On June 10, 2010, Dr. Lawrence Mischel, President of the Economic Policy Institute, testified before the U.S. House Ways and Means subcommitte on Income Security and Family support. Dr. Mischel testified that "the jobs crisis is catastrophic and there is no end in sight."
On Thursday, June 10, 2010, Rep. Jim McDermott (D), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family support, conducted a hearing on policy responses to long-term unemployment. Dr. Heather Boushey, senior economist for the Center for American Progress, told congress that they should "stop adding to the problem of unemployment."
Dr. Mischel testified that the "the United States is undergoing the worst economic downturn in 70 years, and the damage and suffering it is causing will last many years beyond the official end of the recession. . . Only 41,000 net new private-sector jobs were created last month, far too few for the millions of Americans who have been out of work for a year or more." A video of his testimony is available for viewing at the bottom of this article.
Dr. Mischel testified that the job market is 7.4 million jobs below where we were at the start of the recession. "Over the two years and five months since the recession began in December 2007, we needed to have added around 3 million jobs simply to keep up with population growth . . . as of today no policy has been enacted that would allow us to hope for that rate of job creation in the coming years."
Bureau of Labor statistics show that long-term unemployment has reached crisis proportions. Unemployment benefits are expiring for thousands of American workers who have been unemployed for almost two years. This catagory of the unemployed are calling themselves the 99er's. The 99er's and others are begging Congress to provide a Tier V, an additional level of benefits beyond those currently provided by Congress.
Moreover, as reported in an earlier article, thirteen thousand Hoosiers are losing benefits as U.S. Senate inaction costs American workers unemployment benefits throughout the nation.
STAY TUNED: As we continue to follow the outcome of the Hearing seeking policy responses to the long-term unemployment problem.
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Comments
Congress has totally failed the American public... they have failed to address the jobs market.
Please the petition at Change.org (google it) and sign it. This is one of the largest petitions to ever hit the site. Congress needs to hear your voice.
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It is clear that from the President’s office on down there really is a complete unwillingness to face the chilling reality of the gap between the number of long-term unemployed and the number of jobs available. The 99‘ers are trapped between leadership who refuse to acknowledge the desperate reality of our situation and a job market that isn’t and won’t be in a position to absorb the long-term unemployed for many years.
The only thing I have learned since I have been unemployed since July of 2008 was some knew knowledge in health care and $9.000 more in debt because I went to a school that promised high demand careers. Upon graduation and achieving certification status no one will hire me because I have no experience in the field I studied in and worked hard to learn. I am almost 50 and believe part of the reason may be the age factor. With unemployment cutting us off I have already cashed in my life insurance and retirement accounts to pay my mortgage as a single Mom with a teenage son. I worked hard to save those retirement savings and have to cash them all in to live on unemployment pay to pay my bills and funds from those to pay my mortgage. Deeply upset with this country that we live in.
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