WASHINGTON – A Senate measure to extend federal unemployment benefits failed by two votes Thursday despite the election year support of 12 Republicans from states hit hard by layoffs.

Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted in support of the bill.

Democrats tried to attach the amendment to a gun liability bill, but it failed 58-39 in the GOP-controlled Senate.

The measure would have extended the emergency benefits program for six months, providing 13 weeks of extra unemployment benefits to people who exhaust their state benefits – usually after 26 weeks.

The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent last month from a high of 6.4 percent last summer, but the economy still is not producing many new jobs. In fact, more than 2,400 U.S. employers reported laying off 50 or more workers in January, according to the Labor Department. It was the third-highest level since the government started tracking mass layoffs a decade ago.

Democrats are seizing on the troubled job market to boost their election prospects in November. Some Republicans think that they might be vulnerable.

Those concerns led 39 Republicans to break rank last month to support a benefits extension in the House.

“This vote sends a clear message to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that we cannot keep ignoring the needs of Americans displaced by this faltering economy,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.