzuck has some interviews scheduled and his timing couldn't be better. He's one of thousands of New Yorkers who are about to lose unemployment benefits. Normally unemployment Insurance lasts 26 weeks but several extensions by Congress pushed it to 99 weeks for some. This week, 46,000 New Yorkers will exhaust the last of their unemployment this week. 1,200 are from the Central New York area. The State Department of Labor says some of those who exhausted their benefits may qualify for social services benefits.
Not only are many people seeing their benefits ending, they are also seeing increased competition for open jobs.
"There are six job seekers for every job opening. So even if there was a perfect match in the world right now and we filled all the open positions there would still be five out of six who would be unemployed," said Dennis Donahue from New York State's Department of Labor.
Maria Martinez spent the morning looking for jobs at CNYWorks, a local job assistance center. She said losing her job made her stronger and she's not going to let unemployment keep her down.
"I didn't think I'd be unemployed even this long but as you can see - I'm going to make it happen one way or another."
The status of people who have been on Unemployment Insurance for more than 26 weeks but less than 99 can vary depending on several factors. The New York State Department of Labor website can help people determine their eligibility.
For those who have exhausted all their benefits, the Social Services website can help determine eligibility for several programs.
