Long-Term Unemployment: A 99er Gets Hired In North Carolina

Before landing a full-time job that started last week, Ali Braswell didn't think she could make September's rent. She'd started scoping out storage options for her stuff and shelters where she could bring her two young children.

"I was running on fumes. I really did not know what I was going to do," said Braswell, who is 40 and lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. "I believed the Lord was going to make something happen. If we were going to go into a shelter then I was going to make the best."

Braswell told HuffPost she got hired last month to do human resources and customer service work for a global IT company with a location in nearby Pittsboro. She's making less money than she used to, but she said she feels "blessed."

She'd been out of work for longer than two years after losing her job as a payroll coordinator halfway through 2009. Since then, she said she had gotten by with $480 a week in unemployment insurance benefits and about $90 a week from a part-time job as a desk attendant in a residence hall at the University of North Carolina.

The unemployment benefits lapsed for a month over the summer because of an impasse between statehouse Republicans and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue. The standoff stopped only when Perdue issued a surprise executive order, restoring benefits to nearly 50,000 North Carolinians. (In her order, Perdue cited the experience of a single mom like Braswell: "Because she lost her benefits she and her daughter can no longer stay in their apartment. They have nowhere to put their belongings so they will also lose everything that they can carry to the homeless shelter.")

"It's such a blessing to get this money but I only have about six weeks left," Braswell told HuffPost in June. "There aren't going to be any more reprieves. Things are still dire."

Braswell said her benefits ran out at the beginning of August. Several promising leads fell through, including an interview for an administrative position that had given Braswell a good feeling. Still, she stayed positive -- something that's very difficult for people to do when they've been isolated from steady work for so long.

"I never started to doubt myself," she said. "I never started to feel like I’m not worth anything. I never started to doubt my skills."

Braswell said the fact that she'd been working part time made it easier for her to get hired. Indeed, many employers specify in online job ads that the unemployed need not apply, a practice decried last week by none other than President Obama. (Braswell said she's keeping a few shifts at the dorm to complement the new gig. "I get home in the evening, I've been wiped out, tired, but it feels good.")

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 2 million "99ers" -- people who've been out of work for 99 weeks or longer, which is the cutoff point for unemployment benefits in the hardest hit states (technically, Braswell would not count as "unemployed" because of her part-time work -- instead she'd count as one of the more than 8 million underemployed). The Obama administration estimated last December that 4 million people would run out of benefits without finding work this year (some of those people receive fewer than 99 weeks, and some find jobs). Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist recently tapped to head President Obama's economics team, reported in a January working paper with co-author Andreas Mueller that the unemployed do not look for work more frantically when their benefits expire.

In July, John Allison of Charlotte, N.C. -- who'd been out of work almost exactly as long as Braswell -- passed the 99 week mark. Allison, 37, said he used to work as a landscaping consultant. He said he's moved in with family and that not having to worry anymore about his benefits expiring has made him more relaxed.

"I applied for any position at an Apple retail store that is opening here next month," Alison wrote in a July 25 email. "Today I received my last unemployment check. I am now a 99er. At 2:30 today I received a rejection email stating that Apple had moved forward with candidates that meet the needs of today. I have 15 years retail experience, 5 of which are in management, and I can't even get a part time spot with Apple retail."

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Comments

[Bays72]

07:16 PM on 09/09/2011

For those reading the comments, I just wanted to let you know that comments posted a person using the name "Hotness" are paid comments. Here is what they had to say when I asked how much they were getting paid...

"Why aren't you getting paid for your time is a better question..­.what? can't find anybody stupid enough to pay you, so you do things for free. Posting in comment sections doesn't come under the category of a charitable act for me."

Sounds like an admission to me. Of course you'll have to make up your own mind.

[Bays72]

11:29 PM on 09/09/2011

Hmmmm, I'm noticing that a number of posts by "Hotness" and the responses have disappeared.

[Cleo Creech]

08:23 PM on 09/08/2011

This really rings a bell. I too was unemployed for over two years. I picked up the occasional free-lance job, I worked for the census, I contracted. I worked for an old company I used to work with, until I happened to note that i was supervising people working for temp agencies that made more money than me AND got benefits (I was let go within the hour). I came within 2 weeks of losing my home, went through all mys savings, ebay'd everything that wasn't nailed down.

Now I have a good job, already been put up for a promotion. Gotten bonuses, etc.

So which is it, am I a valued skilled employee - or a bum?

[FLDeziner]

03:40 PM on 09/08/2011

If you haven't had to look for a job in the last 12 months, it's hard to understand exactly how bad it is out here. The employers keep moving the goal posts for employees, wages & possible benefits.

A Fortune 500 company hired a worker for approx. 20 hrs per week at about minimum wage. The worker was told he could qualify for benefits when he hit 1300 hours, about 65 weeks of work. However, the employer never scheduled him for 20 hours per week, and simply hires more & more workers, that also never get to put in 20 hours per week. There's no way to support yourself on this amount of money,& be scheduled for so few hours.

