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Americans are scared -


......Millions set to lose jobless benefits � �I�m very scared,�
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.By Zachary Roth
Senior National Affairs Reporter
..PostsEmailRSS..By Zachary Roth |

A job fair in Vancouver, Wash. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

For Dawn Deane, the difference between just keeping her head above water and falling under is the unemployment insurance check she receives each week.

In June, Deane, who is 49, was laid off from her human-resources job at a Philadelphia nonprofit, where she made over $50,000 a year. Since then, jobless benefits have allowed her, barely, to keep up with her mortgage and car payments and her other bills--as well as to maintain some normalcy in her 9-year-old daughter's life. Without the benefits, Deane told Yahoo News in an interview, her home would likely fall into foreclosure, and she'd be forced to apply for welfare--which would mean a significant drop in her income, and would dramatically upend her and her daughter's lives.

"Push comes to shove, if we've got to move or something like that, I don't know what I'd have to tell her, how I would explain it to her," Deane said. "I can't imagine it."

She may soon have to. Last December, amid persistent joblessness, Congress agreed to extend federal unemployment benefits for 34-53 additional weeks, beyond the standard 26. But the extension will expire at the end of the year, if it's not re-approved--a lapse that would cause nearly 1.8 million Americans to lose their benefits in January (pdf), according to the National Employment Law Project, which supports an extension. During 2012 as a whole, around 6 million Americans--including Dawn Deane--would likely be thrown off the rolls, the Labor Department estimates.

Commentators have largely treated the saga as the latest example of partisan rancor in Washington. It's also been portrayed as an economic and fiscal issue: By stimulating the economy, extending the benefits would increase growth by about $42 billion, or 0.3 percent of GDP, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. And it would add around $45 billion to the deficit, unless it were offset with other spending cuts or tax hikes.

But amid the various policy debates, it's easy to lose sight of the human side of the issue. The sheer scale of the population affected, for one thing, is magnified by record levels of long-term joblessness. The median duration of unemployment is currently 21.6 weeks--astronomically high by historical standards--and there are still around four unemployed workers for every job opening. Previously, the highest jobless rate at which Congress has failed to approve extended benefits was 7.2 percent, in 1985. Today, the national unemployment rate is 8.6 percent.

"It seems like a horrible job market in which to cast laid off workers adrift once they've used up 26 weeks of regular [unemployment] benefits," Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution, told Yahoo News via email.

The White House and congressional Democrats have been pushing for an extension. House Republicans Tuesday passed a plan to extend the benefits--along with an extension of the payroll tax cut--but it would also cut up to 40 weeks from the program, allow states to drug test applicants and cut Medicare benefits. That adds up to a non-starter for Democrats.

As a result, when--or whether--the benefits will get extended is anyone's guess. And that means that recipients such as Deane are twisting in the wind as Congress bickers. She says that she's been looking for new work constantly since June. And she's applied for other government benefits, such as food stamps and home energy assistance, but has found she isn't eligible. "I'm always told: 'You don't qualify because you're making too much, and it's just you and your daughter,' " she said.

"I'm very scared," she said. "I'm doing everything except for going out there and actually physically protesting. And I think I'm gonna get to that point."



how many here illegally are scared?

Well, they're getting scared, as the foothold they have on the underground society they created, of under the table wages and jobs, are being sought out by none other than desperate americans.

happening in construction... temp labor already.

They seem to be able to keep their local .gov jobs though.

Kent

Life is a bitch The goverment taking an taking with nothing in sight

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! When my Dad retired from th military in 1968, he tried to make a living where we were. Didn't work out so he took a job back in SD and a year later we moved there. When I graduated from college I would have like a job there as I had a family with ties there, didn't happen! I took a job in another state....we moved! North Dakota has at last count around 18,000 job openings! But they are real jobs requiring real work however the pay is good!

Discussed taking a seasonal holiday job with my unemployed brother-in-law. "Can't do that, I'd lose my unemployment benefits after the season." Sent a deal for company needing drivers if you had a clean driving record and no drugs. "Can't do that, don't have a CDL."

