More than 70 percent of unemployed Illinoisans did not receive state benefits in 1988, according to a report released Tuesday in Washington.
Illinois gave payments to 48.1 percent of jobless residents in 1979, but last year supplied aid to only 27.6 percent of the unemployed, said the report, prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The report said 283,900 people did not receive benefits in 1988.
Only Texas-488,100-and California-415,500-had more people who were out of work and without unemployment benefits last year, the nonprofit research organization said. Nationwide, of the 6.7 million workers unemployed in an average month in 1988, only 2.1 million of them-31.5 percent-were getting benefits.
The drop in jobless benefits can be linked to increases in long-term unemployment and to new policies that have eliminated payments to most people who have been out of work for long periods, the report said.
