Appearing in my local Sunday paper, but originally from the Washington Post, authors Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth explore the benefits and challenges of providing long term unemployment compensation during the worst recession in decades. While benefits meet basic needs of the unemployed, critics say it is a too high a cost and encourages the affected to remain unemployed.
You can read the article here.
However, here are a few interesting thoughts from the article:
Although unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent in February, millions of jobs have been lost in the downturn, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing and financial services. Those jobs are unlikely to return even when the economy recovers, many experts say.
people receiving unemployment benefits tend to plow the money right back into the economy, making them “both timely and cost-effective in spurring economic activity and employment.”
Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Center, says there’s a good reason people are out of work for so long. There are six unemployed Americans for every available job, he said.
The bottom line is that we, the long-term unemployed, need the extend benefits.
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