Depression Economics: When The Jobless Run Out Of Unemployment Insurance

Slate:

If 2008 was the year of the financial crisis, and 2009 the year of the recession, then 2010 was the year of unemployment. The good news is that things are starting to look up, if modestly. The number of workers making initial unemployment claims--a good indicator of where the unemployment rate is heading--fell to its lowest level since July 2008 this week. Employers have started filling more available positions. And economists expect December's unemployment rate, to be released next week, to be lower than last month's.

Read the whole story: Slate

Comments

[demilieu]

05:29 PM on 01/11/2011

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D., ILL) requests unemployed people send him their resumes so he can address Congress on the plight of the long term unemployed in a more concrete manner. Other than this, email of snail mail the resumes to your elected official's offices in DC.

[ligligl]

11:34 PM on 01/06/2011

The 99ers are the Repub death panels

[fortressfountain]

07:21 PM on 01/06/2011

How come no big article about unemployment going up today? Humm, guess the strategy is the same as most of the media.
Ignore it and it will go away, or nudge people into believing something is factual when it is not.

[Thomas Kuzdal]

12:47 PM on 01/05/2011

Not really sure how 99es are supposed to find anything positive over jobs being added by Dollar General or your local appliance "rent to buy" store. Two years of unemployment, with or without UI, is a beatdown, especially if you've been gainfully employed.

Personally, I'm past the point of writing that "I'm better off that some". I've become that old guy I used to mock when I was in my teens. Of course, I'm surrounded by wizards who, being employed, can't relate.

Lacking things that sustain just sucks.

[Carrie Krueger]

12:22 PM on 01/05/2011

This is a very good time for 99ers or anyone long-term unemployed to get back into the job search. Hiring is picking up and those with optimism, energy and a job search strategy stand the best chance of being hired. Here is help with creating a job search strategy for the New Year: http://blog.jobfully.com/2011/01/job-search-strategy/

For those of you struggling with being overqualified or facing age discrimination, I tackle this topic with job seekers every day. Here are some great strategies for older workers: http://bit.ly/cIzqxP , and here is what to do if you are considered overqualified: http://bit.ly/cBbhBK

Don’t give up hope. Focus on what you can control and the steps you can take to get back to work.

[trobts]

04:00 PM on 01/04/2011

My question is -- HOW do you dismiss 10% (more like 20%) and their families of the population as non-existant? How do you (the government, politicians, corporations, wall street, banks and fellow Americans) just not see them anymore -- and believe there are no consequences (hunger, homeless, jobless, no healthcare) for leaving them (the 99ers) with NO WAY of surviving??? How does America justify this? I wish someone (anyone) would give me a non-partisan answer for justifying our non-humanity to these Americans!

[BraveWarrior]

04:17 PM on 01/04/2011

If the lives of millions, billions of starving people, butchered by weapons of mass destruction, to secure the wealth of natural resources, means nothing to these rulers, how important do you think are our lives? History focuses on the important actors, not the millions of faceless, nameless human beings that live and die in the shadows. Our non-humanity is a symptom of total corruption. The US State department is actively recruiting the most corrupt people and governments in the world. They care nothing about humanity or your welfare. Serve them or die. That has been the central theme of human history. Evil finds allies everywhere. Do you think for one minute that they regret sending our youth repeatedly to combat for the wealthy? Millions of little children go to sleep sick and hungry every night- so some of us can heat their pools. They want the masses to resist so they can depopulate the planet and not have to share resources. Get through your head, they hate the planet, they hate life, they hate us. Until you do we will remain slaves. Jesus railed against the money changers, Obama hires them.

[Arts4u]

09:05 PM on 01/04/2011

Because it doesn't become an issue until it affects them.

[OldTulsan]

01:53 PM on 01/04/2011

The Deficit Commission, appointed by Obama, is considering ending tax deduction for job-based health care insurance:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/health-care-tax-break-deficit_n_788852.html
Job-Based Health Care Threatened

"...Repealing the tax break would raise several hundred billion dollars a year, depending on how it's done. Many economists believe employers would boost pay if they didn't provide health care..."

Anyone who believes employers would boost pay is delusional.

[laaambchop]

07:41 AM on 01/05/2011

Interesting...that was what McCain wanted to do...

