President Barack Obama quietly signed the 20-week extension into law on the same day the national employment rate was reported at 10.2 percent, the highest rate since the early 1980s.

West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Director Mike Moore says Friday’s action will help many state residents.  "Currently, we have some 4,000 people on extended benefits,” Moore said. “If they fail to find a job or go back to work, they qualify for these additional weeks."

But there is a catch according to Moore. "We have folks now that are on extended benefits. We have some folks that are on emergency unemployment compensation, what we call Tier 2. This would provide a Tier 3 and a Tier 4 as long as our total unemployment rate remains above 8.5 percent."

State unemployment figures are due out in a few days and Moore believes West Virginia will remain above the 8.5 percent unemployment figure.

Moore says the 20-week extension is entirely federally funded. “It's not going to cost the state anything at all as far as the actual payments of the benefits,” he said.

Moore says it will give unemployed workers more time to try and find a paycheck in a difficult job market.