Most of the Unemployed No Longer Receive Unemployment Benefits

 (...to the glee of Republicans everywhere...--jef)

Saturday, November 5, 2011 by the Associated Press

by Christopher S. Rugaber 

 

 

WASHINGTON — The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.
  
Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 24 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

Yet for most of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They've had no job for more than 99 weeks. They're no longer eligible for benefits.

Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.

So could the government's disability rolls. Applications for the disability insurance program have jumped about 50 percent since 2007.

"There's going to be increased hardship," said Wayne Vroman, an economist at the Urban Institute.

The number of unemployed has been roughly stable this year. Yet the number receiving benefits has plunged 30 percent.

Government unemployment benefits weren't designed to sustain people for long stretches without work. They usually don't have to. In the recoveries from the previous three recessions, the longest average duration of unemployment was 21 weeks, in July 1983.

By contrast, in the wake of the Great Recession, the figure reached 41 weeks in September. That's the longest on records dating to 1948. The figure is now 39 weeks.

"It was a good safety net for a shorter recession," said Carl Van Horn, an economist at Rutgers University. It assumes "the economy will experience short interruptions and then go back to normal."

Weekly unemployment checks average about $300 nationwide. If the extended benefits aren't renewed, growth could slow by up to a half-percentage point next year, economists say.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that each $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates up to $1.90 in economic growth. The CBO has found that the program is the most effective government policy for increasing growth among 11 options it's analyzed.

Jon Polis lives in East Greenwich, R.I., one of the 20 states where 99 weeks of benefits are available. He used them all up after losing his job as a warehouse worker in 2008. His benefits paid for groceries, car maintenance and health insurance.

Now, Polis, 55, receives disability insurance payments, food stamps and lives in government-subsidized housing. He's been unable to find work because employers in his field want computer skills he doesn't have.

"Employers are crying that they can't find qualified help," he said. But the ones he interviewed with "weren't willing to train anybody."

From late 2007, when the recession began, to early 2010, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose more than four-fold, to 11.5 million.

But the economy has remained so weak that an analysis of long-term unemployment data suggests that about 4 million people have used up 99 weeks of checks and still can't find work.

Contributing to the smaller share of the unemployed who are receiving benefits: Some of them are college graduates or others seeking jobs for the first time. They aren't eligible. Only those who have lost a job through no fault of their own qualify.

The proportion of the unemployed receiving benefits usually falls below 50 percent during an economic recovery. Many have either quit jobs or are new to the job market and don't qualify.

Today, the proportion is falling for a very different reason: Jobs remain scarce. So more of the unemployed are exhausting their benefits.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has noted that the long-term unemployed increasingly find it hard to find work as their skills and professional networks erode. In a speech last month, Bernanke called long-term unemployment a "national crisis" that should be a top priority for Congress.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to continue the extended benefits by the end of this year. If the program ends, nearly 2.2 million people will be cut off by February.

Congress has extended the program nine times. But it might balk at the $45 billion cost. It will be the first time the Republican-led House will vote on the issue.

Senate To Vote Tuesday On Unemployment Benefits After Byrd's Replacement Is Sworn In

By Susie Madrak Thursday Jul 15, 2010



Some good news for the people who were left hanging this month (but no new benefits tier to help those who ran out entirely). But at least this will help some people, and hopefully it will pass uneventfully:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that the Senate would vote move forward with reauthorizing unemployment benefits on Tuesday morning, after the replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has been sworn in.

Republicans and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson have been preventing a final vote on the bill because of its $33 billion cost. Reid said the GOP filibuster, which has prevented more than 2.1 million people from receiving checks, is designed to crater the economy. "They're betting on failure. They think the worse the economy is come November, the better they're going to do election wise," said Reid. "Almost two million people who are long-term unemployed. These are not numbers. They are people."

Congress allowed extended benefits for people who've been out of work for longer than six months to lapse at the beginning of June. Since then Senate Democrats have repeatedly failed to muster 60 votes to overcome the deficit reduction demands of the Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and the Republican party. In the final vote just after Byrd's death at the end of June, Democrats came up just one yea short.

