Pa. jobless rate up, jobs at most scarce in decade

[The Northerner]

Source: Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A new report says jobs in Pennsylvania were harder to find in December than they have been in more than a decade.

The state Department of Labor and Industry said on Thursday that statewide unemployment jumped to 8.9 percent last month.

The October rate also was 8.9 percent, the highest level in 25 years, before dipping to 8.5 percent in November.

The department says employers eliminated about 8,100 jobs in December, leaving Pennsylvania with fewer than 5.6 million jobs — the lowest level since September 1999.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100121/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pennsylvania_jobs

[customerserviceguy]

1. Aren't people who lost jobs at the end of 2008

starting to drop off of the unemployment rolls as their extensions run out?

[TwixVoy]

2. Yes

also anyone who has taken part time minimum wage work (or took retail seasonal position during 4th quarter and are not unemployed again) no longer count.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

3. I'm one of the lucky ones so far.

I lost my job in April of 2008 and I am still receiving UC benefits for another few months thanks to all of the extensions.

When I lost my job and the UC benefits were supposed to end, I took out what was left in my investment plan thinking that we would need the money to live on and keep our house. That's going to kill us on our tax return this year.

I had no idea that they would keep granting UC extensions or I would have let the money stay where it was. I took it out at the low point in the recession thinking that we couldn't afford to lose any more of its' worth.

We still haven't had to tap into it yet but I couldn't see into the future when I took it out.

However, as I said, we're a lot better off than many people in this state. PA has lost so many jobs to Mexico and Asia that it's hard to find any jobs other than part time ones with no benefits in this area at least.