(3 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
If you count all the people unemployed or under employed in the US today, you have a population of almost thirty million.
A country about the size of Canada.
…
In this episode of FaultLines we explore Washington’s failure of imagination in dealing with unemployment, and we visit places where creative experiments in job creation are emerging from the grassroots.
Real News Network – April 9, 2010 – 23 min 30 sec
Out of work in the US
Al Jazeera: Tens of millions of Americans unemployed are a ‘social state of emergency’
Unemployment Insurance State Trusts In Crisis
ProPublica Unemployment Insurance Tracker:
The unemployment insurance system is in crisis. A record 20 million Americans collected unemployment benefits last year, and so far twenty-five states have run out of funds and been forced to borrow from federal government, raise taxes, or cut benefits. In many other states the situation is deteriorating fast. Using near real-time data on state revenues and the benefits they pay out, we estimate how long state trust funds will hold up.
(Hover your mouse over states on the map to see the current Trust Fund Balance for each state, and the Future Prediction of the balance, or the current Borrowed Amount if a state is in the red)
Click on a state [below] to find the latest, plus detailed historical data and charts, and details on tax increases and benefit cuts.
AK – AL – AR – AZ – CA – CO – CT – DE – FL – GA – HI – IA – ID – IL – IN – KS – KY – LA – MA – MDME – MI – MN – MO – MS – MT – NC – ND – NE – NH – NJ – NM – NV – NY – OH
OK – OR – PA – RI – SC – SD – TN – TX – UT – VA – VT – WA – WI – WV – WY
The U.S. has 53 separate unemployment insurance systems. Each is free to set its own policies within broad federal guidelines and some states have well-funded systems, while many have let their reserves dwindle because of unsustainably low taxes or high benefits. Some states offer generous benefits to a wide spectrum of workers, while some offer much smaller benefits to a restricted group.
- Graphic Unemployment Tax Increases and Benefits Changes in 2010, by Olga Pierce, January 19, 2010
- Two Dozen States’ Unemployment Funds in the Red, Nine More Within Six Months, by Olga Pierce, January 19, 2010
- Payroll Taxes Rise for Employers, by Olga Pierce, January 19, 2010
- Unemployment Insurance Buckles After Years of Underfunding, by Olga Pierce, ProPublica – June 3, 2009
31 comments
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If you’re a politician, forget about “messaging”.
You’re either with us, or you’re history.
of challenges to property tax assessments are on the rise. If values are plummeting, why aren’t taxes?
this week that he’ll be on unemployment again for three weeks in June, after the ‘usual’ period of annual unemployment from Thanksgiving through February (he’s a school photographer). While it might seem like school pictures (including sports, Senior pictures, class pictures, graduation pictures, etc.) would be fairly recession-proof, now parents out in our national hinterlands can’t afford to buy those either.
I keep asking myself when the Great Recession is finally going to cause people to stop buying cable television for $100 a month from some greedy monopoly who feeds them 24-7 garbage and brainwashing. I wouldn’t mind seeing some significant unemployment there, and the average IQ of Americans would shoot up 10 or 20 points overnight as people begin to learn they can live real lives for themselves instead of vicarious virtual lives through idiotic “reality shows”!
the Obama Administration and Democratic leadership in Congress are content with and accepting of high unemployment for a long period of time.
They could do something about it besides fighting repugs over unemployment extension every couple of months but it will take leadership and courage both which are lacking in Democratic Party right now. That something is a direct jobs program + Job Guarantee.
Rep George Miller has proposed the Local Jobs for America Act while needed and helpful this is a drop in the bucket and will only help retain existing local and state employees. But where is the rest of the party and White House with pushing Rep. Miller’s idea.
And whatever happened with Rep. DeLauro’s bill for creation of National Infrastructure Bank?
in tax writeoffs, assistance and subsides, and then they outsource, because it’s “serving their shareholders” .. what to do about that?
I have no problem with directly creating jobs, and wish it would be done.
But, to me, the main problem is that the well off are using well oiled avenues to siphon the wealth off. To the extent they get aid from the American government- shouldn’t this be stopped? Outsourcing and putting people out of work is fraud (morally, should be legally) and a ripoff if they’re doing it with the largesse of federal funds, in any manner.
out of the economic disaster caused by the same GOP policies the tea baggers advocate.
Look at Nate Silver’s poll analysis on FiveThirtyEight.com. He now thinks Democrats are going to lose Congress and lose it to the tea bagger extremists who tap into the anger.
Rubio in FL and Rand in KY are pure tea baggers who will be US Senators in a very likely GOP controlled Senate.
Democrats need to figure out how to tap into popular unrest and channel it into MORE government action not the less government action advocate by the tea baggers.
…combined with
too greedy to change…
…makes “We the People”…
…Too poor to exist!
… survive!
… live!
Unless we rise up and refuse to go along.
Drop out. Subvert the capital agenda in every way possible. Drop out, get off the grid, form mutually supportive communities of like minded folks.
And thumb our noses at TPTB!
just about any piece of writing that doesn’t include cryptic economics formulas. I am one of the underemployed — a substitute teacher in my local school district. I’ve been looking for other work since September, and have sent out a few c.v.’s to those jobs I think I have a shot at getting. I finally, FINALLY have an interview set up next week for one of those jobs. Out of the couple of dozen jobs I’ve applied for, only a few places have had the decency to send me a rejection letter, and this is the only job to even invite me for interview.
Throw some silks on the prayer wheels for me, folks. I desperately need a job. I was going to school for teacher certification, but dropped to part-time. My savings is almost gone. I have to save my house. My husband is working, but it’s not remunerative enough for all the bills.
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in orange.