MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Florida workers laid off after this week will be out of luck if they were hoping for long-term unemployment benefits from the federal government. Instead, after 23 weeks, workers will receive no aid and all long-term aid ends on January 1, 2012.

For Miami-Dade County, which is battling one of the highest unemployment rates for any county in the country; the loss of the federal extended unemployment runs the risk of further crippling the spending power of county residents who lost their job through no fault of their own.

The reason behind the end of the extended funds is the inaction of the United States Congress. In years past, Congress passed extensions during every recession since the 1950’s, according to the Huffington Post.

But with the libertarian viewpoint taking over the Republican Party, the possibility of the federal government spending any extra money is not encouraging.

The benefits were extended last December in a last-minute deal by Democrats who included two years of tax cuts extensions from the Bush tax cut. When combining the spending with the loss of revenue, it only added to the growing debt problem.

The Labor Department reported that the average unemployed person has been out of work for just fewer than 40 weeks. Unemployment benefits have never dropped with a national unemployment rate above 7.2 percent, according to the Huffington Post.