Yesterday, the United States Senate finally mustered the 60 votes required to extend unemployment (UC) benefits to the 2.1 million Americans who had run out them.
This vote tells you all you need to know about the priorities of the Republicans who almost unanimously opposed providing the extension.
Fifteen million Americans are officially unemployed. If you include those who have dropped out of the labor market and involuntary part-time workers, the number soars to 23 million. Almost half, a record number, are considered long-term unemployed, having been out of work for six months or more. There are currently more than five people looking for work for every job opening.
But the Republican Senate leadership and all but two Republican Senators voted against extending unemployment benefits to the nation’s 2.1 million unemployed workers who had exhausted their benefits. Many, like Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson, outrageously claim that providing the unemployed with benefits they have paid for and earned while working encourages them to remain unemployed.
The Republican hypocrisy is breathtaking.
While opposing the unemployment benefits extension as too expensive, they continue to push for legislation that would make the Bush era tax cuts, 50% of which went to the richest 1% of taxpayers, permanent.
The cost of extending unemployment benefits is $34 billion dollars. The cost of extending the tax cuts, $3 trillion over the next ten years!
The Bush tax cuts were originally sold as affordable because of a projected $5.4 trillion surplus. By the time they were passed in the spring of 2001, the rational had change. The $1.3 trillion tax cut was justified as the way to jump-start the economy that had plunged into recession in March 2001.
The tax cuts proved a very ineffective form of stimulus since the main beneficiaries of the cuts, those averaging $900,000 a year, were reluctant to spend their windfall. Unemployment benefits, on the other hand, are one of the most effective forms of stimulus because the unemployed immediately spend the money they receive. That’s why unemployment benefits are called an automatic stabilizer.
So the proposal to extend UC benefits is a twofer. It will help more than two million folks who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and it will stimulate the struggling economy.
But that’s not good enough for the Republicans. Claiming to be concerned about the deficit, they say we need to curtail spending that assists working and middle class Americans. Extending unemployment benefits, funding mine, food, toy inspections and Social Security are too just expensive they claim.
In their world the nation simply cannot afford to regulate oil companies like BP, mining companies like Massey Energy and private banks like Goldman Sachs. But it is not to expensive to bail out banks, make upper income tax cuts permanent or maintain tax loopholes that allow hedge fund and private equity operators to pay tax rates at less than half the rate that working Americans pay and cost the nation $20 billion annually.
Let’s be honest. The Republicans aren’t concerned about you, your job or your paycheck. Nor are they concerned about the deficit. Their real interest is ensuring that unemployment remains high, depressing wages and enriching their cronies. That explains why they oppose extending unemployment benefits, proposals to prevent the layoffs of police, firemen and teachers and efforts to create public sector jobs. \
All of us should remember this come November.
Showing posts with label long term unemployed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long term unemployed. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The self-employed desperation of the unemployed can't be wished away
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich points out that there is world of difference and a lot of hurt between entrepreneurial zeal and self-employed desperation.
The column is linked.
The column is linked.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wisconsin's unemployed need jobs!
The nation lost another 36,000 jobs last month bringing the total job loss to 8.4 million jobs since the recession began. More than 15 million Americans are officially unemployed!
Forty percent of the unemployed have been without work for more than six months. If we include those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment and those who have given up looking for work (discouraged workers) 29 million (16.8%) are either unemployed or unemployed. And that's only part of the story.
We are short another 2.7 million jobs, positions that are needed to absorb the 100,000 workers entering the labor market every month.
Last week Republican Senator Jim Bunning, who lost his fastball years ago, held up 100,000 Americans' unemployment checks because he claimed to be concerned about the growing federal deficit.
And Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, defended Bunning arguing unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”
There are more than six unemployed workers for every job opening and the number of long- term unemployed is greater than at any time since the Great Depression. Yet Kyl feigns concern that extending unemployment benefits discourages people from working. This is truly amazing!