[OldTulsan]

01:42 PM on 01/04/2011

U.S. workers still employed are going to learn the Iron Law of Wages first-hand...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/24-2
Firms See Long-Sought Goal in Sight: Major Pay Cuts | CommonDreams.org

"...These firms are systematically implementing a major strategy to permanently drive down wages far below anything considered "middle class." The key tool for corporations: forcing acceptance of permanent two-tier wage structures and the insertion of nonunion casual workers into union plants to drive down union pay to levels unimaginable a couple years back. Big business is essentially trying to take back the hard-won gains of working people won over generations.

[snip]

Expect the downward wage spiral to continue under relentless pressure from corporations who see an endless surplus army of labor with 9.6% unemployment and benefits running out for two million in December.

For example, "Toyota 's goal has become $12.64 an hour, the median wage for comparable manufacturing in Kentucky, where it has its largest plant, or $10.79 in Alabama, where it is building a new plant," reports UC-Berkeley Prof. Harley Shaiken, a long-time scholar on labor issues and the auto industry..."

[MrJoyboy]

12:05 PM on 01/04/2011

In most cases in the modern world, you don't even have the option of growing your own food.

[lah007743]

10:16 AM on 01/04/2011

What will happen? You'll find out in about 6 mos or so. It's happening now, but everyone's just ignoring the signs.

[BraveWarrior]

06:28 PM on 01/04/2011

It's called denial. It is what sustains our country.

[s0yuz]

04:27 AM on 01/04/2011

There were more threats of civil disobedience when the airport body scanners were rolled out than there are people marching and demanding real solutions to the unemployment crisis. That's a shame.

[lah007743]

10:19 AM on 01/04/2011

F&F'd. Eventually, the elephant in the room will have to be dealth with. When most middle class citizens stop spending ...NOBODY will be getting rich.

[BraveWarrior]

04:22 PM on 01/04/2011

Generations raised as sheep will not spontaneously turn into tigers. It's not a shame, just the history of mankind.

[georgecarlin1776]

04:18 AM on 01/04/2011

The people will revolt and the rich will hire more police to beat them down.

[OldTulsan]

01:45 PM on 01/04/2011

The rich will hire private security forces like Xe Services (nee Blackwater), since most cities are cutting police forces.

[georgecarlin1776]

06:34 PM on 01/04/2011

That's a huge worry. They did it during Katrina. When that happens all hope will be severely challenged. If Obama does it though it will be ok with the sheep I'm sure.

[OldTulsan]

02:10 AM on 01/04/2011

http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/jobs_..._but_low_pay/
Jobs ... but low pay

"While a lack of jobs is arguably the biggest problem facing the labor market, another major concern is the quality of the jobs that are being created. The Figure presents the five fastest growing occupations between 2006 and 2009 and shows that all but one of them pays below the median wage in May 2009 of $15.95 an hour. The two fastest-growing occupations, home health care and food preparation and serving, pay closer to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour than the median wage. A food preparation worker’s typical wage of $8.28 an hour would earn an annual salary of $16,560, based on a typical 2,000-hour work year: That salary is just below the 2009 poverty threshold for a family of three. Warehouse stock clerks, another fast-growing occupation, would earn slightly more than $20,000 per year..."

You will have to cut and paste the link

[OldTulsan]

02:05 AM on 01/04/2011

The jobless will find little comfort that bankers have a get-out-of-jail-free card for laundering drug money:

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asU.b_fCjHTE
Wachovia's Drug Habit - Bloomberg.com

"...The bank didn’t react quickly enough to the prosecutors’ requests and failed to hire enough investigators, the U.S. Treasury Department said in March. After a 22-month investigation, the Justice Department on March 12 charged Wachovia with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to run an effective anti-money-laundering program.

Five days later, Wells Fargo promised in a Miami federal courtroom to revamp its detection systems. Wachovia’s new owner paid $160 million in fines and penalties, less than 2 percent of its $12.3 billion profit in 2009..."

That makes it hard to maintain the illusion of a nation of laws.

[cattuslavandula]

12:49 AM on 01/04/2011

The federal government could create broad retraining programs or even guaranteed work schemes, as a few European nations have. But congressional will is weak, and such programs are expensive.
*****
for the millionth time: RETRAIN FOR WHAT JOBS??????????????????
holy fricking cats!

[BraveWarrior]

04:31 PM on 01/04/2011

Thousands of jobs will open once we deport the last illegal immigrant. Picking crops, washing dishes, etc. Then the rich will need millions of goons to protect their private property and fight their wars. Anything is better than welfare?