And in other news, all the Republican senators have embraced the formerly-deplored position of Jim "Tough Shit" Bunning. I think I will start referring to them as "T.S. Republicans."

However, most voters are on the side of those without work:

Two national polls released Tuesday revealed that registered voters think it's more important to help the unemployed than to reduce the deficit.

Voters are generally wary of government spending to boost the economy, but they nevertheless told ABC News and CBS News that the deficit is no reason not to help the unemployed.

Fifty-two percent of voters told CBS that Congress should extend unemployment benefits "even if it means increasing the budget deficit," including 35 percent of Republicans. Sixty-two percent of registered voters told ABC Congress should extend benefits despite concerns that doing so "adds too much to the federal budget deficit."

In a Bloomberg survey, 70 percent of voters said reducing unemployment is more important than reducing the deficit. But only 47 percent said Congress should reauthorize extended benefits, which in some states provided the unemployed with up to 99 weeks of checks.

A poll commissioned by the National Employment Law Project in June found that 74 percent of voters think helping the unemployed is more important than reducing the deficit.

35 Million May Experience Unemployment This Year: EPI

Arthur Delaney | 07-15-10

As many as 35 million Americans might experience joblessness at some point this year, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.

Labor Department data show that in 2008 (the most recent year for which this info is available), 21.2 million people were out of work at one point or another, while the average monthly total number of unemployed was 8.9 million. So far this year the average monthly total has been closer to 15 million, which, by 2008's monthly-average-to-yearly-total ratio, would amount to 35 million people getting a taste of the layoff life in 2010.

Despite the huge number of people out of work, Congress has had more luck reforming a recalcitrant financial industry with today's passage of a Wall Street reform package than reauthorizing extended unemployment benefits, which lapsed at the end of May. At that time, EPI notes that 10.2 million people were receiving unemployment benefits -- and more than half of them were receiving the federally-funded benefits that lapsed.

So far, more than 2.1 million people who've been jobless for longer than six months have missed checks because of the lapse, a number that climbs by several hundred thousand every week as people finish up their 26 weeks of state benefits or current "tier" of federal benefits and then find themselves ineligible for the next level up.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said Senate Democrats will try again to break the Republican filibuster on Tuesday, after a replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has been sworn in. If the bill is approved, people who missed checks will get all of the money they missed during the lapse.

EPI estimates that the extra jobless aid first put in place as part of President Obama's stimulus 2009 bill has been "responsible for over 1.2 million full-time equivalent positions" and that the $152.1 billion spent on the benefits raised gross domestic product by $244.8 billion, a 1.7 percent boost.

Millionaire Senators Moan About 'Disincentives' For The Lazy Unemployed. Meanwhile, No Action On Extensions

vidlink

GOP Sen Kyl: Extend Bush Tax Cuts Even If They Add To Deficit

Extend Bush Tax Cuts for wealthy even if they add to deficit, but don't extend unemployment benefits for those who really need it
Sam Stein | 07-12-10

Top Senate Republican Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) insisted on Sunday that Congress should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans regardless of their impact on the deficit, even as he and other Republicans are blocking unemployment insurance extensions over deficit concerns.

"[Y]ou should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes," said the Arizona Senator during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. "Surely Congress has the authority, and it would be right to -- if we decide we want to cut taxes to spur the economy, not to have to raise taxes in order to offset those costs. You do need to offset the cost of increased spending, and that's what Republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans."

White House aides immediately seized on the comments. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wrote on Twitter, "Kyl says wealthy need big Bush tax cuts while middle class families are on their own to fend for themselves as a result of Bush economy."

In private, administration officials say that the framing of the argument couldn't be more advantageous: "It's cutting taxes for the wealthy and letting the unemployed to fend for themselves," said one White House ally.

