US Unemployment Benefits: $84 Billion In 2012, Down From $108 Billion In 2011

There are two factors at play here: an improving job scenario, and a change in policy from many states to provide fewer weeks of unemployment beenfits. But the net result is a 22 percent drop in the total unemployment benefits paid out (Source)

How do we digest this number? We can try a weekly average approach: 84 billion USD in 2012 translates to 1.61 billion USD every week. On a population of 300 million, and a 7.6 percent unemployment number, that is a number you would expect.