The new 24 billion dollar stimulus bill includes a fourteen week extension of unemployment payments, but an additional six weeks for states with an unemployment rate of 8.5 or higher. Missouri is one of those at 9.5%.

For many job seekers, life would be even more difficult without weekly unemployment payments. "It's helping with everything I need- food. Without that, I wouldn't have anything, because I've been looking for work. There's nothing," says Patricia Dexheimer.

Dexheimer has been receiving unemployment payments for about a year now, after getting laid off from the Petit Jean plant in Buffalo. She, like thousands of others report to the Missouri Career Center every four weeks.

"I just got the letters, actually, a couple days ago, saying you need to start reporting," says Jenelle Johnson.

The news of a 20 week extension is good news for the unemployed and the economy. Missouri State University Economics Professor, Doctor Tom Wyrick says, "It's not just the people that get that money. It's where they spend it. If you got to the store and buy some Velveeta cheese, that shows up as sales for Kraft, and people at Kraft- their jobs are going to be more secure."

So, if job seekers like Patricia can still buy groceries, perhaps the unemployment rate in the Ozarks region won't go much higher than the current 8.4% But Dr. Wyrick says jobs come after economic improvement. "The economy did gain strength in the third quarter, July, August, September. But we can expect for unemployment to maybe go on up for another 2, 3, 4 months, and then, we can also expect it will be a while before unemployment starts coming down," Wyrick says.

But as stressed as they are about finding work, at least job seekers know they have some time, before the payments run out. "Anything that would pay, I'd be probably willing to do," says Dexheimer.

"I know I have that long, but I'm hoping it won't take nearly that long to find a job," says Johnson.

With Missouri's regular unemployment of 26 weeks, plus a federal extension of 33 weeks, another 20 week state extension for those that exhaust their other benefits by December 19th, plus the additional 20 weeks allowed by the federal bill signed Friday, some folks could get up to 99 weeks of unemployment payments- almost 2 years.