"If all of this has a familiar ring to it, it's because unpaid for tax cuts for the rich at the expense of working people is the same backward policy Republicans used to put the nation in this hole, and it's the same policy they promise to return to if put in a position of power again," added Hari Sevugan, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee.



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Asked to expand on his tweets, Gibbs declined comment, save to clarify that "the question [host Chris] Wallace specifically asked Kyl was [about] the upper end of the Bush tax cuts (above $250,000)."

But the politics already are fairly obvious. For the past few months, congressional Republicans have demanded that any additional spending be offset by budget cuts or revenue increases elsewhere. Also on Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod blamed deficit concerns for the difficulty in finding a 60th vote in the Senate for unemployment benefits even though, as of Friday, 2.1 million people have not received checks that they were expecting in June.

And yet, Kyl is now suggesting that the same budget rules shouldn't apply with respect to tax cuts for the wealthy, which are set to expire unless Congress acts to renew them. As Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly notes:

It's quite a message to Americans: Republicans believe $30 billion for unemployment benefits don't even deserve a vote because the money would be added to the deficit, but Republicans also believe that adding the cost of $678 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy to the deficit is just fine.

Kyl is one of the most prominent members of Congress to advance the argument that jobless benefits  make people not want to look for work, a position disputed by economists across the political spectrum. Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said last March on the Senate floor.

The chart below shows the deficit impact of the Bush tax cuts over the next decade.

Moving Further from the Common Good

by Caroline Arnold | Sunday, July 11, 2010 | the Kent Ravenna Record-Courier (Ohio)

If we have a pool we want to fill with water, does it make more sense to turn on a faucet and fill it up, or to hire pilots to seed the clouds and try to make it rain? Cloud-seeding, like our current approach to dealing with unemployment, would be discredited "trickle down" theory with a vengeance! --"Let's End Unemployment Once and for All" by Paul deLespinasse

In the past thirty years we have been persuaded by a Grand Fable that the central freedom of democratic capitalism is the freedom of the rich to broker their money to get richer, because that makes everyone richer.

There are some satellite myths: only the private sector creates jobs and wealth; deficits are always bad and a burden on our children; poor people have to "take responsibility" for their own health, welfare and retirement; people are poor because they are lazy, selfish, stupid, or greedy; the rich must be free of taxes so they can create more jobs and then we can tax the "little people" who do the work; private schools provide better education than public schools; private capital is necessary to underwrite the innovations in science, technology and manufacturing necessary to meet the present challenges of food, energy, and natural resources. Any questioning of these myths is met with accusations of "socialism" or "nanny state."

So we have a health insurance industry that doesn't provide any health care, diagnosis, surgery, nursing, or therapy and doesn't do R & D. They only sit in the middle and broker the cash between you and your health care providers, while skimming off about a third of that cash in profits.

So taxpayers underwrite building nuclear power plants because private entrepreneurs won't risk their fortunes on such hazardous ventures.

So big oil and coal mining companies generate huge profits for their shareholders while the costs - of both success and failure - are paid by taxpayers and consumers, and the risks to life and livelihood are borne by countless humans and wild creatures.

So we hear calls for raising the age to collect Social Security to 70 in order to save money on the deficit, even though a major consequence will be that fewer jobs are freed up for young people entering the job market.

So we are constantly pushed to "Go Green" by paying bills online. It may save some trees; even more it will save money for profits - not so much from paper and postage as from jobs - jobs of people with mortgages and children and aging parents.

So large private contractors profit from wars supported by the taxes of "little people" and the lives of youth who can't find jobs.

So now, although there are presently five unemployed workers for every job opening, Congress will not pass an unemployment benefits bill that would increase the debt-to-GDP ratio from 65.3% to 65.4% by the end of 2011.

Congressional Republicans seem to have hitched their wagons to unemployment in order to protect the tax cuts and profits of the rich, to preserve their ability to profit from Earth's resources and from weapons and wars of empire, and to keep the unemployed out of a job and broke until they vote for more Republicans. Likely outcomes: more unemployment, further declines in government revenues, more public costs for emergency health care, crime, domestic violence, and prisons, and more homelessness and hunger.

