Unless Congress acts quickly, unemployment benefits will stop cold for 2 million Americans who have been jobless for 99 weeks. Benefits have already been extended well past normal lengths, but if no other extension comes, the loss of income will make the holidays sting that much harder for people unable to find work for nearly two years.
MSNBC reports Democratic efforts to extend benefits by another year were blocked by a Republican Senator concerned that the added expense of an extension would not be offset by budget cuts. Costs for jobless benefits soared to $160 billion in the last fiscal year.
Jobless benefits normally last six months, but the federal government extended them in 2007 due to the recession.
How long do you think jobless benefits should last?
Millions may lose jobless benefits as holidays loom [MSNBC]
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They could save hundreds of billions…by ending corporate welfare.
Long-term unemployed? B-b-b-b-b-b-but Larry Winget himself said in his book “Shut Up, Stop Whining, & Get A Life”,
“I am going to go out on a limb here and say that no one has to be without a job if they really want one.”
Then he cites the example of the gal who shovels dog poop from people’s lawns for money, and the guy who worked himself through college spray painting house numbers on curbs, then added,
“The point here is that there are plenty of ways to make a living. It just takes a willingness to get off your lazy butt and do something. It seems most people would rather be broke and lazy than work a little and have a pocket full of money.”
So, if the “Pitbull of Personal Development” says it, it muuuuuuust be true.
Headlines across the country will shortly shout the so-called good news “UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS FALL!”
It’s a tough economy but I know several people that are looking for a ” career ” job with ” career ” like salaries.
They’re middle age and believed urban myths if you get fired or leave a job one day the next you’ll find an even higher paying job( in late 2008 after a tanking real estate market and crashing banks). It took 99 weeks for them to realize that the lack of “career” related 4 year degrees, licenses and certifications to realize the economy sucks and things will never be the same.
I know one guy that turned downed several offers over 50K a year because he felt he was a 100K executive/corporate expert-pppfffft. He’s even turned down 45K a year jobs over the last 6 months. Their circle of friends & associates did the same. Several wised up to retail and security guard work.
You don’t have to degrade yourself but after a certain point you have to realize you just need ” a ” job. The 9-5 with no weekends & nights and familar faces to cut deals with like can I leave early no longer exist. There’s both entitlement & comfort zone problems. Hey, I know it’s an employer’s market using some very questionable tactics but ‘a’ job and not a career is the point here in this economy. This is where too many go wrong including the employERS-there’s a difference between ” a job” and “a career”-both have unrealistic expectations.
I haven’t heard that myth in a really long time, but there are some people who believe if you lose your job you can find another one very easily, and that is clearly not the case.
Middle agers seem to be pretty susceptible to this, oh you lost a job, go get another one… you just can’t do that these days for most professions.
Job security is also almost non-existent, aside from a few types of jobs. Most companies can fire you at will. The days of working for a company for your whole life and retiring with them are long gone at least for today’s generation of young people. Someone who is 18 and is getting a job isn’t going to stay with one company for the rest of their life and retire with them, which is what happened in the past.
I notice alot of people having a hard time finding a job had their last job 10 years plus. This makes change that much more difficult. Also many 10 year plus employees were still using paper applications and resumes to land jobs in the 1990s. There were also human HRs looking at you and every other applicant and not computer programs that can knock you out of the running in less than a second. They get frustrated when dealing with the computerized nature of hiring even for many entry level jobs.
Alot of people who had one job over a decade probably learned how to politic and navigate ONE particular company. But now in the outside world all those political connections in your last company are gone. I know people who worked their way up the ladder in rank and pay without many of the associated schooling, licenses and/or certifications. The potential employer doesn’t hire experience per say because it’s someone’s word even if it’s your ex boss as reference. The current HRs/companies want the paper ie the degrees & certifications over experience.
I’d venture to say alot of people struggling to find a job are 40 plus which opens up the applicant to unethical and illegal age discrimination even if age not a factor in doing the actual job.
That’s wrong as well to assume because some decided to take ‘a’ job in another industry while waiting for a job in their career. If there’s a license or certification that might expire or requires so many hours of work per year or you’re talking brain surgery yeh I can see bypassing a careerist who took a job out of field.
Sometimes a diverse person can add as much to the business as a specialist especially when not talking brain surgery. A ‘career’ or careerist is way over hyped by these HRs and the job seeker.
I know people have a hard time but I wouldn’t think I would be disrespectful in asking how in the world can you not find a job for two years? I know it’s tough, I know places aren’t hiring as much. Some places are still hiring. I guess getting a stable job making less than your unemployment check might be a determent, which may have answered my own curiosity on the subject. I think it’s safe to say it’s time to move on after two years, and it’s just not the same. Find work somewhere.
I hope you lose your job so you can see how hard it really is first hand.
2 years is along time not to find ” a ” job. Part of the problem is for many of the unemployed is at one point do they make the decision to move on to something else/get off unemployment.
