Christie to consider unemployment benefits extension

Sitting on Chris Christie’s desk right now, likely next to the morning paper, a cup of coffee and paperweight in the shape of New Jersey, is a bill that would extend unemployment benefits.

Passed by the Assembly and the Senate, the bill would extend benefits for most of 2011, the Associated Press reports, provided the state’s unemployment rate equals or exceeds 110 percent of the jobless rates for the same periods in 2008 or 2009.

For those periods, New Jersey’s unemployment rate was between 4.2 percent and 6 percent — below the state’s current 9.1 percent. Those numbers make an extension likely if Christie passes the law.