One of the most durable and popular government programs in the United States to deal with the problem of unemployment is that of unemployment insurance. During the past few decades, this financial support program has been limited to six months after a worker is laid off, while continually seeking new employment, unless Congress approves short extensions. The House of Representatives has voted to extend unemployment benefits and the Senate will take up this issue in a few weeks, having rejected this initiative earlier.
During the current recession, the official nationwide unemployment has hovered at around 10 percent of the workforce, with more than eight and one half million citizens currently unemployed, and with most receiving unemployment compensation. With few new jobs being created during the past two years, most of the unemployed workers have been unable to find new work, which has resulted in more than one million workers remaining unemployed for more than one year.
It is common for companies looking for new workers to not consider hiring unemployed persons, fearing that they may have been laid off because of poor performance, but rather seek those who wish to transfer from their current jobs. Many of those seeking employment have become so discouraged that they are listed as no longer looking for work, making the unemployment statistics appear better than actually is the case. Many other workers are currently employed in jobs that are considerably lower than their previous positions, and often only part time, which limits work benefits such as health care. More than seventy percent of workers who have been laid off are males. Unfortunately, those unemployed for more than a year often become discouraged, and it has been reported that they have less than a fifty percent likelihood of ever going back to full-time work.
Many of the jobs from which workers have received pink slips may not be available again when the economy returns to a more normal state since advances in technology are rapidly changing the positions needed in the work force. While the issue is coming up again, Congress has recently turned down legislation to extend unemployment benefits for an additional six months or longer, which means that many of the long-term unemployed will become destitute, without any income. Sociologists, economists, and other social scientists have found that that crime, spousal abuse, delinquency, drug addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, and many other social ills stem directly or indirectly from unemployment.
As one important example, sociologists were mystified by the fact that suicide rates tend to fall in time of war until economists found that since the unemployment rate falls in time of war that change leads directly to a reduction in the number of suicides. As we see it, it would be beneficial to use government funds or programs to provide jobs which might enhance many communities and national infrastructure, such as road reconstruction, national and state parks maintenance, helping in home construction in underserved communities, assisting in the Gulf oil spill disaster, and many others. Although these jobs may not necessarily be similar to those which workers had before being laid off, they often do not require advanced technical skills.
The American worker, in most cases, receives psychological and self esteem benefits from being able to earn an income from some form of gainful work. Long-term unemployed workers might be requested to take such jobs in order to continue to receive their additional unemployment compensation, and possibly health benefits, but could return to their desired employment status when further jobs become available. Historically, this concept of public work programs was very effective in the U.S. following the Great Depression in the 1930's under various programs begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, including the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, and we are still benefiting from these programs in terms of our National Parks, Post Offices, conservation, etc.
Providing government-supported employment and education to returning servicemen from the Iraq and Afghanistan who are unable to obtain work on their own should also be seriously considered. Government assistance in obtaining further education for long-term unemployed workers in areas of future industrial development would also be helpful in enhancing future jobs in America, making our citizens more competitive on the world market, and using public funds more effectively than is currently the case. We believe that t would make sense to regard the U.S. Federal government as the employer of last resort.
Eric W. Fonkalsrud is Professor Emeritus of Surgery at UCLA and Michael D. Intriligator is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Political Science, and Public Policy at UCLA.
They were directly hired by the gov't to improve communities. This
sounds like what the author is alluding too. It is a good idea, I
hope it can be implemented again.
Save money, cut the deficit, employ everyone, cut energy dependence:
Immediately order energy retrofits for all gov buildings.
Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.
install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a7K1FZoNgJ0w
Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.12 Wind power approaches competitiveness with conventional generation at this price point. “
http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/wind%20issue%20brief_FINAL.pdf
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/publ/BiofBioproBioref%203,%20547-562,%202009%20Laird.pdf
26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.
One has to wonder if this will turn our country into a 2 class society: Upper and Lower? As the number of manufacturing jobs are becoming smaller, that leaves service jobs. But if fewer and fewer will be able to pay for these services, then what?
Unless of course there is a meaningful democratic opponent for a presidential primary or a third party that rises up.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/the-real-science-gap-16191/
if you create a separate nation for them then they are not americans anymore
improve things by all means, for all of us, and they will be leaders among us in our towns
they get VA care, VA benefit as they ought to
not surprising really, unemployment, high insurance costs, retirement with no money..many already lived thru the 70s recession and lost jobs several times
politicians scare us about abortion, terrorist, death panels...but this doesn't make the news much
what is wrong?
where's the one we voted for?
somehow the people need to work around gov't if it fails us
either that or somehow try to force gov't to act
would be good discussion...every week good ideas surface here but few are adopted by gov't
I also, keep hearing all this talk of retrain, retrain, retrain, but if you're actively looking for a job, you can't really commit to say six months or even a year of education. What if you end up getting a job in the meantime, plus how can you afford it when you're not working, and finally, you could go to school for a year or so and then STILL not be able to find a job.
Remember when employers used to actually pay employees or give them time off to continue their educuation? It used to actually be a fairly standard benefit to keep your workforce on top of their skills. Now I'm not sure any company does that anymore. So you get in this catch22, you really need to be working to afford to go to school (part-time) yet your employer is going to be threatened if you're studying and asking "don't you want to stay in this job?"