The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development is encouraging about 30,000 state residents who have been getting extended federal unemployment benefits to hop online and search for jobs around the state. Those benefits will expire Jan. 2, meaning the unemployed will go back to getting a maximum of 26 weeks of benefits coverage.

Blake Farmer has touched base with the Tennessee Department of Labor about the upcoming expiration of extended unemployment benefits for 39,000 people across the state. Starting with the new year, they will very likely no longer get the extra cash from the federal government. Nashville's unemployed, which totaled more than 53,000 in September, account for about 22 percent of the state's jobless. Based on that ratio, about 8,800 people in Middle Tennessee will be affected by the end of extended benefits.