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May 11, 2012
400,000 Long-Term Jobless Lose Unemployment Insurance as Extended Benefits End in Eight More States
An estimated 236,000 long-term unemployed job-seekers will be abruptly cut-off of federal Extended Benefits this weekend, swelling the ranks of those losing the last 13-to-20 weeks of unemployment insurance to more than 400,000. On Saturday, May 12, eight states fall off the EB program, cutting off the largest number of jobless workers to be hit so far. read more »
May 8, 2012
From Struggling to Make Ends Meet To Struggling to Survive (VIDEO)
Of the nearly 5.3 million workers in America who had been unemployed for 6 months or longer in April, 70 percent had been jobless for a year or more. Older workers, in particular those 55 and over, are suffering from the longest average duration of unemployment -- about 60 weeks, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many older workers face even more extended periods of unemployment. For 60-year old unemployed Chicago mother-of-two Kevin Kalmes, her job search now stretching for more than two years, times have gone from tough to desperate. NBC Nightly News included a brief interview clip with Ms. Kalmes in its Friday broadcast segment on the April jobs report. A 1 min 20 sec web-only video with her is embedded here. read more »
April 4, 2012
Race to the Bottom: Georgia Legislators Approve Severe Cuts to Unemployment Insurance
Workers who are laid off after July 1 in Georgia will face the grim prospect of having their already-meager unemployment insurance benefits drastically curtailed. In the waning minutes of its 2012 session, Georgia’s state legislature last week approved a bill (HB 347) that slashes state unemployment insurance (UI) from the standard 26 weeks to a maximum of 20 weeks, and would further reduce the maximum to as few as 14 weeks depending on Georgia’s unemployment rate. That rate now stands at 9.1 percent, with Georgia tied for the seventh highest rate among the states. Fifty Georgia counties – nearly a third of the state’s total – had average unemployment rates of 12 percent or higher last year. The average duration of unemployment nationally is a near-record 40 weeks, but at most, future jobless workers in Georgia will only be able to receive half of those weeks in regular state benefits. read more »
March 13, 2012
The 2012 Unemployment Insurance Extension: A Detailed Q&A - UPDATE-2 5.10.2012
UPDATE-2: 5.10.2012 [with new state data on projected Extended Benefits (EB) last payment dates.] New legislation authorizing federal unemployment insurance programs for the remainder of 2012 was recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. The new law (Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012) stipulates a number of changes to the federal UI programs, including phased-in changes in the number of weeks of available benefits and some new unemployment rate triggers for certain tiers of the extensions. It is an even more complicated program now than it was before. And, thus far, some state agencies that administer the program have been slow to update unemployment insurance claimants about the changes. Here, we’ll try to clear up at least some of the confusion and answer some of the most important questions about what’s happening with unemployment insurance – Q&A style. read more »
March 12, 2012
Despite Improving Job Growth, Older Workers Struggle With Long-Term Unemployment
The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in February, continuing a string of steadily improving employment reports from the Labor Department. Job gains have topped 200,000 in each of the last three months, and private sector job growth over the last twelve months is the strongest in five years. Still, 12.8 million workers are currently unemployed, with 5.4 million jobless for 27 weeks or more. Among the long-term unemployed, a disproportionate number are older workers who tend to suffer even longer durations of unemployment, and face severe barriers to job opportunities. read more »
March 12, 2012
MSNBC: Discriminatory Job Market Practices and Long-Term Unemployment (VIDEO)
Melissa Harris-Perry, host of a new weekend morning show on MSNBC, explored the need to address discriminatory job market practices that exclude unemployed job-seekers from employment opportunities, and how those practices exacerbate both the persistent crisis of long-term unemployment and the difficulty of finding good jobs. She was joined Saturday by Joe Carbone and Melanie Douglas-Seawright of the 'Platform to Employment (P2E)' in southwestern Connecticut, a jobs program for those who've exhausted unemployment insurance that was featured last month on CBS News' 60 Minutes. read more »