Tom Corbett Says The Unemployed Just 'Sit There'

The Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania says that extended unemployment benefits discourage the jobless from looking for work.

"The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there," Pennsylvania attorney general Tom Corbett told radio reporter Scott Detrow last week. "I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until -- they say, 'We'll come back when unemployment runs out.'"

This week Corbett said he "didn't mean it to be insensitive."

Corbett joins the ranks of GOP candidates Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, not to mention several members of Congress -- including Democrats -- who suspect the jobless of preferring not to work.

Like the others, Corbett said business owners have told him they've had hiring trouble because potential workers prefer to collect unemployment checks. Also, like the others, Corbett declined to name the businesses.

HuffPost readers: Own a business? Having hiring trouble because of extended unemployment benefits? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail].

There are currently five people looking for work for every job opening, according to the Department of Labor, and only 67 percent of the nearly 15 million unemployed receive benefits in the first place. For all the anecdotes about business owners having hiring trouble, there are job ads flatly stating that the unemployed need not apply. But suspicion of the unemployed, coupled with wariness of the deficit, has led to an epic holdup in Congress over reauthorizing benefits for people who've been jobless for six months or longer. The benefits lapsed at the end of May, causing some 2.1 million so far to miss checks.

Comments

[hipichick7]

03:59 PM on 07/22/2010

Dear Mr. Corbett~hope to see you on the unemployment lines very soon.

[wonmean]

09:59 PM on 07/20/2010

What an apology.
You weren't trying to be callous, but you ended up being callous anyway.

"Jobs are there." -Tom Corbett
Perhaps at severe pay cut compared to prior to the Recession.
I wonder if Congressional members would voluntarily take pay reductions.
(Yes, I know this particular guy in the article is an AG)

[Jea46750]

04:22 PM on 07/20/2010

I thought if you refused a recall to work, your benifits were terminated. So how can these companies make a claim like this?

[BigJazzCat]

10:57 PM on 07/19/2010

... from this point forward i will be sending out my resume standing UP ... thank you !!

[Bluerainbow]

11:39 AM on 07/20/2010

LOL!

[Robert McEachern]

01:56 PM on 07/17/2010

I am sitting there ok. Waiting for the phone to ring. I am 60 years old, laid off a 50,000 yr. salary with commissions. Yep, employers are just lining up to hire me. Now my meager benefits are frozen. Maybe I can work for the esteemed Senator? Got a job for me? Mow your lawn.. maybe clean your pool? Wax your Lexus?

[The Boomeranger]

01:28 PM on 07/17/2010

What a ridiculous statement. Why would I choose to sit...unemployed....advanced degree and all.
And they know the monetary amount of the benefits. Whoo Hoo! I am raking in the dough.....uurrghhh!

[Chlowina]

11:32 PM on 07/16/2010

***The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there***

If you know for a fact the jobs are there, then call them and let them know they can return to work.

[Mr Vegetarian NY]

07:13 PM on 07/16/2010

How dare you say I Just 'Sit There' . . .
I Just 'Sit There' with a beer, . . until I have to get up for another beer . .

[Bowhawk67]

09:39 PM on 07/15/2010

Foreclosers hit a million today in this country. In other years it was about 100,000 a year through out the country. So go ahead and take away those benefits from people who need them to pay the mortgage on there houses and we will see if we can hit 3 million by the end of 2010 and really watch our economy go down the dumper. Start doing YOUR JOBS WASHINGTON and create some friggin JOBS and take of your people in this country.

[Bowhawk67]

09:18 PM on 07/15/2010

One last thing, I would not mind losing my job if I collected the same pension and healthcare as all of our friends in Washington get. Would any of you?

[Bowhawk67]

09:07 PM on 07/15/2010

"I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until -- they say, 'We'll come back when unemployment runs out.'" You have got to be kidding me!!! I live in Illinois just outside of chicago, There are houses under constructions that have been under construction for over a year and half and are sitting there because the banks won't give builders a dime. I have freinds who are carpenters and plumbers who are dying to work!!! Plus the fact like suchabigmouth says we pay into SDI. I have worked since I was 15 years old and my job I lost over a year and half ago at age 41 I had that job for twenty years straight. And during those years I worked 6 days a week sometimes 10 to 14 hours a day meaning out of those 6 days I saw my 3 kids maybe 10 hours. I worked if I was well or sick just like most of my fellow Americans who have lost there jobs over the past year or so. But Tom Corbett we are all lazy you are a cluless SOB!!!!
Oh also Tom, I was on my feet 90% of the time I worked and not on my LAZY A**!!!!

[Bowhawk67]

08:39 PM on 07/15/2010

I thought my ex-gov Blago was an a**clown!!! God help Pennsylvania if this guy get's in. He is like all of them in washington, Totally out of touch with the real folks in this country. You know all of us who pay them to do the right things for Americans. CLOWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chlowina]

11:28 PM on 07/16/2010

Thanks for the sympathy. Many of us dread the idea of him being governor too. He's a slime ball. Started a campaign several years ago to find dirty dems, and has continually ignored my emails asking him when he's going to start pulling the dirty repubs into the public eye and prosecute them. It was all a political game. Someone busted one repub and he turned his back and ignored the accusation.

[JASWM]

04:36 PM on 07/15/2010

'"I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until -- they say, 'We'll come back when unemployment runs out.'"'

You'd think the Attorney General would know that if an employee refuses a call to come back to work, they're cut off from unemployment. At least one person here is full of bull, and I think it may be more than one person.

[wonmean]

10:01 PM on 07/20/2010

This.

[lafayette2009]

02:30 PM on 07/15/2010

We have just conducted interviews for a senior salesperson (higher than a 5-1 ratio of resumés received) and have narrowed it down to two. Both unemployed because of involuntary lay-offs. In honest conversation, they said that the benefits they received were approximately 20% of what they had been earning before the lay-offs.

I wonder how the people in Congress who say that the UI makes people "lazy", would survive if we reduced their fat cat salaries by 80% so instead of being paid $174,600 a year, they were paid $35,000.

They fly/drive into DC sometime on a Monday and, if any of you have been at Ronald Regan Airport anytime after 11:00am on Friday, you would likely see a lot of familiar faces leaving town. Their "work week" is Tuesday - Thursday and most don't even attend debates about issues on which they have to vote.

They left for their Memorial day week off leaving the UI situation in the air and then again for a 10-day July 4 break without resolution. They came back last Monday and will be leaving again for their summer recess in 3-weeks.

If I had an employee who took so much time off ignoring our business at hand and our clients, they would not be involuntarily laid off. Serving in Congress, especially the Senate, was never intended to be a "career" and since they work part-time anyway, maybe $35k is a more reasonable stipend for them!!

[Hellinahandbag]

03:10 PM on 07/15/2010

You are my hero of the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Donnat]

12:38 PM on 07/15/2010

"They just sit around waiting for their benefits to run out"
Sounds like Congress, TOM.