No More unemployment . .. No jobs. ..what will these people do? What do you recommend they do? Will they be offered those jobs that are now currently held by illegal immigrants? or will they turn to crime? or will they sit on the street corner? or will they starve? What will they do? Rocket River http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2008-09-08-unemployment_N.htm States running out of money in jobless funds By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY The sharp rise in joblessness is draining unemployment insurance trust funds in many hard-hit states, setting the stage for a federal bailout to keep the funds solvent. The unemployment rate reached a five-year high of 6.1% in August, putting the number of jobless people at 9.5 million, up 2.4 million from a year earlier. About one-third of the jobless collect unemployment insurance from state governments. TABLE: Covering the unemployed California, New York, Ohio and Michigan are among populous states projected to deplete their unemployment insurance funds this year or in 2009 to cover the cost of benefits. The financial struggles should not jeopardize weekly jobless payments, which average $299 per week. "People will get their benefits. It's just a matter of where the money will come from," Loree Levy of the California Employment Development Department said. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Michigan | Ohio | New York | National Employment Law Project | California Employment Development Department The federal government is required to loan states money when their trust funds run short. In the short term, bailouts increase the federal deficit. In the long term, businesses pay higher unemployment insurance taxes to replenish the trust funds. "Ohio hasn't faced anything like this for many years. I doubt other states have either," Ohio Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Doehrel said. Thirty-two state trust funds are below the federally recommended level of having cash reserves equal to a year's worth of recession-level payments. A number of states will need federal assistance for jobless funds during this economic slowdown, said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "We're going to see many more states facing insolvency than in the past," he said. State unemployment funds never fully recovered from the recession that started in 2001, Stettner said. Before the last downturn, trust funds had $54 billion in reserves. This time, reserves were $32 billion on March 30, the most recent figure available. States with big problems: • California doubled benefits in 2001 but did not raise its tax rate. The jobless fund went insolvent in 2004, then recovered. Now that unemployment is at 7.3%, it faces insolvency again in 2009. • New York has enough in its reserve for only two months. "That's not enough," said Nancy Dunphy, state deputy labor commissioner. • Michigan, which has the USA's highest unemployment rate at 8.5%, owes $255 million it borrowed from the federal government earlier this year. More borrowing is likely. Unemployment insurance is operated by states under federal guidelines. States set their own benefits and tax rates. Employers pay an average of 2.5% on the first $11,500 of wages. The federal government has its own unemployment insurance trust fund that will lend states money. If states don't repay the bailout loans promptly, businesses in those states generally are required to pay higher federal and state taxes to restore the funds' solvency. Covering the unemployed Unemployment trust funds are running low in many states, making afederal bailout likely to keep the funds solvent. Story, 1A. What statespay in unemployment insurance and how long the average jobless personcollects: State Average weekly benefit ($) Average weeks benefits paid Hawaii 404.4 13.6 Massachusetts 388.4 18.0 Rhode Island 375.8 15.9 New Jersey 374.8 18.2 Washington 343.0 13.0 Minnesota 340.6 16.5 Colorado 337.1 13.5 Virgin Islands 336.7 16.6 Pennsylvania 336.6 16.3 Connecticut 325.4 16.5 Illinois 324.6 17.4 Kansas 317.4 13.3 Utah 311.8 13.1 California 307.6 16.6 Iowa 306.4 12.6 New York 304.2 16.9 Wyoming 302.3 12.9 Vermont 300.0 14.6 Texas 300.0 14.8 Indiana 299.6 13.2 Ohio 299.6 15.2 United States 299.1 15.2 Maryland 298.3 15.1 Michigan 298.2 14.5 Oregon 293.6 14.0 Nevada 292.2 14.4 Kentucky 291.5 13.8 District of Columbia 290.1 19.1 North Dakota 289.3 12.3 North Carolina 282.1 13.7 Wisconsin 278.9 13.6 Oklahoma 278.6 15.2 Virginia 274.3 12.5 Idaho 270.9 11.5 New Mexico 270.8 16.5 New Hampshire 269.3 12.8 Georgia 269.0 11.3 Arkansas 263.7 14.5 Montana 262.7 14.8 Maine 260.2 14.3 Delaware 255.5 16.9 West Virginia 246.2 13.6 Nebraska 241.5 12.3 Florida 241.2 14.6 South Dakota 240.3 11.5 South Carolina 237.7 13.7 Missouri 236.4 14.0 Arizona 219.7 15.2 Tennessee 218.6 14.0 Louisiana 210.6 14.5 Alaska 203.3 14.2 Alabama 190.9 11.9 Mississippi 178.7 14.3
they should go out and find a job, any job... sitting at home doesnt put food in the fridge and keep the lights on. go out and get a job (McD, BK, Walmart...) but keep looking for something more stable...
Yes, maybe they should stop holding their hands out and get out there and work to find a job, or move away from the places where there aren't jobs to places where there are. And maybe it's not the state's job to hand out free money to the unemployed. Never should have been to begin with. The fact that they are running out of money simply illustrates how stupid it was to begin doing it in the first place.
