Cast Adrift: America’s Jobless Cope With Shredded Safety Net

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Cast Adrift: America’s Jobless Cope With Shredded Safety Net

Saturday
March 20
9:21 am

By Roger Bybee


"We haven’t seen anything like this before," economist Heidi Shierholz, of the Economic Policy Institute, recently remarked. "A really deep recession combined with a really extended period, maybe as much as eight years...of highly elevated unemployment."

Nor have we seen a period in which unemployment benefits cover such a small share of the jobless, imposing unbearable stress levels for the unemployed and their families.

A 2009 study of 1,200 jobless workers conducted by scholars at Rutgers, called the The Anguish of Unemployment, showed that just under half—43%—of the unemployed actually received unemployment benefits during the previous year. That "broadly reflects the national average," as Business Week put it. And 84% of the workers received no severance package or other compensation.

DESPITE AMERICA'S RICHES, A SHREDDED SAFETY NET

The absence of unemployment benefits has two obvious impacts. First, the economy loses consumer spending needed to re-ignite America's sputtering economy and get us beyond a "jobless recovery. But as Robert Reich points out, a complacent Cororate America is finding consumers overseas, as he points out in his article "The Sham Recovery." Worse, it deprives workers and their families of both income and independence. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5718/jobless_benefits_help_only_43_ratcheting_up_stress/

[ipaint]

1. A huge crisis is brewing.

he jobless rate remained at 9.7 percent, with 36,000 jobs lost in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today. The biggest hit came in construction, where employment fell by 64,000. Manufacturing remained steady but 18,000 jobs were lost in the information industry. Temporary help services added 48,000 jobs.

The ongoing agony for long-term (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) jobless workers continues, with 6.1 million workers in February, roughly the same level since December. Some four in 10 unemployed persons have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.

When both unemployed and underemployed workers are counted, there still are 26.2 million people without full-time work—a 16.8 percent under-employment rate. In fact, the under-employment rate (which includes not just the officially unemployed, but also jobless workers who have given up looking for work and part-time workers who want full time jobs) worsened from 16.5 percent to 16.8 percent.

The AFL-CIO is moving an aggressive plan to push for new jobs, calling on Congress and the Obama administration to take five immediate steps to address the jobs crisis.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/03/05/jobless-rate-remains-at-97-percent-long-term-unemployment-a-crisis/

The first wave of people that were eligible for benefits are just starting to reach the end of all the extra tiers. It's not going to be pretty.

[marmar]

2. And what happens when the millions of temporary Census jobs end?

It won't be pretty.

[madrchsod]

4. i`ve had guys in their 30`s handing out fliers...

for odd jobs. other guys have just stopped by and asked if there`s anything i needed help doing. hell i just barely have enough myself.

[glitch]

5. Exactly like stories from the Great Depression that my mom would tell.

My grandma would at least always give them a meal, because they had a garden and a cow and could spare a little.

This is much worse than the Reagan/Bush I "recession".

[rucky]

3. It's going to be a hot Summer.

look out!