I vote for 24 weeks unemployment and then no matter what pain it causes, they end. Socialism sucks.

Just called a guy up and offered him a job a few weeks ago, his reply was I don't want to mess up my unemployment.

Girlfriend is a manager at our credit union. Had a spot open for a teller spot. Not the best money but, good money, insurance and retirement.

Had 3 resumes come back.

I really don't think people want to work.

there you have it...they don't want jobs

I have a friend that owns a fairly large commercial roofing business. The work is tough, and at times in miserable conditions, but the pay is good for this area and the employees get health insurance, etc. Qualifications include a willingness to work and learn the job. No training required. No degree. Just show up, pay attention and learn the job. Good opportunity for someone that needs a job. He has several older foremen that are going to be retiring, etc in the near future, so some opportunity to advance even.

He's been running ads in the local papers for two months. How many resumes have crossed his desk, you ask? 0 Not a single response.

Head down to the local bar and you'll find a half dozen guys drinking and watching TV, courtesy of their unemployment check! Lots of people that don't want to work and we enable them.

That there is what we in law enforcement call "a clue"... a non-job for a non-company that produces nothing...

I am sympathetic toward people who have such problems, but only to a point. There are solutions, but they're hard ones: you move to a place where there are jobs, you take a job you don't like much, and so forth.

Like eh76 pointed out, there are PLENTY of jobs in the "flyover states". But the folks from Philly and Vancouver, like the subject person of this piece, don't wanna move out of their comfort zone in the urbs. Too bad, it doesn't mean we taxpayers have to pay for them to continue to live where they're comfortable.

what is it now 99 weeks of unemployment insurance? Want to reduce the unemployment rate overnight? Limit unemployment to 26 weeks and reduce the minimum wage by 20%.

I know at my age if i lose my job there will not be another one in the industry for me.

I am concerned.


Snake

Something needs to be done about long term unemployment. Something beyond the simplistic solutions of the left of indefinite extensions and the right of cut them all off. The current system just rewards the status quo and does nothing to improve the situation.

As already mentioned take a day or temporary job and lose benefits. Not just for the time worked, but it is a forfeiture of all benefits. Enroll in any type of college coursework or vocational training to gain new skills to find a job outside of past work experience and all benefits are forfeited. Move to another state? Well something better be lined up for a job because benefits from the previous state just got forfeited. Sit at home and keep pounding resumes for weeks and months on end and be rewarded with continued benefits. It's insanity, if after 6 months of searching, if a person can't find a job it's a pretty good clue that their services and experience aren't in demand in the job field or geographic area they're looking in. Why continue benefits to maintain the status quo?

Here's my solution; unemployment benefits for a maximum of 6 months and I'm probably being generous here. If after that time an individual still can't find work, they need to be enrolled in some type of degree or vocational training in order to receive benefits. At that point their benefits become a loan that is to be paid back after completion. At this point benefits will also be enough to cover tuition, books, etc. There's also to be limits on this loan with the aim of learning skills to return to the workforce, not financing liberal arts degrees from Ivy Leagues.

Before I get jumped on for being unsympathetic or too generous, this comes from my own experience. After a 17 year career in Architecture and Construction Management I found myself unemployed. It has royally sucked. I learned the hard lesson that if I ever wanted to be working again I needed to acquire new skills.

I graduate in May with a BS in Nursing and pray that I'll be working again. I had to forfeit unemployment benefits when I stated taking pre-req classes from the local community college. With the government takeover of the student loan program, I'm not eligible for grants and only minimal loans which won't cover tuition. I was fortunate enough to have the grades to get a partial scholarship. While it's been helpful it doesn't cover tution let alone living expenses of being away from home. I've only been spending weekends at home in Phoenix with my family and weekdays on campus in Flagstaff. We've had to suck it up, make a lot of sacrifices, raid our savings and have faith that in the long run it will be worth it.