Republicans like Bunning and Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan, and moderate Democrats helped create the nation's river of red ink by supporting President Bush's $1.8 trillion high income tax cuts and the trillion dollar invasion of Iraq. Now they in the name of fiscal responsibility they want to ignore the more pressing 11.1 million jobs deficit. To fill that hole, while keeping up with a growing work force, requires the creation of more than 400,000 new jobs a month for three years — wildly in excess of even the most optimistic projections.
America's working people and their families are hurting and no one in Washington DC or Madison seem to be listening.
Congress is working on a very modest bill that will provide tax credits, at best an ineffective form of stimulus, to businesses that hire new workers. But as Milwaukee's Congresswoman Gwen Moore said when she voted against the bill:
I’ve talked with employers and small business owners in Milwaukee, and they resoundingly told me that the tax credits in this bill will not help them hire new people. What they need are customers – customers with money to spend. And customers need jobs.
Job creating legislation needs to be targeted to areas with persistent unemployment like we have in Milwaukee, and I’ve been advocating to make sure that we focus on the areas that need it most. This bill does exactly the opposite.
I am working with my colleagues to make sure that no one forgets about the folks in communities where unemployment is more than double the national average.
A jobs bill needs to actually create jobs.
The nation needs a real jobs bill that includes an extension of unemployment benefits which account for only 0.07% of the GDP and direct aid to state and local governments. Extending unemployment benefits is not only the right thing to do for people who are unemployed through not fault of their own, but it is one of the best forms of economic stimulus because the money will be immediately spent. Without increased federal aid to the states and local governments, they will be forced to slash their spending and lay-off even more workers, including firefighters, police officers, other first responders and teachers, further depressing consumption and private sector growth driven by government purchases.
The Wisconsin Legislature has also done very little to address the state's job gap. At a minimum it ought to help low-wage and part-time workers by passing an increase in the state's minimum wage which it has been sitting on for over a year.
A jobs bill should, as Moore said, create jobs. There is important work that needs to be done in this country, rebuilding the deteriorating infrastructure of roads, bridges, levees, parks, urban water system, and schools, and there are unemployed workers who want to work! Public investments like these would not only put people back to work, but lay the basis for long term economic growth. What are our elected officials waiting for?
When politicians say they are focused on jobs, jobs, jobs they should mean more than their own.
Forty percent of the unemployed have been without work for more than six months. If we include those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment and those who have given up looking for work (discouraged workers) 29 million (16.8%) are either unemployed or unemployed. And that's only part of the story.
We are short another 2.7 million jobs, positions that are needed to absorb the 100,000 workers entering the labor market every month.
Last week Republican Senator Jim Bunning, who lost his fastball years ago, held up 100,000 Americans' unemployment checks because he claimed to be concerned about the growing federal deficit.
And Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, defended Bunning arguing unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”
There are more than six unemployed workers for every job opening and the number of long- term unemployed is greater than at any time since the Great Depression. Yet Kyl feigns concern that extending unemployment benefits discourages people from working. This is truly amazing!
Republicans like Bunning and Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan, and moderate Democrats helped create the nation's river of red ink by supporting President Bush's $1.8 trillion high income tax cuts and the trillion dollar invasion of Iraq. Now they in the name of fiscal responsibility they want to ignore the more pressing 11.1 million jobs deficit. To fill that hole, while keeping up with a growing work force, requires the creation of more than 400,000 new jobs a month for three years — wildly in excess of even the most optimistic projections.
America's working people and their families are hurting and no one in Washington DC or Madison seem to be listening.
Congress is working on a very modest bill that will provide tax credits, at best an ineffective form of stimulus, to businesses that hire new workers. But as Milwaukee's Congresswoman Gwen Moore said when she voted against the bill:
I’ve talked with employers and small business owners in Milwaukee, and they resoundingly told me that the tax credits in this bill will not help them hire new people. What they need are customers – customers with money to spend. And customers need jobs.
Job creating legislation needs to be targeted to areas with persistent unemployment like we have in Milwaukee, and I’ve been advocating to make sure that we focus on the areas that need it most. This bill does exactly the opposite.
I am working with my colleagues to make sure that no one forgets about the folks in communities where unemployment is more than double the national average.
A jobs bill needs to actually create jobs.
