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Thread: chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

  1. #1
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

    this is when being unemployed stops being a 'vacation' and starts to turn serious ...





    (snip)"Back in December, the qualification dates for existing tiers of unemployment benefits were extended for an additional two months. Time is up at the end of February.

    Now another extension is needed or millions of workers will lose benefits over the next few months.

    The National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a new report last week showing that ...

    1.2 million jobless workers will become ineligible for federal unemployment benefits in March unless Congress extends the unemployment safety net programs from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). By June, this number will swell to nearly 5 million unemployed workers nationally who will be left without any jobless benefits.
    ...
    Currently, 5.6 million people are accessing one of the federal extensions (34-53 weeks of Emergency Unemployment Compensation; 13-20 weeks of Extended Benefits, a program normally funded 50 percent by the states).

    This table shows the NELP's projections:
    Of the almost 1.2 million workers facing a cut off of benefits in March alone:

    •380,000 workers will exhaust their 26 weeks of state benefits without accessing the temporary EUC extension program or the permanent federal program of Extended Benefits.

    •Another 814,000 workers will not be eligible to continue receiving EUC past their current tier of benefits."(snip)

    from


    Obvious questions will be ...

    - whether or not the US Congress will vote to yet again extend 'emergency unemployment benefit' coverage, despite the 100+ billion dollar additional annual cost / deeper gov't budget deficits.

    - how will US states handle the additional costs of having the long term unemployed migrate from receiving unemployment checks to receiving welfare / medicaid / subsidized rent / subsidized utilities etc.

    - how will US banks handle yet another rash of bankruptcies as long term unemployed homeowners give up on making even partial mortgage payments and long term unemployed credit card holders give up on making even minimum credit card payments.

    - how will newly unemployed Americans react to being told they will only receive 26 weeks of state funded unemployment benefit checks when their earlier counterparts received an additional 34-53 weeks worth of federal unemployment checks on top of first receiving 26 weeks worth of state unemployment checks.

    - how many long term unemployed Americans will finally be forced to move to different cities / states to find better job opportunties, or ( just as likely ) more generous social welfare benefits ?


    Granted that no unemployed American trying to continue living on $20k-$25k per year in unemployment insurance income has really been enjoying a 'vacation'. However, that $20k-$25k per year in unemployment insurance income did allow a large number of unemployed Americans to avoid facing 'life changing' consequences and cling to a belief that 'things will return to the way they were'. And for better or worse, that $20k-$25k per year in unemployment insurance income also allowed the US gov't and the long term unemployed to avoid facing the issue that a large number of low skill Americans simply have no job prospects whatsoever for the forseeable future.

    The 'gold foil hat' crowd will tell you that this is going to be a long, hot summer in more ways than one if the 'masking' effect of 'perpetual' unemployment insurance income for 5 million long term unemployed Americans falls by the wayside !

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 02-14-2010 at 08:50 PM.

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    Default Re: chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

    Shit, thanks for this chart!

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    Default Re: chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

    I would be surprised if there are no riots and burnings this summer. That or Americans are more self-sustaining than I give them credit for.

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    Default Re: chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

    I would be surprised if there are no riots and burnings this summer.
    ... and just think, this will be happening at the exact same time when states / cities will have fired a significant number of police / firemen / prison guards in order to (marginally) reduce their state / local gov't budget deficits !


    Again, the main point of this chart is that some 5 million Americans are on the verge of being confronted with the TRUE impact of long term unemployment / unemployability. If additional federal gov't extensions of unemployment benefits are not approved, these 5 million Americans will be facing some grim choices.

    A. they can 'dump' their house and new-ish car for whatever price the market will bear in order to become eligible for social welfare benefits.
    B. they can 'dump' their house for whatever price the market will bear and attempt to find work in a distant state ( or country ).
    C. they can attempt to replace the subsistence income that extended unemployment benefits had been providing them via 'unconventional means' - i.e. robbery, burglary, drug dealing, prostitution or a host of similar possibilities.

    Put another way, extended unemployment benefits have done a good job of 'masking' the actual picture in regard to rising 'structural unemployment' in the USA. When that 'mask' is removed, a very UGLY face is undoubtedly going to emerge.

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    Default Re: chart of the week - unemployed but no more unemployment checks !

    hmmm ... while MSM was focused on Obama's health care 'summit', it would appear that attempts to pass yet another federal extension for unemployment benefits is NOT going to happen before the March 1st deadline ...

    (snip)"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through the Great Recession?

    You'd better not: The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for this safety net.

    Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.

    Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.

    These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

    Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

    That could be devastating to the unemployed who were counting on that income. In total, more than one million people could stop getting checks next month, with nearly 5 million running out of benefits by June, according to the National Unemployment Law Project.

    Lawmakers repeatedly tried to approve a 30-day extension this week, but each time, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., prevented the $10 billion measure from passing, saying it needs to be paid for first.

    "Right now, the 1.2 million workers who will lose benefits in March are being held hostage by partisan attempts to delay and block this critical legislation," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.

    Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation next week that pushes back the deadline as much as a year, an aide said. The House approved a bill in December that extended the deadline to the end of June.

    Of course, once the measure is approved, the jobless would be able to reapply for federal benefits, though they would not receive missed payments.

    Critical checks
    About 11.5 million people currently depend on jobless benefits. Nearly one in 10 Americans are out of work and a record 41.2% have been unemployed for at least six months. The average unemployment period lasts a record 30.2 weeks.

    The unemployment rate, which now stand at 9.7%, is expected to rise in February as snowstorms in many states disrupted the economy and stalled hiring.

    While unemployment benefits now run as long as 99 weeks, depending on the state, not everyone will receive checks for that long a stretch if the deadline to apply is not extended."(snip)


    If this measure had passed ... or if a new bill is passed in the near future ... structurally unemployed Americans may be able to extend their total of 72 to 99 weeks worth of formerly available unemployment checks by yet another 52 weeks.


    Certainly there are loud voices calling for 'unlimited' extension of unemployment benefits. However, there are now also some quiet but increasingly listened to voices pointing out that unemployment benefits are supposed to be a type of insurance ... that the extended benefits haven't been paid for ... and that the 'tab' for extended benefits will have to be picked up by both much higher unemployment insurance premiums being charged to businesses for every employee, and by future US taxpayers. Those same quiet voices also point out that by increasing the all-in cost of employee payroll, extended unemployment benefits leading to massive unemployment insurance premium increases for employers actually serve as a strong dis-incentive for businesses to hire or rehire workers ( in the USA at least ! ).

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 02-26-2010 at 06:00 PM.

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