1.5 Million To Exhaust Unemployment Benefits By The End Of The Year

More than 500,000 Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of September. And by the end of the year, the number will near 1.5 million, according to a report released Friday by the National Employment Law Project.

"It is clear we are coming up on a tidal wave of need for more extensions and help from the federal government," said Andrew Stettner, NELP deputy director, in a statement.

David Smith, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, told the Huffington Post that up to 25,000 people will exhaust their unemployment benefits this weekend alone.

"It's the first large wave," he said.

In California, 177,759 will lose their benefits come January; in New York, the total is 131,893. More than 72,000 people in Michigan, where the unemployment rate hit 15.2 percent in June, will stop getting checks at the beginning of the year.

The NELP praised the $787 billion stimulus package for covering the full cost of extended benefits for 2.8 million workers. But the report, noting the record number of long-term unemployed -- 4.4 million people have been out for 6 months or longer -- calls for an expansion of benefits for people who will run out in September.

"Never in the history of the unemployment insurance program have more workers been unemployed for such prolonged periods of time," Stettner said. "With an onslaught of exhaustions just around the corner, Americans still need robust benefits to keep their families and communities above water."

Federal Reserve leaders forecast on Wednesday that they don't expect the economy to get its act together for another five or six years. Many economists are calling for additional stimulus spending by the government.

Click here for a PDF of the NELP's state-by-state breakdown.

Comments

[Indra]

Unemployment is good for people. It can be the best learning experience you will ever have. Most people are too egotistical and actually think that they deserve the jobs they have. For most people this is not true. You are all replaceable and not worth much from a corporate point of view. Once you realize this through being unemployed, you can move on to a more accurate picture of your worth and try to develop something that is really worth something in your life. It can be an interesting experience losing your home, wife or husband and friends because you have lost a job and are now worthless in their eyes. The best part is when people you have known run away from you as if they are going to catch the unemployment virus from you. When you think about it, you will realize how shallow all those relationships were to begin with and that you are now better off without them. You will be free for the first time in your life to really do what you want to do.

[springbaby]

Your outlook is hopeful and I would tend to agree with you if these were normal times. The experience will be worse and more scarring than the GD. It will be hard to find any self worth after months even years of unemployment. This will not be over soon.

[sueinmn]

Sorta like saying hungry children will look for work?

Mine runs out this month.
Im a licensed electrician am I suppose to believe now that my "worth" is probably in flipping burgers?

Yes I will be "free" to go pitch a tent somewhere, how does your front yard sound?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Sorry to hear about your situation. If you are a union electrician, I hope that part of your plan involves being active in your union and getting some of the union leaders to get off their butts. They have been too complaicant.

[sandiegoconservative]

Yeah! We can all buy a ticket for the Good Ship Lollipop as well, and just sail away into the sunset singing and holding hands.

[totaldisbelief]

that's what I plan on doing.

[Adartist777]

I bet you have a job, doncha? It's easy to criticize unless you've been there, right?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

There is a possibility that the opposite is true. Indra might be one of those trust-fund babies or another economically-protected people who has never had a job but may think that its a good idea for others to be hungry for employment. The phrase "Well let them eat cake" comes to mind.

[Hina]

I am sorry to read about your job situatuin. Many hard working people are in the same boat. May I suggest something that really helped me trim our family expense. Its a FREE website and it teaches you how to bring your grocery/utilities/etc costs down. Check it out and see if it can give you some $$ saving ideas:


www.hotcouponworld.com

Best of luck

[totaldisbelief]

Maybe what she means is to separate your idea of yourself from material things and look inside yourself and re-evaluate...It may sound trite but volunteering and helping someone else may lessen the burdens you place on yourself. I think many people will find a new side to themselves if they regroup and examine their inner selves. Many have been monetary slaves, doing jobs they disliked. It's possible now that a new road may become available that fits them better.
At the very least a defeatist, condemning and self-pitying attitude is a soul killer.
My life is changing as well and mercifully so far it's an adventure; but I've had to "let go"
of "old" things. The advantage for me is that I have had many trips out onto the thin financial ice before and survived. This is a great time for America to ask itself what is really important. Most people won't do it , Big Business won't do it, Government won't do it and They won't save YOU....You will save You. Go out and help rebuild your families and your communities.

[gypsy508]

You could always live like this guy:

http://www.wiredgypsy.com/homeless.htm

[totaldisbelief]

Oh yeah that works .......another speedbump on the road of life.