Predatory capitalism also has major goals for education: access to public money (local or national taxes) to make public schools into a new market for corporate development, and to get local school boards and teachers' unions out of all decision-processes for schools.

But it's not just the rich:. A dissatisfied letter-to-the-editor writer recently complained "[Politicians] care about power, greed, personal agendas and getting their way, regardless of their impact on people" and then went on to suggest that each person ask "Am I better off than I was in 2008? Have my taxes gone up? Is my income down? Do I still have a job? Do I feel safer? Have I lost some of my freedoms? "

To me, those questions are exactly about power, greed, personal agendas and getting one's way - not least because they are all expressed in terms of "I" and "my".

Where is the concern for the impact on others? Are our neighbors better off? Our community? The people of Afghanistan? Is everyone paying more taxes, or just those without tax loopholes or offshore tax havens? Has everyone's income increased? Or kept pace with the cost of living? Are there jobs in our communities? Are we all safer - including people who work in coal mines, or on the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico? Have we restricted some freedoms without due process of law?

Seeding the clouds of the rich to make it rain and fill all pools hasn't worked yet, but we seem to be further than ever from any consensus that we must maintain a public water supply from fair taxes, and use it for the common good: to invest in jobs, medical care, education, renewable energy and public infrastructure.

Worse, though consensus is emerging that the war in Afghanistan is not working, no one seems willing to stop that off-budget drain on our tax revenues and divert the flow back into our communities and nation.

The 50 Ugliest Facts About The US eCONomy

Presenting The Wall Of Worry

by Tyler Durden on 07/09/2010
As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.

#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.

#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollarsby now.

#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.

#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.

#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.

#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.

#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.

#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.

#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.

#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.

#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers saythat they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.  Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.

#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.

#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S.established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.

#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.

#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases.  Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.

#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.

#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period.  That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.

#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.

#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.

#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.

#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010.  That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.

#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.

#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.

#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.

#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.

#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.

#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars. 

#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit paymentsand so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their  payments to the unemployed.

#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.

#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.

#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record.  But things look like they are going to get even worse.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.

#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.

#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.

#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.

#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.

#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.

#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1.  Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.

#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.

#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000(depending on the interest rate).

#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.

#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.

#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4.  Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.

Unemployment Extension Standoff, Day 35: 'Harsh Reality Has Now Set In'

by Arthur Delaney | Tuesday, July 6, 2010 The Huffington Post

It's been 35 days since Congress allowed unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless to expire. So far, more than 1.7 million people who've been out of work for longer than six months have been left hanging.

The 2009 stimulus bill and subsequent legislation had given the unemployed up to 99 weeks of checks. Without the federally-funded extended benefits, which lapsed at the end of May due to congressional deficit concerns, layoff victims in most states are eligible for only 26 weeks of help. The average duration of unemployment is 35 weeks.

Donna Ripley of Stockton, N.J. told HuffPost her 26 weeks ran out on May 29 -- one week after the eligibility deadline for the first "tier" of federally-funded benefits. "Needless to say that to miss the deadline because of one lousy week was extremely disappointing," Ripley wrote. "Silly me was still confident that our lawmakers would do the right thing and pass legislation to extend benefits... harsh reality has now set in. It has been four weeks without a check and times are tough."

Ripley added that she has had much difficulty getting through to a person at the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Marc Katz, a spokesman for the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, said the lapse has resulted in "more calls, more intensity, more confusion" at state labor departments.

"Customers are more desperate, more angry, and are less optimistic about the likelihood of Congress passing continued extensions," wrote a staffer in the Idaho Labor Department in an email to NASWA. "As one would expect, the customers who would have exhausted their latest tier and would have access to an additional tier except for this lapse are the most upset."

Steve Santos of Zion, Ill. said he applied for food stamps and has been "freaking out" since his checks stopped coming.

