ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Labor announced that some recipients of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) in Georgia will lose extended unemployment benefits after Saturday. EUC was established in 2008 to aid the long-term unemployed.

Georgia will “trigger off” EUC’s Tier 4 unemployment insurance program during the week ending July 7 because the state’s jobless rate has declined in the last three months, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Georgia’s jobless rate was 9.0 percent in March, but declined to 8.9 percent in April and May.

Federal law mandates that a state in which EUC is provided must have a three-month seasonally adjusted unemployment average of 9.0 percent to remain “on” in Tier 4. The last three months dropped Georgia’s three-month average below 9.0 percent.

As a result of “triggering off,” the week ending July 7 will be the last week EUC claimants can exhaust Tier 3 benefits and establish Tier 4 eligibility. However, under provisions of the phase-out, claimants who establish Tier 4 by July 8 will be eligible to receive the remainder of Tier 4 either until benefits exhaust or the EUC program ends on December 29, 2012.

For additional information, visit the GDOL Web site at www.dol.state.ga.us.