[sosi]

But. Goldman Sachs made record profits on taxpayer bailout money; bonus at least $700K/person.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine

[totaldisbelief]

well let's all go work for GS !!!!
or have we been doing that..with no bonuses?

[FogBelter]

Well, at least the ranks of the unemployed will drop by 1.5 million from the Labor Department's perspective.

"Happy days are here again!"

[totaldisbelief]

a good patriotic citizen will just roll over and die after his/her benefits runs out.

[themodernleader]

GeorgeBright and others. My son Scott, a competent, valuable engineer is unemployed and he tells me the same story of dried up opportunity and employers' goal of hiring the perfect candidate. I write my Senator and try to at least make him have a sense of guilt for his negligence and incompetence. I sense that pressure is building in both parties for new policies. Unfortunately, we appear to have lost our democratic moorings as the needs of the bankers and other wealthy oligarchs subjugate the basic needs of a benighted citizentry.

[totaldisbelief]

the light finally comes on!

[iridium53]

Unemployment insurance barely covers minimal, basic income to cushion the problem.

And, these individuals, for the most part, do not have health care coverage.

Millions are in deep financial need.

Yet, the Obama administration chooses to ignore the terrible situation of these taxpayers.

All the while giving billions to already rich bankers.

[sueinmn]

Yes and WE are the ones that got him elected!

[totaldisbelief]

WE are the ones that elected the last ones too...and before that as well.
Maybe our vote means nothing?

[vippy]

The difference between a socialist country like Germany vs the USA is that unemployment benefits don't run out until you find another job. Here it is 6 months. USA is not planning for bad times, which they have every so often.

[coveark]

But gee don't you see, Germany is a socialist country.................God forbid that we draw our heads out of the dark...............We are seriously sqrood up........................We have existed on drivel for too long.

[Expatslacker]

Move to Germany.

[CologneCitizen]

Sorry, I have to disagree. I live in Germany and we are NOT a socialist country. Socialism was tried out in eastern Europe including East Germany. I grew up in West Germany and we NEVER were anything close to a socialist model. When the iron curtain came down and Germany was re-united it happened under the West Germany rule.

What is true we have a party that is called Social Democratic Party, (SPD) They had good chancellors like Willy Brandt or Helmut Schmidt. And the Conservative Democratic Party, (CDU) is in fact not so different. The goal for German politicians is to better the life and existence of our people. What is wrong with a social system that takes care of unemployment, schooling, medicine, infrastructure, pensions, police forces, fire brigades, defense, everything is paid from taxes. But we have a CAPITALIST system no matter which way you look at it. Maybe your or my definitions are just different.

If we were a socialist country, I doubt all the big corporations would invest and set up businesses over here as they are doing in the last 60 years.

[totaldisbelief]

Thank you..it's all in the definitions that's why the various groups and media try so hard to obscure the meaning of words.
the meat of your statement is "The goal for German politicians is to better the life and existence of our people" ...... it seems our leaders don't do that.

[StPeteDave]

I hope they get a bailout. I was lucky, I found a job where I live. I pray for them, hardest thing I have ever gone through.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

****It must be a nightmare for you to narrate a compelling argument, so you'd rather fantacized that America is still the land of Opportunity.

Wake up Igor, it's the 21 st century, and every industries are going to China and Japan. Of course, if you are on welfare, you're one of the luck ones - check in the mail, food stamps, paid housing and allowance for basic life expenses.

Yup, "America is the The Greatest Country In The Whole Wide World Ever!!!!!!!11111 ".

IN YOUR DREAMS !***

I see that sarcasm blows completely over your head.

[vippy]

And still, people believe the lies that we have 10% unemployment when it should be like 25% in 12 states. 10% don't have much of an impact. It is far worse out there, try to find employment and then talk about it. However, perhaps we have to fall on our faces first in order to wake up to the ruthless and crooked politicians we have. They did nothing to prevent this, they made no plans for bad times like they urge us to do, they vote themselves big pay raises. They bail out the banks that had their money invested, they do absolutely nothing for the little person. Maybe we will get
smarter but then I believe we are too far gone to turn this around. Worst case scenario they don't want us to improve, they got us where they want us.

[Expatslacker]

Yes they do, now lets get them where we want them in 2010...unemployed.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

You're right. The official unemployment rates are bogus.

Another big lie that we've been told, a related one, is that there are 11 million illegal aliens in this country. While more come year after year, that lie has been repeated year after year.

[totaldisbelief]

that's why ammo is scare.