"My 26 weeks from the state ran out as Congress was not renewing the bill," said Santos, who is 55 and said he lost his job as a retail manager in November. "So because I did not lose my job til the 'end' of the recession or file until I absolutely had no choice, I get jobbed out of benefits?"

By the time Congress returns from its July 4 recess next week, more than 2.1 million will have missed checks. The House passed a bill to reauthorize the benefits last week; a similar bill failed in the upper chamber due to a Republican filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that as soon as there is a replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Democrats will have the 60 votes they need and the bill will pass. If Reid is correct, layoff victims will be paid retroactively for any missed checks.

Without a reauthorization, 3.2 million long-term unemployed will have found themselves ineligible for extended benefits by the end of the month. If Congress fails to act, it will be the first time since at least the 1950s that federally-funded extended benefits have been allowed to lapse with a national unemployment rate above 7.2 percent.

"I received my last check on June 24th. If Congress doesn't approve the extension, I will have no money," said Shanae Dale of Louisville, Ky, who said she was laid off in December. "I will not be able to pay my rent, car insurance, utility bills or buy groceries. I would like to know how many of the members of Congress can't sleep at night because the only thing that occupies their minds is finding a job and paying bills."

Punish the Jobless

By Paul Krugman, The New York Times
 July 6, 2010

There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.

But that was then. Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits. How was that possible?
The answer is that we’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused. Nothing can be done about the first group, and probably not much about the second. But maybe it’s possible to clear up some of the confusion.

By the heartless, I mean Republicans who have made the cynical calculation that blocking anything President Obama tries to do — including, or perhaps especially, anything that might alleviate the nation’s economic pain — improves their chances in the midterm elections. Don’t pretend to be shocked: you know they’re out there, and make up a large share of the G.O.P. caucus.

By the clueless I mean people like Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for senator from Nevada, who has repeatedly insisted that the unemployed are deliberately choosing to stay jobless, so that they can keep collecting benefits. A sample remark: “You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job but it doesn’t pay as much. We’ve put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry.”

Now, I don’t have the impression that unemployed Americans are spoiled; desperate seems more like it. One doubts, however, that any amount of evidence could change Ms. Angle’s view of the world — and there are, unfortunately, a lot of people in our political class just like her.

But there are also, one hopes, at least a few political players who are honestly misinformed about what unemployment benefits do — who believe, for example, that Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, was making sense when he declared that extending benefits would make unemployment worse, because “continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” So let’s talk about why that belief is dead wrong.

Do unemployment benefits reduce the incentive to seek work? Yes: workers receiving unemployment benefits aren’t quite as desperate as workers without benefits, and are likely to be slightly more choosy about accepting new jobs. The operative word here is “slightly”: recent economic research suggests that the effect of unemployment benefits on worker behavior is much weaker than was previously believed. Still, it’s a real effect when the economy is doing well.

But it’s an effect that is completely irrelevant to our current situation. When the economy is booming, and lack of sufficient willing workers is limiting growth, generous unemployment benefits may keep employment lower than it would have been otherwise. But as you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening. Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.

Wait: there’s more. One main reason there aren’t enough jobs right now is weak consumer demand. Helping the unemployed, by putting money in the pockets of people who badly need it, helps support consumer spending. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office rates aid to the unemployed as a highly cost-effective form of economic stimulus. And unlike, say, large infrastructure projects, aid to the unemployed creates jobs quickly — while allowing that aid to lapse, which is what is happening right now, is a recipe for even weaker job growth, not in the distant future but over the next few months.

But won’t extending unemployment benefits worsen the budget deficit? Yes, slightly — but as I and others have been arguing at length, penny-pinching in the midst of a severely depressed economy is no way to deal with our long-run budget problems. And penny-pinching at the expense of the unemployed is cruel as well as misguided.

