Unemployment Persuasive Essay

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Imagine waking up one morning, no longer able to support your family—your household income has been reduced to a mere $2,000 per month. You can no longer afford to make payments on your house and it has gone into foreclosure. You can no longer afford to buy your children a new pair of shoes when their old pair has holes. Worst of all, you can no longer afford to pay for simple necessities for yourself or your family, and must resort to much more inferior goods just to get by.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Brittany Rhodes, and I support the extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It is with a heavy heart I stand before you today. This case, regarding inadequate unemployment insurance benefits, has become an unfortunate reality for so many Americans in the United States. With the median household income in the United States, according to the 2012 Census, being around $51,371 (down roughly $4,000 since 2000), these drastic changes in family life to unexpected unemployment is far more common than you may realize (Noss 1). The United States Department of Labor states Unemployment Insurance simply aims to provide temporary assistance to those who become unemployed through no fault of their own. Temporary, being a relative term, does not specifically define a period of time for which an American citizen should be able to secure a job with a decent wage adequately able to support themselves and their family. Let me be clear, these benefits, currently and as proposed, are designed for those actively seeking reemployment in the work force. Currently, job seekers out number open positions in each industry by a three to one ratio, meaning for every three job seekers, only one open position is available for hire (American Progress)....

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...elated to the extension, but rather a problem highly related to the regulation of existing beneficiaries. It is clear the importance and benefits to extending unemployment insurance benefits to those law abiding citizens is beyond beneficial. Not only are the economic benefits of increased consumption a positive outcome, but so are the decreased applicants for Welfare, and overall well-being of society. New York Times provided the following graphics to depict the changes in layoff, unemployment claim, departure, and hiring rates over the past 12 years. As you can see, layoffs were at a twelve year high in 2009, and have tapered off since, but the number of those who applied for unemployment insurance benefits after being laid off in 2009 and later are among those struggling to seek new positions in the work force, and need the extended temporary insurance benefits.

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