The nation needs a real jobs bill that includes an extension of unemployment benefits which account for only 0.07% of the GDP and direct aid to state and local governments. Extending unemployment benefits is not only the right thing to do for people who are unemployed through not fault of their own, but it is one of the best forms of economic stimulus because the money will be immediately spent. Without increased federal aid to the states and local governments, they will be forced to slash their spending and lay-off even more workers, including firefighters, police officers, other first responders and teachers, further depressing consumption and private sector growth driven by government purchases.
The Wisconsin Legislature has also done very little to address the state's job gap. At a minimum it ought to help low-wage and part-time workers by passing an increase in the state's minimum wage which it has been sitting on for over a year.
A jobs bill should, as Moore said, create jobs. There is important work that needs to be done in this country, rebuilding the deteriorating infrastructure of roads, bridges, levees, parks, urban water system, and schools, and there are unemployed workers who want to work! Public investments like these would not only put people back to work, but lay the basis for long term economic growth. What are our elected officials waiting for?
When politicians say they are focused on jobs, jobs, jobs they should mean more than their own.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Investment banks recover but not American workers!
The nation lost another 85,000 jobs in December.
15.3 million Americans are unemployed, up from 7.7 million when the Great Recession began in December 2007.
The unemployment rate remained at 10% only because 661,000 workers dropped out of the labor market altogether and are no longer considered unemployed. If they had continued looking for work the unemployment rate would be 10.4%
Equally disturbing 40% of the unemployed have been unemployed for two years or more.
15.3 million Americans are unemployed, up from 7.7 million when the Great Recession began in December 2007.
The unemployment rate remained at 10% only because 661,000 workers dropped out of the labor market altogether and are no longer considered unemployed. If they had continued looking for work the unemployment rate would be 10.4%
Equally disturbing 40% of the unemployed have been unemployed for two years or more.
There are now 6.4 job seekers for every available job.
If discouraged workers and those working part time who want full time work are included 27 million workers (17.3%) are either unemployed or underemployed, twice as many as when the recession began. While white underemployment has more than doubled over the course of the recession to 14.6%, underemployment is now 24.3% for black workers and 25.1% for Hispanic workers: A staggering one in four minority workers cannot find the amount of work they want.
The high rates of unemployment are effecting those left on the job. Real (inflation adjusted) wages fell by 1.6% last year-the largest drop since 1990. Inflation adjusted pay has now declined in five of the past seven years.
But don't worry. On Friday JPMorgan Chase announced that it earned $11.7 billion last year, $3.3 billion in the last quarter alone. The firm has earmarked a whooping $26.9 billion for employee bonuses. Next week the nation's largest banks such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup will dole out six, seven and even eight figure bonuses.
The investment banks and bankers have recovered even if the American people have not!
As John Stewart wryly noted: "The only people who have recovered from the financial meltdown are the ones who caused the financial meltdown!"
If discouraged workers and those working part time who want full time work are included 27 million workers (17.3%) are either unemployed or underemployed, twice as many as when the recession began. While white underemployment has more than doubled over the course of the recession to 14.6%, underemployment is now 24.3% for black workers and 25.1% for Hispanic workers: A staggering one in four minority workers cannot find the amount of work they want.
The high rates of unemployment are effecting those left on the job. Real (inflation adjusted) wages fell by 1.6% last year-the largest drop since 1990. Inflation adjusted pay has now declined in five of the past seven years.
But don't worry. On Friday JPMorgan Chase announced that it earned $11.7 billion last year, $3.3 billion in the last quarter alone. The firm has earmarked a whooping $26.9 billion for employee bonuses. Next week the nation's largest banks such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup will dole out six, seven and even eight figure bonuses.
The investment banks and bankers have recovered even if the American people have not!
As John Stewart wryly noted: "The only people who have recovered from the financial meltdown are the ones who caused the financial meltdown!"
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wisconsin Jobs Initiative is crucial for economic recovery
Wisconsin’s unemployed workers are enrolling in the state’s 16 technical colleges in record numbers, stretching the Wisconsin Technical College System's (WTCS) capacity to the breaking point.
Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), the WTCS's largest institution, is currently experiencing a 27% increase in enrollment.