And if they show hesitation in accepting a pretty solid offer at a lower paying job they won’t get the job because the company will move on to the next applicant. Many HRs and management get upset when you are not all giddy/gung ho about their offer. They want the ‘hungriest’ applicant they can find-empty stomach doesn’t count.
Here’s an idea. Everyone who thinks people on unemployment for two years are just lazy has to give up their job to one of them and go on unemployment themselves for two years.
Problem solved.
It’s not two years. These benefits are ending at 26 weeks, not 99 weeks, as the erroneous headline suggests.
What an asshole-ish headline. Unemployment benefits aren’t welfare; they are insurance benefits.
For people saying everyone who wants a job should be able to find one, that’s demonstrably false. 8 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession. Meanwhile, it has been reported that there are 5 job seekers for every available job. That means if you filled every last single opening everywhere in the country there would still be no jobs for over 6 million people. There are more job seekers than there are jobs, end of story.
Now they’ll get in line for disability benefits.
um, GET A DAMN JOB. 99 weeks is more that 2 YEARS. I’m sure in that time a gas station, fast food joint, walmart, or SOMEONE was hiring. If you’ve been unemployed for 2 years that is YOUR FAULT and I don’t think the rest of us should have to pay for it. Join the military at least. Come on.
Actually, 99 weeks is LESS THAN two years – it’s 23 months. Two years is 104 weeks (2 X 52).
This is another stunning example of the fact that it’s possible to be an idiot with no math skills and be gainfully employed, while millions of educated, experienced people are out of work through no fault of their own.
No, you aren’t employed because you’re smart and work hard. You’re employed because you are lucky.
Just because “someone” has a job at any particular time doesn’t mean that “you” will get it. It’s all about timing and a lot of luck.
Nice to be smug. You have no idea what its really like.
As long as I still see Mexicans working everywhere, I see no reason for extended federal unemployment benefits.
It’s not quite as simple as “just get a job.” I don’t think that every person is suited to do every job. That’s why many of us choose to get training in fields that support our interests and skill level/strengths. Sometimes an employee is a very bad fit for a particular workplace and they and everyone who has to deal with them suffers. Otherwise, why not just have a central employment facility randomly matching job openings with people? It’d be as dumb as letting Reverend Moon randomly assign you a wife.
I agree there are jobs that only want or merit career professionals no matter how low the pay. But everytime I read a survey about jobs/careers usually over 50% say they would make a change of somekind if they had the chance ie most work for pay and not because of their ‘career’. I think many of these HRs or hiring managers put too much stock in looking for a perfect “fit”.
But just like the novice employee who might expect a little too much from a job in a different industry the management/HRs expect too much or in some respects too little from a rookie employee.
This has been brought up before but now they are starting to accumulate statistics to back it up
.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/03/employers-wont-hire-the-u_n_791710.html
The longer you are out the less chance you have of finding a job. They say as soon as employers sense desperation you’re out of the running. Now I can see desperation causing a bad interview knocking you out of the box: a really bad interview but I don’t think these numbers are just a bad interview.
The article cites professionals but I noticed this at various times when looking for entry level work as well. It’s not even a bad interview I think they just would rather have the applicant/employee that seems to keep working at all costs which transalates into a better company soldier. Or the HR tenant of keep my turn-over low takes precedent over find a quality applicant/employee.
All I have to say at the entry level anyway if these hiring practices were so great this board and others would be out of business because the ideal employee would not be causing all of these customer service issues.
Welfare payments??? I live in a county that has had a 14%+ unemployment rate for several years. There are more candidates than jobs for anything that comes up. I look daily and apply to anything I think I can do (fast food, retail or anything else). I am willing to drive 50 miles in any direction to obtain a job. My 99 weeks expired months ago. No one wants to see the feds spend more money to increase the debt. But what they are missing is that people who get unemployment aren’t able to pay all their bills, pay taxes on wages or buy things to help boost the economy. What will be gained when unemployment is denied to everyone who can’t find a job? It won’t help the economy. What is the federal government doing to help employers be able to hire people?
Welfare payments??? I live in a county that has had a 14%+ unemployment rate for several years. There are more candidates than jobs for anything that comes up. I look daily and apply to anything I think I can do (fast food, retail or anything else). I am willing to drive 50 miles in any direction to obtain a job. My 99 weeks expired months ago. No one wants to see the feds spend more money to increase the debt. But what they are missing is that people who get unemployment aren’t able to pay all their bills, pay taxes on wages or buy things to help boost the economy. What will be gained when unemployment is denied to everyone who can’t find a job? It won’t help the economy. What is the federal government doing to help employers be able to hire people?
“How long do you think jobless benefits should last?”
The normal 26 weeks.
A headline we will never read: “HUNDREDS MAY LOSE THEIR CORPORATE WELFARE BENEFITS”