So, is there any chance that these arguments will get through? Not, I fear, to Republicans: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something,” said Upton Sinclair, “when his salary” — or, in this case, his hope of retaking Congress — “depends upon his not understanding it.” But there are also centrist Democrats who have bought into the arguments against helping the unemployed. It’s up to them to step back, realize that they have been misled — and do the right thing by passing extended benefits.

1.2 million to lose benefits in days if stalemate continues

Millions of people will lose their health insurance and unemployment benefits because of the Senate stalemate over a tax package.
By Vicki Needham - 06/27/10

More than 1.2 million Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of June if Congress fails to work out a deal on an extension of unemployment benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project, a group studying the issue.

In addition, neither the House nor the Senate bill have approved an extension of the COBRA subsidy that requires unemployed workers to pay only 35 percent of a premium to maintain health insurance. That subsidy was originally included in last year’s stimulus bill.
The premium generally costs hundreds of dollars, a price many unemployed people are unlikely to be able to afford without the subsidy.

GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) on Friday suggested the unemployment benefits be offered as a stand-alone package, but it is unclear whether Democrats are willing to go along with that deal.

Democrats have argued the unemployment benefits should be considered emergency spending that does not have to be offset with other spending cuts or tax increases. Republicans have balked at the $33 billion cost, which would be added to record deficits.

The latest version of the tax bill package paid for every provision except the unemployment benefits extension, but it still failed to move forward in a 57-41 vote.

More than 2 million workers have benefited from the COBRA healthcare subsidy, according to NELP. It estimates that 144,000 people per month will lose out on the subsidy due to its discontinuation.

The elimination of the subsidy will also hurt those still collecting unemployment.

Without the subsidy, a much greater share of money included in unemployment checks would be spent on health insurance. Many are likely to drop their insurance.

The Senate measure had previously cut an extra $25 per week in unemployment insurance that was included in the stimulus bill.

Snowe has been seen as a possible yes vote, and unemployment is a concern in her state.

The jobless rate in Maine stood at 8 percent in May, third among New England states.

Other Republicans have said pressure is mounting to pass unemployment benefits but it's unknown who might vote for a stand-alone package.

Republican Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), whose state is one of 17 with double-digit unemployment at 10.4 percent, said on Friday that he can't vote for any bill that isn't fully offset.

“My heart goes out to Americans who are hurting because Washington can’t agree on a way to pay for an extension of unemployment benefits,” Corker said in a release. “I voted several times to pass and pay for an extension, but I cannot in good conscience continue voting for bills that aren’t paid for.”

The Snowe solution is unlikely to satisfy Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson either, the lone member of his party to vote against the bill, who has remained steadfastly against any legislation that adds to the deficit.

Nelson said his state's 4.9 percent unemployment rate has made it easier to wait out his colleagues in hopes that they can solve the deficit-spending issue.

He doesn't oppose the extension of unemployment benefits but he doesn't want the cost adding to the deficit.

"At some point they need to be paid for," he said. "Some people think it's an emergency. I think it's important."

New Claims for Unemployment Benefits Rise Sharply

Published on 06-17-2010
Source: AP

The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, another sign that the pace of layoffs has not slowed.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the highest level in a month and overshadowed a report that consumer prices remain essentially flat.

First-time jobless claims have hovered near 450,000 since the beginning of the year after falling steadily in the second half of 2009. That has raised concerns that hiring is lackluster and could slow the recovery.

The four-week average for unemployment claims, which smooths volatility, dipped slightly to 463,500. That's down by 3,750 from the start of January.

A lack of robust job growth has kept the recovery from gaining strength. Kevin Logan, an economist with HSBC Securities, said many economists have been expecting claims to fall below 450,000 for several weeks now.

"The wait is getting longer and longer," said Logan. "As each week goes by, doubts about the underlying strength of the economic expansion grow."

Economists say they will feel more optimistic that the economy is creating jobs once initial jobless claims fall below 425,000 per week.

A separate Labor report said consumer prices fell for the second straight month. The 0.2 decline in the Consumer Price Index was pulled down falling energy prices — most notably a 5.2 percent drop in gasoline prices. Declining energy bills were the main factor pulling down prices.