The states other 15 technical colleges have experienced similar record enrollment increases, led by Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, home of the a closed GM manufacturing plant, which led all tech colleges last year with a 21.5% increase and an astounding 42% over the last two years.
Record enrollments are being driven by dislocated workers and veterans seeking retraining and because the relatively low cost of technical colleges is attractive to all students.
On Saturday the Milwaukee Journal Journal highlighted MATC's work retraining laid off Midwest Airline pilots.
With unemployment projected to remain stubbornly high into 2012 and a record number of long-term unemployed, tech colleges anticipate that enrollment increases will continue. This year, 14 of the 16 colleges are estimating increases of over 10 percent and half of the colleges are estimating increases of 15 percent or more in FTE enrollment.
In an effort to accommodate the influx of students, technical colleges have added increased sections, expanded evening, weekend and on-line courses, increased student pupil ratios, relaxed enrollment deadlines and waived application and other fees for dislocated workers
Many programs at MATC and other tech colleges are now at capacity, despite running day and night and on weekends. Waiting lists are growing.
The Obama administration recognized the key role tech colleges play in helping the economy and the nation's workers recover when it appropriated $12 billion for two -year college education and training.
But there is a catch. Federal training dollars in the America's Graduation Initiative require a local match. Once the bill passes the United States Senate early next year, it will be up to Governor Doyle and the democratically controlled Wisconsin Legislature to appropriate additional funds so that Wisconsin qualifies for these federal training dollars.
State Representative Cory Mason (D-Racine) has authored legislation, the Wisconsin Jobs Initiative, that would appropriate $145 million and generate a $135 million federal match. The bill provides enough funds to train an additional 40,000 Wisconsin workers. Milwaukee's Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) is the second lead on the bill which has been endorsed by 18 additional legislators and the Wisconsin Technical College Boards Association.
When the Legislature reconvenes after the holidays it is critical that it pass this legislation. Otherwise, the doors of opportunity will begin to close on Wisconsin's dislocated workers.
Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), the WTCS's largest institution, is currently experiencing a 27% increase in enrollment.
The states other 15 technical colleges have experienced similar record enrollment increases, led by Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, home of the a closed GM manufacturing plant, which led all tech colleges last year with a 21.5% increase and an astounding 42% over the last two years.
Record enrollments are being driven by dislocated workers and veterans seeking retraining and because the relatively low cost of technical colleges is attractive to all students.
On Saturday the Milwaukee Journal Journal highlighted MATC's work retraining laid off Midwest Airline pilots.
With unemployment projected to remain stubbornly high into 2012 and a record number of long-term unemployed, tech colleges anticipate that enrollment increases will continue. This year, 14 of the 16 colleges are estimating increases of over 10 percent and half of the colleges are estimating increases of 15 percent or more in FTE enrollment.
In an effort to accommodate the influx of students, technical colleges have added increased sections, expanded evening, weekend and on-line courses, increased student pupil ratios, relaxed enrollment deadlines and waived application and other fees for dislocated workers
Many programs at MATC and other tech colleges are now at capacity, despite running day and night and on weekends. Waiting lists are growing.
The Obama administration recognized the key role tech colleges play in helping the economy and the nation's workers recover when it appropriated $12 billion for two -year college education and training.
But there is a catch. Federal training dollars in the America's Graduation Initiative require a local match. Once the bill passes the United States Senate early next year, it will be up to Governor Doyle and the democratically controlled Wisconsin Legislature to appropriate additional funds so that Wisconsin qualifies for these federal training dollars.
State Representative Cory Mason (D-Racine) has authored legislation, the Wisconsin Jobs Initiative, that would appropriate $145 million and generate a $135 million federal match. The bill provides enough funds to train an additional 40,000 Wisconsin workers. Milwaukee's Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) is the second lead on the bill which has been endorsed by 18 additional legislators and the Wisconsin Technical College Boards Association.
When the Legislature reconvenes after the holidays it is critical that it pass this legislation. Otherwise, the doors of opportunity will begin to close on Wisconsin's dislocated workers.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
MJS calls for extending unemployment benefits!
