Companies Keep People to Be Fired With State Work Share

Some states are adding a new twist to the old concept of unemployment insurance: Paying to keep Americans in their jobs rather than giving them cash when they lose them.

Washington state has subsidized incomes for dental technicians and plumbers while Rhode Island paid factory and health care workers when their employers couldn’t. Almost 460,000 jobs have been saved through such arrangements since 2008, the Labor Department estimates, and federal funding approved last year has more states signing on.