WASHINGTON, US - With jobless numbers soaring and year-end holidays close at hand, the US Senate on Wednesday voted to extend unemployment benefits and expand a vastly popular tax credit for homebuyers.

Senators voted 98-0 for the measure, which now heads to the House of Representatives, where lawmakers are expected to approve it as early as Thursday and send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

The legislation allows workers in all 50 US states to get 14 more weeks of unemployment benefits, while those in states with jobless rates over 8.5 percent would be able to draw an additional six weeks for a total of 20.

It would also extend an 8,000-dollar tax credit for first-time homebuyers, which had been due to expire November 30, and expand the benefit to some other homeowners.

Supporters say the credit has helped buoy the battered US housing market. The Senate acted after news showing the US private sector shed 203,000 jobs in October, the seventh month in a row that employment declines were smaller than in the previous month.

The survey from payrolls firm ADP, a snapshot of non-farm private employment that offers a clue on the direction of the US labor market, comes ahead of Friday's official October labor market data, expected to show the unemployment rate rising to 9.9 percent.

The ADP survey added support to indications that job losses are slowing as the economy pulls out of a steep recession that began in December 2007.