On Saturday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editors wrote that the $146 billion fiscal stimulus passed by the House of Representatives should be amended to “expand aid for food stamps, heating assistance or unemployment compensation…”
They are right that these increases should be included in any stimulus package designed to jump start the failing economy and assist those most in need.
But the paper’s Business section article on the unemployment report completely undermined the editorial’s policy proposal by suggesting people are losing their jobs because they lack “versatility,” “perseverance, and a commitment to “hard work.”
Strangely entitled “jobs for the diligent” the article explains the devastating impact of unemployment by focusing on someone who quit his job to pursue an entrepreneurial dream more than a year ago-before unemployment began to rise. His situation is very different than the millions nationally who are losing their jobs because the economy has slowed. The former voluntarily terminated his employment, is ineligible for unemployment benefits even if they are extended, and is currently working. The later are involuntarily unemployed.
During cyclical downturns firms reduce production and cut their operational costs. One of the easiest and quickest to way to accomplish cost reductions is to furlough labor. Hence, the increase in unemployment.
The article liberally quotes a retired healthcare executive who says: “…businesses are suffering too...”and they need “’versatile employees who can stick around and contribute to profitability….”
The problem is you can’t stick around and contribute to profitability when you’re given a pink slip.
Workers are getting laid off because the housing bubble burst, credit’s tight, consumption’s down and the economy is contracting, not because they lack versatility or a work ethic!
Last month the nation lost jobs for the first time in five years- 17,000 in total. The month before the unemployment rate rose significantly. Over the past three months only 42,000 jobs were created per month, far less than the 150,000 needed to absorb new labor market entrants.
The number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months is now 1.38 million. Long term unemployment has not been this high since the 2001 recession when Congress last extended unemployment benefits.
Most economists recognize that the official unemployment rate significantly undercounts the number of unemployed by failing to recognize those who have dropped out of the labor market, discouraged workers, and the involuntary part-time.
Milwaukee with the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation has a serious and growing unemployment problem.
Hard working, diligent people are losing their jobs through no fault of their own. The ranks of the long term unemployed are growing. The MJS editorial board is right-Congress needs to add extended unemployment benefits to its stimulus package.
They are right that these increases should be included in any stimulus package designed to jump start the failing economy and assist those most in need.
But the paper’s Business section article on the unemployment report completely undermined the editorial’s policy proposal by suggesting people are losing their jobs because they lack “versatility,” “perseverance, and a commitment to “hard work.”
Strangely entitled “jobs for the diligent” the article explains the devastating impact of unemployment by focusing on someone who quit his job to pursue an entrepreneurial dream more than a year ago-before unemployment began to rise. His situation is very different than the millions nationally who are losing their jobs because the economy has slowed. The former voluntarily terminated his employment, is ineligible for unemployment benefits even if they are extended, and is currently working. The later are involuntarily unemployed.
During cyclical downturns firms reduce production and cut their operational costs. One of the easiest and quickest to way to accomplish cost reductions is to furlough labor. Hence, the increase in unemployment.
The article liberally quotes a retired healthcare executive who says: “…businesses are suffering too...”and they need “’versatile employees who can stick around and contribute to profitability….”
The problem is you can’t stick around and contribute to profitability when you’re given a pink slip.
Workers are getting laid off because the housing bubble burst, credit’s tight, consumption’s down and the economy is contracting, not because they lack versatility or a work ethic!
Last month the nation lost jobs for the first time in five years- 17,000 in total. The month before the unemployment rate rose significantly. Over the past three months only 42,000 jobs were created per month, far less than the 150,000 needed to absorb new labor market entrants.
The number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months is now 1.38 million. Long term unemployment has not been this high since the 2001 recession when Congress last extended unemployment benefits.
Most economists recognize that the official unemployment rate significantly undercounts the number of unemployed by failing to recognize those who have dropped out of the labor market, discouraged workers, and the involuntary part-time.
Milwaukee with the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation has a serious and growing unemployment problem.
Hard working, diligent people are losing their jobs through no fault of their own. The ranks of the long term unemployed are growing. The MJS editorial board is right-Congress needs to add extended unemployment benefits to its stimulus package.
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