Unemployment Benefits keeping people unemployed

[erpowers]

Just a few minutes ago a small businessman was on CNN claiming that unemployment benefits were keeping people unemployed. The guy said he had been trying to hire people for months. However, people would come into his business apply for a job and get him to sign their unemployment papers, but when he called them for a second interview they would tell him they do not want to work because they are happy living on unemployment benefits.

Does anyone believe any of this? I do not believe this guy. As far as I know people on unemployment benefits do not get that much money. It seems very unlikely that people would be happy receiving unemployment benefits.

I do not have a link to the story.

[marmar]

1. Mierda del toro

[trumad]

2. Well---he was probably paying minimum wage.

[Hello_Kitty]

8. My thoughts exactly

He also probably wants an excuse to hire undocumented immigrants.

[w8liftinglady]

35. actually-yes,he was...and I believe no benefits...

Just what someone supporting a family wants.

[Dulcinea]

3. WTF?

For every person who claims to be happy living on unemployment benefits, there are dozens of people who want to work!

Dulcinea
Unemployed 19 months & wants a job!

[Hello_Kitty]

4. What was the job and what was he paying?

A lot of business owners these days want to pay $10 an hour for positions with big requirements and a lot of responsibility.

[Webster Green]

5. Bullshit!

If you are required to seek work to collect benefits, you can't turn down job offers.

Nobody would respond to a job offer with that reason for declining.

[rfranklin]

9. Yes, but if the pay is below minimum wage you don't have to accept it...

I smell a big pile of horse manure on this one.

[tammywammy]

16. Yes you can turn down jobs

Ones that pay less than what you made before. There's a period where you have to drop the amount, you have to accept I think a salary that's 75% of what you made before, but if it's less than that you can turn it down.

I don't remember all the details, I was on unemployment for three weeks last summer, but I was just in the waiting period before my new job started.

[Hansel]

31. Actually you can.

If the job is not commensurate with what you were doing or there is some other reason you cannot do the job, you can turn it down.

After my daughter was laid off several years ago, she went to worked doing temp jobs for a temp agency. The agency kept assigning her a position that she told them she couldn't do because her fingers are deformed from a birth defect and she kept getting painful cuts due to sensitive skin grafts from reconstructive surgery. They kept assigning her the job anyway and the 3rd time she said no. The temp agency challenged her unemployment and the judge ruled in her favor on two counts. She was not physically able to do the job without being injured and that the job was not commensurate in pay to what her original pay was at the financial company she worked at.

I think this guy is trying to hire skilled employees on the cheap and is PO'd that he can't be their new slave master.

Edit to add: My daughter got a permanent job the next week so it became a mute point.

[prolesunited]

39. If you are on extended benefits

which is the last tier in high unemployment states, you have to accept any job offer, regardless of pay or benefits.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. probably part-time, low wage and no bennies ---

I would keep looking, too.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. That's what I suspect, as well.

[Warpy]

25. Exhibit A was posted yesterday, probably typical of wonderful jobs

that are going unfilled: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9132980

[Enrique]

7. wow, this is the first time it's the actual business owner saying it

usually it's politicians relating what some unknown business owner told them, and when asked, where is this business and what's it called and how can people apply, they unfortunately can't remember.

[Warpy]

10. He just announced that he's paying shit wages

that are likely less than the jobs are worth and possibly less than the unemployment benefits. Of course, people want to work. They just don't want to work for starvation wages.

One thing you can say about living on unemployment, it's boring. The only things you can do are free ones, like watching broadcast TV (if you bought that powered antenna while you still had a job) or keeping up with magazines at the library. Jobs are always better because they not only fill the time, they are supposed to pay people enough to live on with a little disposable income to save or spend on the occasional self indulgence, like a night at the movies or a vacation once a year.

The only people I can see being treated like this particular captain of industry are the people who are offering jobs requiring training at shit wages that don't reflect the need to pay off the debt incurred for that training while offering no benefits.

Unemployed people want to work. They just don't want to work for nothing.

[bobbolink]

11. You workers are getting Welfare Queened!

See how wonderful it feels?

