When Jonathan Miller heard that Congress had agreed to a two-month extension for emergency unemployment benefits he started jumping up and down for joy.
“Thank God. I don’t know what I would have done if my unemployment check would have stopped,” Miller, 43, said. “This is the only income I have to help support my wife and two children. My wife is already working two jobs and expecting her to work a third job was unimaginable. Without an income I would not feel like a man in my household.”
It has been a little over a year since Miller was laid off as a $67,000 a year delivery driver for a national beverage company where he worked for 16 years. And like Miller there are more than 2 million people nationally who have been unemployed for more than a year and who depend on unemployment benefits to help them get by, U.S. Department of Labor data suggest.
And while there is no official, government data showing how many black men make up Illinois’ long-term unemployed, Richard Reinhold, manager of Illinois Department of Employment Security’s Local Area Unemployment Statistics program, said men overall have been unemployed at a higher rate since 2007.
“The higher unemployment rate for men is due to the fact that industries with the biggest job losses during the recession, such as construction and manufacturing, primarily employ men,” explained Reinhold.
Nationally, the numbers are much worse for unemployed, black men, according to the Community Service Society, a non-profit, public policy organization in New York.
The national unemployment average for blacks hoovers around 16 percent, but for black males, it’s at 17.5 percent, according to the Community Service Society. And in nearby cities like Milwaukee the black male unemployment rate sits around 34 percent.
According to the U.S. Census, there are 12.7 million people living in Illinois and 6.3 million are men while women make up the other 6.4 million. blacks make up 1.8 million Illinois residents while whites account for 9.2 million.
Miller said he knows one reason why so many black men are unemployed.
“I know a ton of guys who are out of work and looking each day for any job that pays. But a lot of ‘good,’ paying jobs today want you to have advanced, college education. Meaning a master’s degree and I don’t have that,” explained Miller. “Hell, a lot of black men never went to college because they were too busy working to pay their bills.”
Miller is not the only black man in Chicago nowadays out of work for more than a year and get by on unemployment benefits.
Shaun Jackson, 48, and another Chicago resident, was fired in February from his $34,000 a year administrative assistant job at medical association for poor performance.
“They said my work was not up to par but I know that is BS. Anytime a company wants to let people go they will sometimes say your performance lacked just to get you out the door quicker and sometimes they hope to have your unemployment benefits denied for that reason,” Jackson told the Examiner.com. Jackson said he is trying to start a networking group for unemployed, black men looking for a job.
“That old adage of who you know still exists and is still the fastest way to get hired nowadays,” Jackson said. “And for us (black men) sometimes a lack of networking is what hinders our ability to secure employment. A lot of brothers especially blue-collar ones are not use to speaking to large masses of people and may shy away from attending events where they could network.”
And Colin Mason, 37, has held a job since earning a bachelor’s degree in Communications 15 years ago. But today, he remains unemployed after being laid off from his $31,000 a year customer service job for a catalog company.
“I too am receiving emergency unemployment at the time until I can find a steady job,” he said. “All this unemployment is new to me but I am learning that it takes time (during a recession) to find a job. Truth be told, if I was not getting unemployment my family and I would be staying at a shelter and I have twin babies, so lugging them around from pillar to post is not something I ever want to do.”
Had Congress not extended the emergency unemployment compensation last month, which is funded by the federal government, Jackson’s $902 biweekly unemployment check (after federal and state taxes are deducted) would have ended in August.
In November, the last month data was available; Illinois’ unemployment rate fell to 10 percent from 10.1 percent in October, according to the IDES, while adding 600 new jobs.
“Illinois’ economy continues to take small, positive steps despite the pressure of an uneven national recovery,” said Jay Rowell, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). “Illinois has recorded job growth in eight of 11 months. We have averaged nearly 6,000 new jobs each month this year. And we continue to lead the Midwest in job growth since the recovery began. This is progress that people can see. Illinois’ economy is moving in the right direction.”
Unemployment compensation is funded by unemployment insurance, which is paid for by employers and not taxpayers, according to Greg Rivara, a spokesman for the IDES.
Those found eligible can receive benefits up to 26 weeks from the state. Afterwards, those still eligible for benefits would receive up to 73 weeks of emergency unemployment funded by the federal government. And the maximum payment an Illinois resident could receive is $531 a week, depending on such things as their marital status, earnings while employed and dependents, such as a child or unemployed spouse.
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