What's my point in all of this? I could've been collecting benefits for most of the time that I've been doing this if I chose to keep pursuing jobs in design and construction and kept pounding resumes and applying for weekly unemployment. The minute I realized that this wasn't a viable option and took the initiative to go back to school, I lost benefits. We've been fortunate in that my wife has a job and we had savings to fall back on, others aren't. So why reward the status quo and penalize those who take initiative?

I think you're full of it. I have several friends in the roofing business and it pays crap. In fact I noticed one of the biggest roofing companies in the area hired a bunch of Mexican's for the first time this year. I'm sure it's because the pay is really good and they couldn't find any unemployed white Americans to take the jobs.

And immediately increase the welfare rolls by millions ya stupid [bleep]. People can't begin to live on minimum wage now and they sure as hell won't be able to if you reduce it even further. THEY WILL collect welfare benefits if they can't get a job that will make ends meet though.

They cant do it because the government has enabled them not to have to try.

Want to watch unemployment numbers to down, cut off unemployment benefits. If people HAVE to get jobs to survive they will.

Just the other day one of my neighbors, who is collecting unemployment benefits, told everybody at our culdesac party that he's found a few jobs but he "couldn't afford to take them". Cut off his government checks and he wouldn't be able to afford not to take one.

Seems like nobody is willing to downsize and make lifestyle changes. Take lady libertys tit out of their mouth and we can move in a positive direction

Blackheart,

Please forward you're resume to me. I will be happy to pass it along to him. Thank you so much for your well thought out, polite and intelligent response. I guess it depends upon your definition of "pays crap". These jobs start in the $10 to $14 an hour range. If you have any skills and a decent track record of showing up for work, you'll get hired above the minimum. Of course, you do have to actually show up for work and take some long days. But hey, what the [bleep] do I know? I'm apparently full of crap?

The day they "Balance" trade, deport the very last illegal, "off the books", border jumping, criminals with their spawn, go back and collect all taxes from these freeloading, Un-American Scumbags that gave them jobs, and fire all government types that jobs were created to deal with these border jumpers, then and only then, all unemployment should be cut back to the 26 weeks.

Until then, those collecting benefits are just on the gravy train like a whole lot of others....

I won't work along side criminal border jumpers nor for chicken sh*t wages that criminal employers want to pay. I also try to buy American thus buy very little these days.

Unemployment payments is the price we pay because people are to stupid to vote out the scummy politicians that are bought and paid for by criminal business types and politicians that are just vote buying whores...

When your construction companies has no employees because they have been deported, they will have to hire real working men in the "real" labor market, pay them competitive wages and treat them like men. (or get there fat lazy worthless criminal freeloading a**es off the golf coarse and do the work themselves.)

Freeloading has become ingrained in our culture and the worst offenders are always the one that seem to be complaining of others...

[quote=huntsonora]They cant do it because the government has enabled them not to have to try.[quote/] Live in a utopian dream world if you wish but eliminating the welfare program is a pipe dream that WILL NEVER HAPPEN !

[quote]Want to watch unemployment numbers to down, cut off unemployment benefits. If people HAVE to get jobs to survive they will.[quote/] The problem is, folks still want to live in warm houses and eat three meals a day, which is IMPOSSIBLE on minimum wage UNLESS you get government subsidies to help with heat, food etc.. No you say ? Tell me how you're going to "make ends meet" when a full time min wage job pays 240.00 a week after deductions and rent alone {for a dumpy little 1 bedroom apt} will set you back 400 per month with no utilities included ? Add 80.00 per month for electric {cheap here} 250.00 per month for heat {again, cheap here, my dads fuel budget is 500.00 per month for a well insulated 1400 sq ft. home} and 200.00 per month for food and whaddya got ? I'll tell ya what you've got, not enough money to pay even the most basic bills and NO MONEY at all left for a car, gas in the tank or insurance to get to work in the first place ! Like I said, live in a dream world if you wish but that's exactly what it is.

I have an answer for that; reduce welfare by 50%. People will work when the alternative is not eating.

It's Socialists like you who want to continue to suck bucks from the Producers to give to the Moochers.