But core consumer prices, which strip out volatile energy and food, edged up 0.1 percent in May, after being flat in April. Core prices are up only 0.9 percent over the past year — below the Fed's inflation target.

Additionally, the Commerce Department said Thursday that the broadest measure of U.S. trade rose during the first quarter to the highest point in more than a year. Much of the widening deficit was due to higher prices on imported oil during the first three months of the year. Those prices have since come down.

And a private research group said its gauge of future economic activity rose 0.4 percent in May, signaling slow growth in the U.S. economy through the fall. Turmoil in stock markets and a troubled housing market weighed on the Conference Board's leading economic index, while measures related to interest rates and an increasing amount of money in the economy tugged it higher. The index is designed to forecast activity in the next three to six months.

Still, layoffs remain one of the biggest concerns for the recovery. Just this week, casino owner Wynn Resorts laid off more than 260 workers in its two Las Vegas casino hotels in a move expected to save nearly $8 million.

The number of people continuing to claim benefits rose by 88,000 to 4.57 million. That doesn't include about 5.2 million people who receive extended benefits paid for by the federal government.

Congress has added 73 weeks of extra benefits on top of the 26 weeks typically provided by states. All told, about 9.7 million people received unemployment insurance in the week ending May 29, the most recent data available.

The extended benefit program expired this month. The House has approved an extension of the benefits through November. The Senate has yet to act.

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans and a dozen Democratic defectors rejected a catchall measure combining jobless aid for the long-term unemployed, aid to cash-strapped state governments and the renewal of dozens of popular tax breaks. Despite the loss, Democratic leaders predicted that a scaled-back version of the measure could pass, possibly later this week.

Adding to worries about the job market, the Labor Department said earlier this month that the economy generated only 41,000 private-sector jobs in May. That was down from 218,000 in April.

Temporary hiring by the Census Bureau added another 411,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent.

Jobless claims rise by largest amount in 3 months

Remember, the REAL unemployment rate is around 18-20%, not 10%.

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Jobless claims rise by largest amount in 3 months

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Thu May 20, 2010

WASHINGTON – The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week by the largest amount in three months. The surge is evidence of how volatile the job market remains, even as the economy grows.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 471,000 last week, up by 25,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first increase in five weeks and the biggest jump since a gain of 40,000 in February.

The total was the highest since new claims reached 480,000 on April 10. It also pushed the average for the last four weeks to 453,500.

"Although no one expects this volatile series to go in one direction every single week, this is clearly a disappointment," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Stocks slid as investors' already bleak view of the world economy worsened with another drop in the euro and the disappointing U.S. employment news. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 250 points in early afternoon trading.
In a separate report, a private research group said its index of leading economic indicators dipped slightly in April. It was the first decline in more than a year. Six of the 10 components on the Conference Board's index deteriorated. Among them: U.S. residents filed fewer applications to build homes; vendors were slower in delivering supplies to companies; the unemployed filed more claims for jobless aid; and consumers' confidence dropped.

Lawmakers responded Thursday to the persistently high jobless rate by announcing a deal to extend expanded unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed through the end of the year. Laid off workers would also continue to get subsidies to buy health insurance through the COBRA program. House leaders plan to vote on the bill Friday, with the Senate voting next week.

Employers are hiring again, but not at levels needed to make a dent in the unemployment rate, which increased in April to 9.9 percent. An improving economy has lured those who had given up looking for work back into the labor market. The jump in the unemployment rate came even though payrolls rose last month by 290,000 jobs, the biggest gain in four years.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York, said he believed the unemployment rate would hold at 9.9 percent in May while payroll jobs could increase as much as 250,000. He said that figure would include an expected 150,000 temporary government workers hired to conduct the census.

After peaking at 651,000 in March 2009, weekly jobless claims fell rapidly through much of last year. But this year the improvements have leveled out.

Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said one reason the improvements have stalled is that small businesses are having trouble getting loans. They create half of the new jobs in the country.

