Ranks Of Long-Term Unemployed Swells To Two Million

Mother Jones:

Not long ago, the city council of Ventura, California, passed an ordinance making it legal for the unemployed and homeless to sleep in their cars. At the height of the Great Recession of 2008, one third of the capital equipment of the American economy lay idle. Of the women and men idled along with that equipment, only 37 percent got a government unemployment check and that check, on average, represented only 35 percent of their weekly wages.

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[fortressfountain]

11:03 AM on 09/14/2011

Alert:
If you are on unemployment in the state of PA-the computer will no longer prompt you when you run out of benefits to apply for another tier. It will in fact say you will recieve 2 wks of benefits.
Always ask for a balance before you withdraw-as you will only recieve 1 wk of benefits so they can make money on atm over-charges.
Call their 800 on the debit card and get a sprewl of crape and never reach customer service.

[tacevad]

03:30 PM on 09/13/2011

a neocon's wet dream, more cannon fodder for their benefactors to profit from

[Arts4u]

02:49 PM on 09/13/2011

I believe this estimated number of two million to be extremely low. Unfortunately, it does not include the vast #'s of people who have been forced to work on a free-lance, contract basis as mid-career professionals over the last decade as job availability disappeared. In a time when they should be moving into their prime earnings years, they were falling behind, and living highly precarious financial lives. And we wonder why so many people lost their homes.

[democrats for life]

10:56 AM on 09/13/2011

Bush's 20 years of damage looks to underestimated

[vippy]

05:33 AM on 09/13/2011

...and that figure is only of those who qualify.  No one talks about the many, many employees that were employed in the intermittent category, 3 to 19 hours per week, and could not even file for unemployment.  Unemployment is nearing 50% and yet people still talk about a measly 10%, which we would never ever notice!

[jdevans]

10:48 PM on 09/12/2011

As a 99er, I can say the 2 million of us would get more attention if we were an army.

[Arts4u]

01:57 PM on 09/13/2011

What do (did) you do for a living?

[rocknrollin honeybadger]

10:35 PM on 09/12/2011

Congratulations Obama, this is an excellent achievement for you. Maybe you should go play some more golf.

[Arts4u]

02:41 PM on 09/13/2011

This is the result of 30 years of free-market capitalism and lots of bad decisions on the part of both parties. It will take a long time to repair, regardless of who is in office. Many say it will take 10-20 years....

The biggest problem is the fact that from 2001-2010, only 3 million jobs in total were created. During this time over 5 million jobs were off-shored. During this time the population grew by 22 million. There has been an ongoing jobs shortage for the past ten years, which has been well-hidden. Corporations rely more and more on part-time, freelance, contract workers and an undercurrent of job instability was allowed to develop.

This is in direct contrast to jobs creation in the 90's - when job creation kept pace with the population increase.

[dragonladywaltham]

10:29 PM on 09/12/2011

If we could band together we c/b a force to be reckoned with. I do not blame this administration but instead the "do nothing" part of congress and the large corporations who got there with our loyalty, sweat, and purchases. They are not grateful for the benefits of American capitalism that got them where they are. They are not even paying their fair share for their obscene profits.

[sueinmn]

07:36 PM on 09/12/2011

This is two million people who have lost all respect of a government who no longer represents the masses. Government needs the full faith of the people they govern or risk suffering what we have witnessed in the eastern parts of the world. The money masters and power grabbers had better begin to take notice as more join the ranks of the 99ers.

[jdevans]

10:52 PM on 09/12/2011

We haven't lost respect for all government, just the politicians who say us unemployed are lazy people who could find a job if we just get off the couch and think we should be drug-tested.

[Sickofpoliticians2]

07:35 AM on 09/13/2011

As a UK resident I see whats happening here is a direct mirror image of the situation over the pond, globalization is only working for the top 1% while we "feral underclass" as our government refer to us suffer greatly at their hands, systems need changing worldwide and till the people stand together we'll continue to suffer.