Hundreds of thousands to lose unemployment benefits

[Better Believe It]

Hundreds of thousands to lose unemployment benefits
Many Americans face the expiration of their standard 26 weeks.
by Elizabeth Strott
July 20, 2009

The recession has erased 6.5 million jobs since it began in December 2007, and hundreds of thousands of people without jobs are now preparing for the next big blow: the loss of their unemployment benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans will start running out of their basic unemployment benefits over the next few weeks, with more than 650,000 people losing their unemployment benefits by September. A total of 4.4 million people, or about two-thirds of the entire population of people who have filed for unemployment, are expected to see their benefits expire.

The problem: There just aren't any jobs out there. The Labor Department's report on job openings showed 2.6 million job openings on the last day of May, with a job opening rate of 1.9%. The rate is the percentage of total jobs that are open for hiring on the last business day of a given month. The higher the rate, the greater the supply of open jobs. The job opening rate peaked at about 3.4% in the middle of 2007. The May hires rate was 3%, the lowest rate since data were first tracked in December 2000.

"We need to get the issue attention now, because people are running out of benefits and there's just nothing for them," Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project, told CNNMoney.com. The National Employment Law Project is an advocacy group that has calculated the number of people who will exhaust their unemployment benefits.

More than 20,000 Pennsylvanians will run out of unemployment benefits in coming days, which is the first big group to reach the expiration worry. State lawmakers are considering legislation to tap into federal funds so they can extend benefits for seven weeks. In May, emergency legislation allowed New York to extend unemployment insurance benefits for more than 120,000 New Yorkers, including about 56,000 people whose benefits had been set to expire at the end of the month.

Please read the complete article at:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1197633&_blg=1,1197535

[uponit7771]

1. Which will make the U3 unemployment rate go down and "look" like jobs are coming back. The U6 rate

...will continue to rise and is already at 16.5%.

I pray Obama is looking at the economy in objective fashion, there's NO WAY they can still call this a recession after 24 months of rising unemployment it will officially be a depression.

[billyoc]

2. 1.5 million by the end of the year. That will make U3 drop to zero!

Recession over! :grr:

[tritsofme]

8. U3 won't be effected by people exhausting state unemployment benefits.

It is a narrower calculation from the same survey as U6.

If your unemployment benefits are exhausted and you are still actively seeking employment, you would be considered unemployed in U3.

[Beacool]

3. Could states like PA use some of the stimulus money to extend unemployment benefits?

How are 20,000 people supposed to survive with no benefits and no jobs?????

;(

[Better Believe It]

5. The extended unemployment benefits eventually run out for everyone unless Congress ....

acts to fund extended benefits for a longer time.

I believe people should receive unemployment conmpensation until they find work. Why artificial cutoffs?

[Beacool]

6. Well, then Congress better act soon.

We are still a very wealthy nation. No one should go hungry.

x(

[Autumn]

4. Everything is just

peachy. :mad: I would like to see some unemployed politicians. I am amazed to see this was un recommended.

[Wednesdays]

7. K&R

:kick:

[girl gone mad]

9. Why would anyone unrec this thread?

So many people seem to prefer to live in a state of denial.

[Better Believe It]

11. Because if you don't think happy thoughts you must be an Obama hater!

Everything is wonderful. Every day things keep getting better and better.

Now put on a happy face and sing along with me .....

http://www.smart-central.com/happydays.htm

[flyarm]

10. K&R..my husband today asked me to go get paint at the local paint store..it's gone!!

Seriously..hubby asked me to go to the paint store that has been here forever..i didn't see the sign and i thought I passed by it so I turned around ..and low and behold ..the store that has been here for over 20+ years is no longer..it is out of business..along with a furniture store that has been here my entire lifetime..and I am 57..

I live in a resort community..by a Beach..and stores are closing their doors daily...it is the quietest summer I have ever seen it in my lifetime.

We went to Atlantic City for a friends birthday less than two weeks ago..and it is like a ghost town..in the middle of the summer ..the busy time!

The indicators are not good..not good at all.

[prolesunited]

12. My regular unemployment just ran out

But lucky for me I live in a state that offers extended benefits. It's brutal out there.

[invictus]

13. Obama can give over one million jobs to Americans by abolishing the H-1B visa. n/t

[boppers]

14. Are there *good* arguments for H1-B?

I've never quite understood the reason for it, it seems to me to be a way of leveraging education systems in poorer countries to get cheaper skilled labor.