The Labor Department said the number of people receiving jobless benefits fell by 40,000 to 4.63 million for the week ending May 8.

However, that figure does not include unemployed workers who have exhausted their regular 26 weeks of benefits. An additional 5.3 million workers are receiving extended benefits paid for by the federal government for the week ending May 1.

The extended benefits have added as many as 73 weeks of unemployment on top of the 26 weeks customarily provided by the states. But jobs have been scarce for so long that many of those out of work will soon run out of the extended benefits.

For the week ending May 8, 35 states and territories saw increases in applications for new jobless benefits and 18 saw declines.

New US jobless claims "unexpectedly" jump

I love it! "Unexpectedly" jump...Really? No one saw that coming? I'm the only one? No. See, this was only unexpected to people who only read/watch mainstream corporate media. If that's the only source for your news, then the new unemployment figures might seem to have "unexpectedly" jumped. To the rest of us, this was expected.

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New US jobless claims unexpectedly jump

Published: Thursday April 15, 2010

New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits unexpectedly rose last week, largely due to Easter holiday-related factors, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 484,000 in the week ending April 10, the highest level since late February, the department reported.

That marked an increase of 24,000 from the prior week's unrevised figure of 460,000 and surprised most analysts who had forecast new claims would fall by 440,000.

In the previous week ending April 3, claims had increased sharply, to 460,000 from 442,000 the prior week.

The Labor Department said the latest increase was due to seasonal factors.

"Volatility is always associated with the Easter holiday," a department official said.

"This is more attributable to administrative factors than to possible layoffs. I did not see anything in the states' numbers that would reflect economic concerns," he said.

One Guy Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension

Jim Bunning Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension, Tells Dem 'Tough Shit'
02-26-10 12:42 PM

Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.

As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.

And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."

Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.

And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.

"I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00," he said,"and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.

The unemployment rate in Kentucky is 10.7 percent.

The stakes are enormous: provisions of last year's stimulus bill that allow extra weeks of unemployment benefits and COBRA health coverage are set to expire on Feb. 28. State workforce agencies have already sent out letters informing recipients that they'll be ineligible for extra "tiers" of benefits starting next month. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will prematurely lose benefits in March.

Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the NELP, said that even when Bunning is eventually thwarted and the extension is passed, state governments will still have to deal with the extra administrative costs of shutting down and restarting the extended benefits programs.

"Once the program is retroactively reauthorized, the federal government is going to send the same amount of money, but his own state government is going to have to spend even more money," Conti said.

"What happened last night was an absolute disgrace. There is a time and a place a purpose for debate on deficit reduction, but you don't make your stand on the back of the unemployed. It is ill-informed, counter productive and just cruel."

Daily Kos produced a video of Bunning's obstruction:

UPDATE 12:00 PM -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a last-minute attempt on Friday morning to get Bunning to let the Senate move forward with extending benefits.

"We talk a lot in the Senate about procedure. Our debate sometimes relates only to procedure. And often that's appropriate," Reid said. "And, as we know, sometimes these procedural rules we have in the Senate are complex. But the issue before us today is not something that's arcane, very ritualistic or complex. It's very simple. And it's clear -- clear that it's going to be a lot more noticeable by people Monday morning, because it's going to affect the lives of thousands of Americans and their livelihoods.

"By Monday morning tens of thousands of Nevadans and more than one million Americans who rely on unemployment insurance and health benefits will simply lose them."

(The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits over the course of March, not at all once on Monday.)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the floor after Reid to stick up for Bunning. He noted that there is broad bipartisan support for extending benefits, but said Bunning was right to take a stand against adding $10 billion to the deficit. He also pointed out that the jobs bill that Reid scrapped two weeks ago, crafted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), contained an extension of UI and COBRA.

"I admire the courage of the junior senator from Kentucky," he said. "Somebody has to stand up finally and say, 'No more inter-generational theft!'"

And with that, the Senate adjourned for the weekend.