Now the employer has indicated that beginning this next year, workers will not qualify for benefits until they reach 1500 hours, 75 weeks. It's not like the employees can leave the job, there's nothing else to go to.

It may be legal, but how will anyone get ahead if the employers game the system against the workers. Does anyone understand why we need unions? Not to negotiate $25 and hour salaries, but just to make $10 per hour and have the goal to eventually qualify for benefits. Don't think that's too much to ask. The individual employee has no power, and if they report the employer to the labor board, what exactly do you think is going to happen to the employee?

[reading2009]

02:46 PM on 09/08/2011

This is still the wrong conversation, however. Why is the GOP so resistant to building jobs? That's the real conversation to have. And yes, I am aware that Obama is president, but the stimulus would have created more work had the GOP not fought it down. And now they're not even bothering to attend the president's speech on jobs. Gotta love 'em: Party (and politics) before country.

[jdevans]

07:32 PM on 09/08/2011

The GOP is obstructionist because they want Pres. Obama to fail. They don't care that Americans are suffering.

[Howard Scott Pearlman 59]

02:14 PM on 09/08/2011

Now we just have 5,999,999 more people for the GOP to find jobs for.

Eric Cantor - we, Republicans, have been pushing for cuts and not jobs, we need to change that !

Republicans have only been out to lunch and missed what has been going on in America for the last DECADE !

And they want control of America again.

Can Republicans get any more HEARTLESS ?

[Lorraine Rose Kupko]

02:08 PM on 09/08/2011

I was a property manager, lost my job more than 3 years ago. I have applied to local convenient stores who say I am over qualified. I have sent out over 2,000 resume's in the past 9 months, applied for hundreds of jobs over the internet, and because of my lack of income, I have lost my home, my car, and had to sell off several key pieces of furniture to keep my belly full. I now reside with a girlfriend who has made it clear she really dosen't want to deal with it anymore. I am looking for a place to live where I can exchange some handywoman work for rent. I am not really sure I am gonna beat this 'recession'. I am in a depression.

[fortressfountain]

02:05 PM on 09/08/2011

Looks like my posts, disappear or do not get posted.

It is propaganda that people do not get hired after 99 wks. I know of at least 50 people who found jobs.
This was probablly put out by the politicans and corporations who wanted people to just take any job so they could save on unemployment insurance and offer low wages.
I even know quite a few people who are making more than they did before because they did not just settle for any job.

[demilieu]

02:01 PM on 09/08/2011

Yes it's hard to not feel, at least sometimes, that you've failed...when you see people here and there who seem to be doing fine, even very well. Not that there's resentment there, but it makes me wonder. What I've learned: how people land in life, it's hard to predict.

[fortressfountain]

01:42 PM on 09/08/2011

Why does a company not have to give you a reason when they do not hire you. I think they should be required by law. That way the employee will know if some wrong doing was committed by their previous employer or the problem is with themselves.
Not knowing, wastes a lot of time and effort.

[beansie]

01:31 PM on 09/08/2011

And why is unemployment not being extended for these people.......and dont anyone on here tell me that they are unwilling and just slugs.....cuz I will respond to those emails with facts....you know just the facts mam....

[oilfield]

12:39 PM on 09/08/2011

she took a job for less money....that is the key to folks finding a job...why would you take too much less when you are getting almost 500.00 per week in benefits....i wonder what the unemployment stats are vs states unemployment max pay.

[TruEngineHearing]

12:34 PM on 09/08/2011

These are heart aching stories and they just keep coming. Before our eyes, and to our great astonishment, America is morphing into a harsh territory of joblessness and creeping poverty, and of guns, and bankruptcy and lost homes; with endless, undefined war, and a totally dysfunctional political climate offering nobody who appears able to lead us out of this...

[barkingcat]

09:18 AM on 09/08/2011

This is good news.

One down and 2 million minus one to go.

[JohnTheMac]

09:14 AM on 09/08/2011

I'm self employed, and told friends to list me as their last employer.
This way, they could make the hurdle of "we only hire people who already have a job".

[beansie]

01:32 PM on 09/08/2011

I have done the same thing.....good for you......sometimes we need to bend the rules for people in need......good luck to you...

[demilieu]

02:05 PM on 09/08/2011

Employers are pretty smart. Most can see through that easily, especially if you're applying for a job as a skilled professional.

[JohnTheMac]

05:55 AM on 09/09/2011

no, it's worked out well, and depending what kind of professional they are, we make up a story of what they can do for my business. We keep everything pretty vague, and I'm great on the phone! If nothing else, it avoids those gaps in the resume.

[JustinP213]

09:03 AM on 09/08/2011

Congrats