[laughingliberal]

27. Yes, a new class of welfare queens every day. The only people safe are the top 1%.

I'm certain those working class people who bought into that crap and now find themselves part of the lazy and shiftless are having to rethink this.

Anyone left in the middle class who thinks they won't be coming for them, needs to think again. Stand up for the poor, now, or find yourself in their position, shortly.

[asdjrocky]

32. It's good to be Queen?

:shrug: Good observation Bobbo.

[OneGrassRoot]

33. Another new saying!

Earlier I learned from reading here that instead of calling people "batshit crazy" I'm going to start calling them "teabag crazy" and now this -- You've been "welfare queened."

Anyone over 40 should know exactly what that means, too.

EXCELLENT point, Bobbo!

:thumbsup:

[Hello_Kitty]

37. I've been saying it for awhile about the way uninsured people are treated here on DU

Apparently those of us who don't have health insurance are irresponsible deadbeats selfishly withholding our considerable disposable income from the health care system and making everything more expensive for the good Godly upright people who have insurance.

IOW, the uninsured have been welfare queened.

[bobbolink]

41. Does it give you more empathy for poor people?

[Paper Roses]

12. I don't believer this to be true.

If I add myself to the list of unemployed in my area, I bet the grand total of those who are happy about it is plus or minus Zero.

I am in the company of many Seniors who are out of work through layoff. Pickings are slim if you are over 50 and no-one is happy about not working. The rest of the story involves figuring out how to live after the benefits run out. Now that is really is a happy experience. Sarcastic comment --I don't know how to do those cute little hit you head against a wall thingies.

[barbtries]

14. i wish you did (have the link)

if i lost my job right now, it is feasible that my unemployment would be worth more than a full time job paying just a few bucks an hour. i believe that benefits are tied to income. when i was job hunting in 2007 i figured that if i couldn't get a job making at least $11 - or maybe $12 - an hour, it would not be worth it. i was lucky though, and found a great job.

very few would say they were "happy" living on unemployment or pretend that their unemployment benefits provides them with a full and happy life. i don't believe that for a second.

actually i don't believe this guy for a few reasons. for one thing, i'm not sure that refusing employment would not cause the unemployment benefits to cease, so i seriously doubt anybody actually said to him that they prefer to stay unemployed, even if they did. additionally, there are so many people looking for work that i don't believe this guy is having a hard time hiring unless he's offering to pay people in peanuts. it sounds like he wants people to lose their unemployment so he can get employees at cut rate prices and probably offer no benefits or overtime or what have you.

how did the interviewer respond to these claims? i am very very skeptical.

edited for clarity

[bobbolink]

18. Don't you agree its the same as claiming that women on welfare aren't "incentivized"??

Or that people on disability "give up trying"?

You see, it is the same ploy. Now its on the other foot.

[barbtries]

19. certainly.

that's why i asked what the interviewer's response was. it should be a tip off to what story it is that CNN is trying to sell.

[bobbolink]

20. I'm hoping this BS takes off big time. Then maybe at least some will make the connection

of what has been done to poor people for so long in this country.

Poetic justice.

[EC]

15. Fencing yourself in a job that doesn't pay enough to live on

wouldn't be responsible...if another employer does call you for an interview, what do you do? Call in sick? Yeah, right with short time on the job you'd be fired and then you'd be out of unemployment too (since you can't collect for being fired)...No you'd be stuck in the low pay job with little way to look for something better and no safty net of unemployment under you....It's not responsible to accept a job that pays less than your unemployment if it means not being able to pay your bills and keep food on the table and roof and heat/cool for your children...


Employers are such mercenaries...high unemployment means lowering wages and hiring undoc workers...

[voteearlyvoteoften]

17. It's true

The unemployment office requires people to turn in lists of jobs. When I used to put ads in the paper people would call just to get details to put on their log sheets, or just come in and get a business card. Some people choose to use unemployment to take a little time off..they probably have a working "other" or savings. In my case it was to stay home with my firstborn. Working under the table is always popular.So technically what they are doing is unethical, but you can't be forced to take a job especially if it is in a different field or for less pay. My first hand experience is from 10-20 years ago, but I imagine its much the same these days. In Florida max was around $275 which is not much if you were making 50K, but not bad if you were making 25K minus tax and commute expenses. Also the extension of subsidized Cobra benefits can really make unemployment palatable.
Its all in the spin they put on these stories.And the guy was probably stretching the truth a bit to fit the narrative.