[breakingpoint]

take the profits and wealth from these crooked banks and give it rightly back to the people by creating jobs.

This Goldman Ponzi Scheme must end!

[themodernleader]

We give our wealth to finance. Once the unemployment benefits run out, these benighted individuals will not be counted as unemployed. The economy will be improving as our country goes down the drain.
The failure to create purposeful, wealth building jobs is a fatal mistake of historical impact. Our country is gradually being entrapped in the web of international, foreign nation control. Servitude and poverty is our rendezvious with destiny. Timid, corrupt and incompetent leadership is our vehicle to this destiny. Oh, well. Governance by the many is an aberration in human history. We had a good run.

[Expatslacker]

So lets just lay down & take it....Not me, that is NOT the American Way.

[totaldisbelief]

locked and loaded

[Davwbaird]

just think of all the credit card bills that don't get paid. remember if we all had bad credit America would cease to exist.

[GeorgeBright]

Count me as one of those 500,000 - my benefits run out in about three weeks. I've lived frugally and saved as much as I could so I've got enough to last until December, then the fun really starts. Coming from a high-tech background you'd think it would be easy to find a new job but these days the jobs are fewer and fewer and older, more experienced employees are undesirable. I can't begin to count how many jobs I've applied for and it's always discouraging to hear "we've had 300 applications for this job!"

[assbite]

Lose the mustache, you'll' look twenty years younger and not so much like Yosemite Sam.

[tlgeiger62]

Your moniker suits you.

[tlgeiger62]

My husband and I are in the same boat. I've been able to keep us a little ahead by cleaning houses but it's no way to make a living let me tell you. I've been a stay at home mom whose tried to keep up her resume' by working part time for a mortgage broker. I'm in my late 40's and hubby is just 40 and in the tech industry here in GA. Amazingly tough right now.

Hang in there. There are a lot of us out there and somehow it will work out. We have to believe that and put one foot in front of the other. And believe me, there are days when I find it extemely hard to do.

[Expatslacker]

Stay strong & don't give up. The next house you clean may be present a huge job oportunity...there is alway tomorrow & you just never know where the breaks will come from.

[jdevans]

Don't know which is more depressing -- that my benefits just ran out or that I've been unemployed and looking for another job for a year now.

[HTooley]

Maybe you should move to India. I hear that HP is offshoring some more jobs there.

They (HP) bought EDS (remember Ross Perot's company). It's now been fully integrated into the HP paradigm. I wonder if Ross ever thought that his former company would become part of the 'sucking sound' that he talked so much about? Or maybe that sucking sound was that of Hurd (their CEO) taking 50 million in stock options last year... hard to tell.

[Dennis]

One of the many sad aspects of this is that because politicians from both parties tweaked the way unemployment is measured over the years the 1.5 million whose unemployment benefits run out will no longer be counted as unemployed. If we calculated unemployment the way we did 80 years ago (The same way we counted it during the Great Depression, for instance) the official unemployment rate would be 19%.
The rate published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the "U3" rate: the number of those collecting unemployment benefits. Not so widely published is the Bureau's "U6" rate. That includes involuntary part-time workers and discouraged workers (People who just can't find a job). The "U6" rate is currently 16.4%.
But, hey, unemployment hit 25% during the Great Depression so we're not so bad off - right? Wrong. Unemployment hit 25% four years after the market crashed. We're less than a year out from when things came undone and real unemployment is at 16.4% already.
This will get ugly.

[springbaby]

I agree with you. This same discussion on U3 and U6 was on another thread. As bad as it is, I pointed out that we need to look at the loss of revenue from income taxes rather than count numbers. We are spiraling out of control.

[Expatslacker]

Joe Biden says you have to spend money to prevent BK...That mentality is scarey

[mbaty]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, it might help us realize how much we need to build in social safety nets, and on the other hand, we obviously have the money to cover this--we just aren't putting it there. If we continue to do what we have been doing we will get the same results we have been getting...and it seems that is what will happen.
This economy is dying. Let's reincarnate it into something happy.

[springbaby]

We don't have the money. If we did we would kick the can further down the road like we have for the past 20 years. Game is over.

[totaldisbelief]

25 cents of every federal tax dollar goes to Defense.

[1sparrow]

keep that employee of the year certificate. make a zillion copies. vindictiveness is not good karma.

[1sparrow]

fed reserve won't expect economy to "get it together", for 5 to 6 years... it won't hit bottom for 5 to 6 years. DON'T LIKE TRUTH MUCH D'YA.