Unemployment > 9% means...importing workers?

Professor Perry asks if there is a correlation between high unemployment benefits and availability of workers? Are long term unemployment benefits causing unemployment to increase? In Washington State where unemployment is above 9%, they recently imported 1,000 workers from Jamaica.

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Question: How much lower than the current 9.9% would the jobless rate in the U.S. be today without the 99-weeks of unemployment benefits that can be as generous as $31,000 per year in some states? There is at least some evidence of "worker shortages" in Washington and Michigan, despite the "worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."