REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

The Real Cost of Unemployment

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Thursday, November 3, 2011 09:20
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Thursday, November 3, 2011 8:13 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

Roughly 32 percent of the 14 million unemployed Americans – or 4.4 million people – were jobless for a year or more, according to a new third quarter report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. That’s a number nearly equal to the population of Louisiana.

Long-term unemployment has nearly doubled since the same period in 2009, the report said. The economic costs of chronic joblessness are much greater than in any previous recession and include the drag on consumer spending, poor credit quality and an overall drag on productivity – all of which hinder economic growth. The problem impacts all age groups. Once older workers lose their jobs, however, they’re the most likely to remain out of work for a year or longer. In the third quarter of 2011, more than 43 percent of unemployed workers older than 55 had been out of work for at least a year.
.....
spending on unemployment in 2011 is about $40 billion below that spent in 2010, when it reached a peak of $159 billion, according to CBO. The slowdown in spending is due to a decline in jobless claims and new legislation in some states that reduce the number of weeks an individual can receive unemployment benefits.

Earlier this year, Michigan cut its unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks in an effort to help plug the state’s $1.4 billion deficit. Michigan was the first state in the country to cut benefits; since then, several other states have followed. Burtless says this effort could “blossom into a huge oak tree” as cash-strapped states try to close massive budget deficits.

While the duration of benefits varies from state to state, most allow a maximum of 26 weeks. After an unemployed individual exhausts his or her standard unemployment benefits, the federally-funded “emergency” compensation kicks in and permits maximum benefits of 99 weeks.

As the labor market thaws and slowly adds more new jobs, more than 2.2 million individuals who are currently receiving unemployment benefits face losing them if Congress doesn’t pass an extension before the end of the year. Democrats and Republicans, of course, continue to spar over the best job creation legislation.

Burtless says Republicans will blink but it won’t be without a fight. (In 2010, Congress approved an addition of up to 73 weeks of unemployment benefits backed by the federal government.) “I don’t think we will go cold turkey,” said Burtless. “It will run out around Christmas and it will not help the case for fiscal stringency. You can’t look more Scrooge-like than allowing people’s unemployment benefits to lapse around Christmas time.”

Roughly 32 percent of the 14 million unemployed Americans – or 4.4 million people – were jobless for a year or more, according to a new third quarter report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. That’s a number nearly equal to the population of Louisiana.

Long-term unemployment has nearly doubled since the same period in 2009, the report said. The economic costs of chronic joblessness are much greater than in any previous recession and include the drag on consumer spending, poor credit quality and an overall drag on productivity – all of which hinder economic growth. The problem impacts all age groups. Once older workers lose their jobs, however, they’re the most likely to remain out of work for a year or longer. In the third quarter of 2011, more than 43 percent of unemployed workers older than 55 had been out of work for at least a year.

Employers added 103,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent, according to the Labor Department. The October jobs report will be out this Friday and economists expect job growth to slow slightly, to 90,000. With businesses remaining skittish about hiring because of the sluggish economic growth, many Americans continue to have a tough time finding work. Although those with more education are less likely to lose jobs, long-term joblessness is distributed across all education levels once they are unemployed, Pew found. Thirty-four percent of unemployed workers with a bachelor’s degree had been without work for a year or longer, compared with 38 percent of jobless high school graduates and 39 percent of unemployed people who hadn’t completed high school.

Spending on unemployment benefits is projected to reach $120 billion in 2011 and remains well above pre-recession years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). From 2005 to 2007, spending on unemployment ranged from $31 billion to $33 billion.

Gary Burtless, an economist with the Brookings Institution, says that it will be hard to wean Americans off long-term jobless benefits during persistently high unemployment. The federal government has been extremely generous in paying for unemployment benefits throughout this recession, he argues.

“In every recession since 1958, the federal government has always provided extensions in benefits,” Burtless told The Fiscal Times. “What is unusual is how much the benefit generosity improved and how much of the extra cost was funded by the federal government without significant state contribution.”

Still, spending on unemployment in 2011 is about $40 billion below that spent in 2010, when it reached a peak of $159 billion, according to CBO. The slowdown in spending is due to a decline in jobless claims and new legislation in some states that reduce the number of weeks an individual can receive unemployment benefits.

Earlier this year, Michigan cut its unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks in an effort to help plug the state’s $1.4 billion deficit. Michigan was the first state in the country to cut benefits; since then, several other states have followed. Burtless says this effort could “blossom into a huge oak tree” as cash-strapped states try to close massive budget deficits.

While the duration of benefits varies from state to state, most allow a maximum of 26 weeks. After an unemployed individual exhausts his or her standard unemployment benefits, the federally-funded “emergency” compensation kicks in and permits maximum benefits of 99 weeks.

As the labor market thaws and slowly adds more new jobs, more than 2.2 million individuals who are currently receiving unemployment benefits face losing them if Congress doesn’t pass an extension before the end of the year. Democrats and Republicans, of course, continue to spar over the best job creation legislation.

Burtless says Republicans will blink but it won’t be without a fight. (In 2010, Congress approved an addition of up to 73 weeks of unemployment benefits backed by the federal government.) “I don’t think we will go cold turkey,” said Burtless. “It will run out around Christmas and it will not help the case for fiscal stringency. You can’t look more Scrooge-like than allowing people’s unemployment benefits to lapse around Christmas time.” http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/11/02/The-Real-Cost-of-Lon
g-Term-Unemployment.aspx#page1

I know people who are unemployed, who take short-term employment, do handiwork, just about anything they can think of while still looking for work. I know who here considers them "bums", but I'd love to see how they'd handle it if they lost their jobs and couldn't get re-employed for over a year.

All this while Congress reaffirms that our motto is "In God We Trust". Yep, all those Republicans who rode in on the wave of "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs" are really getting the "job" done...!

I may have missed it, but have the Repubs offered ANYTHING to create jobs? I know they've KILLED jobs left and right, and closed businesses, but does anyone know anything they've actually DONE to improve the job situation?

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Thursday, November 3, 2011 8:29 AM

OPPYH


Gov. Snyder is a joke. He is trying very hard to eliminate the blue collar worker forever. I hate what he represents. Soon, it will be retail, and fast food jobs/ doctors, and lawyers. Seriously, he doesn't believe in a "middle class".
Our economy + Snyder = miserable

On the brink of unemployment myself, and thinking of relocating out west(Arizona?) to find a new job.

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Thursday, November 3, 2011 8:48 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Uhh, if it's Arizona you're thinking of, better watch out. Better have your 'papers' in order, and watch out for those skeletons in the desert! My sympathies on Snyder, he makes me shiver. (p.s., I hope you can CHOOSE to become unemployed in your own time and avoid what others are suffering.)



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Thursday, November 3, 2011 9:20 AM

FREMDFIRMA



Oh don't even get me STARTED on that Fascist bastard, as that's a big chunk of scheduled asswhup just WAITING to un-canned and delivered...

Motherfucker has no idea how short the fuses he keeps lighting are getting, and some other portion of that asswhup is gonna be preventing a damn lynch mob from forming about it - at least for the nonce, cause I am less and less convinced that it's a bad idea, you know ?

Comes a time when the choice gets to be lay down and die, and the law gives no recourse, one must then question the law as any kind of valid, and once down that road, it's damn hard to put the brakes on it before things get real nasty - just ask the French...

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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