I am standing in line for unemployment benefits. There must be between four hundred to six hundred others here with me. Everyone here is a locked out Steelworkers from the Kaiser Mead plant. I see many faces I know in the crowd. We are all here because the Washington State Unemployment office downtown cannot handle such a crowd. All the members were told by the Union that this was the day that we had to signup for a new benefit year.
Everyone was told to meet at the Carpenter's hall just off Division on Mission. The building is getting old and could use some maintenance. It is a cold dreary damp morning, and I am glad that I brought my coat along. The weather reflects the overall mood of the people in line. There is a lot of talking going on about what it is going to take to requlify for benefits. I think many fear that they will not receive any more checks from Unemployment.
This morning I got up early to make sure I could make it on time. The last time they locked the doors on the hour. This is the only day we have to do this, so I did not want to miss out. Without unemployment benefits, I would go under fast. This is true for most of the people in line. I don't think they thought this many of us would have made the mandatory $2,646. If they had used the same method for sign up that they used last October, this whole process would have been easier on everyone. Previously people with last names starting with A-H went at 9:00am, I-P at 11:00am and so on. This kept it from becoming overcrowded like it is today.
After about ten minutes someone comes out of the building yelling, "Go home if you have not made at least $2,800 since the benefit year started". The reason for this is because the state requires us to make six times our weekly benefit amount to be eligible for another benefit year. Of course no one let us know this until the benefits ran out in August. This left most steelworkers only a month and a half to make the money.
The restructuring of unemployment insurance has definitely decreased workers’ power and quality of life. First, this is because it became more difficult to qualify, such as with the increase in hours of work from 15 hours a week to 35 to be eligible for coverage (McBride, 2005, pg. 92). New workers, part-time workers and women, who were in part-time jobs more often than men, suffered significantly from this change (McBride, 2005, pg. 92). This negatively affects workers because when they are not protected from unemployment, they cannot always afford the basic necessities they need to live. Also, because workers have a more difficult time getting help to support themselves if unemployed, employers have a lot more power in the workplace. Employers know that workers are more likely to stay in their jobs even if the circumstances are less than ideal. Second, in the new program benefits were reduced (McBride, 2005, pg. 92). This meant that even if you were able to qualify, which was already difficult enough, what you were getting out of the insurance became inferior to ...
A key to victory this November is the unemployment rate. According to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted in March 8-11, 42% of Americans consider unemployment and jobs as “the most important issue facing the country right now” (Priorities). Although there has been 24 consecutive months of private sector employment growth, the Federal Reserve suggests that the numbers could fade in the coming months. The importance of creating more jobs cannot be stressed enough. No President in the recent era has been reelected with the unemployment rate above 7.2% (Roth). To paint a picture, in late 1982, the unemployment rate topped 10.8 under Ronald Reagan. However, about 36 months later, the rate dropped to 7.2% percent. The drastic drop in the n...
still a common view of Jews is for them to be penny pinching, both in
When there is a diversion in the proposed funds for job creation to unemployment insurance, then the creation of new jobs becomes a problem. The issue of unemployment has been a huge debate among researchers; however, regardless of the different outcomes from the many methods of empirical studies, this topic remains very important due to the consequences
With the increase of unemployment in the United States, people find it difficult to make ends meet, so they rely heavily on unemployment benefits. Unemployment checks enable people to support their family and pay their monthly bills while they are seeking employment. My friend James has been working for Safeway for about eight years and got laid off with a wife and a two-year-old daughter to support. With the help of the unemployment check, he was able to provide for his family temporarily until he found a job where he was able to provide for his family permanently. Indeed in 2010, unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people above the poverty line—which is roughly $17, 300 for a family of three. A report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) gives some indication of what might lie ahead for people who exhaust their benefits (Kaufmann). ...
In the documentary, “Not Just a Paycheck” it examines the social determinants of health due to unemployment rates. Specifically, in the United there is a strong correlation between the two. The main cause of deteriorating health and unemployment is the impact of stress on the body and how it can lead to many more health complications.
Today, nearly 12 million of our fellow Americans are unemployed. Our hardest hit communities are struggling to hold on. The trend is not reversing. Government has not taken strong enough action. So what can we do about it?
$17.50 sounds like a pretty good hourly wage, especially to someone employed at Walmart making only about $12.83. This is Hawaiis’ hourly wage equivalent when someone is on welfare. Granted this is the highest hourly wage equivalent, but all states offer an hourly wage equivalent greater than minimum wage. Someone can accumulate a higher “income” if they sit on their bottom at home than if they go out and work for a living. This makes it hard for anyone to have an incentive to work. One of the other reasons why it is hard to create an incentive for work ethic is the lack of embarrassment from the people who “need” government assistance. It used to be people dreaded being on welfare because of the humiliation of being incapable to provide for yourself. Now people strut around like they are proud of the fact they a...
The unemployment rate has dramatically increased over the last several months. This increase has created many complications for the American people. Although the United States economy has created over 7 million jobs, there is still a long way to go until the economy is back on track.
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First thing that has to be looked upon when we think of unemployment are the unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits can be described as a back door for employees in the situation that they lose their jobs. The unemployment benefits provides temporary financial assistance to eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of his/her own. Under this, each state administers a separate insurance program to provide financial service to those qualified under state law. In order to meet these requirements an employee must have a base period, or wages earned during a certain time. The base period is usually the first four out of all five calendar quarters prior to the time a file is claimed. Now there are two ways of filing a claim. One is filing a claim in the state that one resides in. the other would be to file a claim in a non-residential state.
...nd started to pay off the debt. Unemployment is difficult on families, but it is especially problematic on a single parent, since they usually only have one source of income.
... this one feeble protest. Little hope is left to me that things will improve. On the contrary, it seems that there may not be much time left. All my friends now play golf, I have my own clubs and I have sent off the cheque to renew my membership. My only hope now is to somehow lose my job and therefore not have the money to continue playing. But those bastards in government insist on handing out unemployment benefits and I fear that this will be sufficient for me to feed the monkey on my back. Just think of all the free time I would have to play. Oh God!
unemployment was something that I knew very well that you hear in the news every day but the news news doesn 't go into the depth of how what and how it happens. It is broken down the total population,from non-labor force into civilian noninstitutional labor force. And I didn 't know there 's type of job terms. I don 't know there 's a job loser a job lever reentrant or new
Current Picture: A substantial number of workers living in families have experienced some type of lay off. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed, leaving families to deal with the economical and psychological effects of unemployment. According to the Illinois Department of Unemployment the ILLINOIS JOBLESS RATE increased to 6.5% in February. CHICAGO -- The Illinois unemployment rate rose from 6.3% to 6.5% (seasonally adjusted) in February, as payroll jobs dropped slightly from a year ago, according to statistics released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). “Employer payrolls, after adding jobs in January, posted a modest job decline in February, as businesses again postponed hiring due to uncertainties about the economy,” said IDES Director Brenda A. Russell. “While job gains were recorded in seven of the state’s 12 major industry groups, they were outweighed by continued losses in Manufacturing, and in the Transportation/Warehousing sector. These losses brought total payrolls down marginally from their year-ago count.” The total number of people working in the state fell 42,200 to 5,954,700 in February, a decline of 0.7%. The number of unemployed rose 9,700...