Expand unemployment insurance now
Congress has just extended unemployment benefits 13 additional weeks, but most people don't qualify for benefits these days. Commentator Robert Reich says the guidelines to qualify for unemployment insurance should be loosened.
Robert Reich (APM)
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Scott Jagow: So far, the job market has held up OK, but I just have this feeling it's starting to sink. The last few days, we've seen several announcements of major lay-offs. At the German company Siemens, American Airlines, Indy Mac Bancorp, GM. Commentator Robert Reich says people who lose their jobs and qualify unemployment benefits are the lucky ones.
Robert Reich: Congress has just extended unemployment benefits 13 additional weeks, over and above the 26 weeks normally provided. That's good as far as it goes. But most people who lose their job these days don't qualify for any unemployment benefits at all.
How can this be? Well, in order to be eligible, most states require you to have been working in the job you lost full-time, and for a certain number of years.
These requirements made sense decades ago, when labor markets were far more stable -- when most working people stayed in the same full-time job for years, and only lost it temporarily during the downdraft of a recession, picking it up again when the economy rebounded. And back then, one full-time breadwinner could keep a family whole. In those days, unemployment insurance counter-balanced recessions by keeping money in the pockets of working families.
But nothing is stable about today's labor market. Every time the economy sinks, employers fire workers permanently. Even when the economy is doing fine, pink slips proliferate -- although it's easier then to find a new job. All of which means a growing fraction of the labor force is in a job only a few years.
Meanwhile, full-time jobs are vanishing. More companies are contracting out their work. As a result, more people are doing several part-time jobs, or are self-employed. They're also more likely to be part of a couple whose family depends on two sets of paychecks.
So when times get tough, as they are now, and people lose a job after having it for only a few years or lose their part-time job or lose their client, or when one member of a couple loses earnings, a family can be in real trouble. And there are no unemployment benefits -- not even partial benefits -- to help them out. Or to help counter-balance the economy as a whole.
It's a disgrace that most Americans who lose their jobs don't qualify for unemployment insurance. Congress should expand coverage so a majority of American families have some security in these perilous times.
Jagow: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.
Comments
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From Seattle, WA, 07/09/2008
There are still lots of high paying jobs on employment sites. Here's a few from About.com's top 10 employment sites:
http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.indeed.com
http://www.simplyhired.com
The whole list here:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/joblistings/tp/jobbanks.htm
From carson city, NV, 07/09/2008
Mr. Reich states: "in order to be eligible (for unemployment benefits), most states require you to have been working in the job you lost full-time, and for a certain number of years. No state has ever had this requirement. Eligibility is based on wages earned in the last 12-18 months. These wages can be from many employers and may include part-time or full time work. A few clicks to any state unemployment website will confirm this. I suggest we should be more concerned about the majority of states that are increasingly underfunded. According to the DOL 33 states have deficient trust funds.
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