[Zephie]

21. My husband makes less than an unemployed person right now.

He's still happier having a job than an unemployment check.

[Fire1]

22. Don't buy it for one second. n/t

[bullwinkle428]

23. Yeah, never mind all of these job fairs where literally thousands

of people are showing up for maybe 50 available positions!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

Like everyone else has said, this bastard is the one that's truly looking for "something for nothing"!

[Peregrine Took]

24. Local Chicago AM radio "talk" jackass was on about this the other day.

It is such a bullcrap right wing talk radio subject - low hanging fruit, if you will.

With all the terrible things going on in the world - this is the best thing they have to beat the drum about? Get people stirred up against each other so they don't notice the horrors of global warming, endless wars, etc.

Some jamoke even called up to turn on his own father who he claimed was one of those UI cheaters, i.e. refusing job after job just to loll around on Unemployment.

[bobbolink]

28. "Get people stirred up against each other " Exactly. It has worked well against poor and homeless

people, and gays and minorities... so why not go for the whole enchilada?

[laughingliberal]

26. Yeah, I had a businessman say something similar to me. Said he couldn't fill the openings he had.

Of course, they fail to mention the jobs pay $8.00 an hour and offer no benefits. So a guy who is drawing $400 a week is supposed to take an $80 a week cut to accept a job 30 miles away and spend $40 a week to get there plus pay someone to watch the kids he's been babysitting while the wife works. Yeah, I'm sure they'd all jump at that deal were the roles reversed.

[Hannah Bell]

29. he's lying.

[Arkana]

30. Liar.

He's basing this on a story a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend got from his brother's cousin's best friend's roommate.

That's the kind of bilge this is--it's a verbal chain letter.

[Dawson Leery]

34. This putz is most likely offering a low paying job

without any benefits. Most people are going to desire a respectable wage.

[awoke_in_2003]

36. Like others...

I call bullshit on this dude.

[county worker]

38. He didn't say how much he was paying did he?

At times the pay is so low a person can't take the job with the expenses they have. Years ago I got laid off and took a temp job that turned into full time. The problem was I was making 1/2 of what I was making. I had bills that I had for a couple of years and the payments were based on my higher salary. I would not have bought the truck or other things getting paid what that job did.

I looked and got a better paying job but my credit went to hell because of all the late payments due to the lower salary. I'm still having to explain that when I applied for a home loan recently.

It's as if you are supposed to be in control of the economy or something so you always have a good paying job or if not it's somehow your fault!

[Rochester]

40. A lot more businesses are going to have to go under...

...before I'll compete for the food and other necessities to which I am entitled!

[yella_dawg]

42. This individual speaks correctly.

Jobless people are unemployed as long as unemployment insurance lasts. Then they become homeless derelicts.

[ItNerd4life]

43. Actually, I believe him. I have a similar story.

I have a renter who refuses to go look for a job because he likes his unemployment. He didn't go look for a job until his unemployment was 2 months from running out.
Oh, and he's making more money working than he was getting for unemployment.

[Dulcinea]

44. There are always people who game the system.

But I believe the vast majority of the jobless would rather work than not.

Yesterday I had an interview for a PT receptionist position. No benefits, and whoever gets this job will be a 1099 employee, which means you're responsible for your own taxes. The interviewer told me she had over 400 applicants!

I live in GA, where unemployment is 10%. And, yes, I'll take it if offered. I'm sick of applying for jobs. Most of the jobs on job boards are either old, already filled, or flat-out scams.

[Stevenmarc]

45. Aside from the low wage prospect, I suspect he was exuding the distinct odor of douchebaggery

[Jim__]

46. We should just eliminate all unemployment benefits to make it easier for guys like this to ...

find cheap labor. :eyes: