More than 50,000 jobless Ohioans will be among the first fall over the fiscal cliff if Congress does not include an extension of long-term unemployment benefits as part of any compromise.

Today is the deadline for the extended benefits program to end unless Congress acts, cutting off benefits for more than 2 million Americans overall, according to the latest U.S. Department of Labor estimates.

Throngs of Ohioans claiming jobless benefits were left in the dark Friday as fiscal cliff negotiations came to a standstill.

“We’re getting a lot of calls and questions,” said Ben Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

He urged claimants to continue to file for benefits for at least the next three weeks, which would allow the department to distribute extended benefits faster if Congress reauthorizes the program retroactively, as it has done in the past.

Unemployed Ohioans may now receive up to an additional 37 weeks of federally paid benefits on top of their regular 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits. But without Congressional intervention, long-term unemployed workers will receive their final benefits payments next week.

That could have a broad economic impact on the state, said Schiller, who noted Ohio has distributed $788 million in federally paid long-term jobless benefits through the first nine months of 2012.

“That’s $788 million not being spent…not going to grocery stores, to landlords, to utility companies,” he said. “To think that would have no impact on the economy is simply as misnomer.”

Read more about those in jeopardy in Ohio:

Fiscal cliff effect on local:   Agriculture  |  Health care  |  National security  | Local/state governments  |  Jobless benefits  |  Financial markets  |  K-12 education  | Colleges and universities

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