Pennsylvania’s unemployed will become eligible for an extension of their jobless benefits by the end of this week, state officials said Monday.

Those who exhausted their regular unemployment compensation benefits — a maximum of 26 weeks — and exhausted their 13-week federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation assistance will be eligible for as many as 13 weeks of additional state benefits, said Susan Dickinson, director of unemployment compensation policy benefits for the state Department of Labor & Industry.

Jobless workers eligible for the extended benefits will get those benefits for one-half the number of weeks they received the regular unemployment compensation, Dickinson said. If a person was eligible for 21 weeks of benefits based on their previous employment history, Dickson said they would get 10.5 more weeks of unemployment compensation.

Dickinson said she was not certain how many of those who received unemployment benefits might file for the extended benefits because some workers returned to work as businesses reopened. The state has not offered the extended benefits program to the jobless since 2009, Dickinson said.

The state already paid $9.6 billion in regular unemployment compensation benefits, said Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak.

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