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Democrats have broken a prolonged Republican filibuster in the Senate over extending jobless benefits for long-term unemployed workers, with President Obama signing the benefits into law

Thursday. While Republicans opposed the costly measure, citing the spiralling deficit, Democrats said the extension was the right thing to do both morally and fiscally. (Watch an AP report

about the new bill.) Here's a look at the stats behind the stand-off: 15 MILLION Current number of unemployed U.S. workers SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts

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Months of unemployment that constitute "long-term" unemployment 2 MILLION Number of jobless Americans whose benefits will be restored by the new extension A free daily email with

the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com 7 Weeks since their benefits expired 7 Number of times benefits have been extended since the recession began $34

BILLION Cost of the benefit extension $1.4 TRILLION Current federal deficit 59-39 Senate vote to approve the bill 272-152 House vote to approve the bill 9.5 Official percentage of U.S.

unemployment 5:1 Ratio of unemployed worker per job available 99 Maximum number of weeks of benefits allowed by the bill 26 Number of weeks of benefits that were guaranteed, pre-recession 35

Current average length of unemployment, in weeks SOURCES: Reuters, _Washington Post_ (2), _New York Times_, _The Economist_, _LA Times_