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Subscribe to RSSHere’s another sign of how bad the job market has become: the Labor Department is extending how long people can report that they have been unemployed.
Starting with the information collected for January's unemployment data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says it will report unemployment durations of up to five years.
Previously, it only recorded unemployment durations of up to two years.
The Labor Department said it expects that change will affect the table that measures average duration of unemployment.
Already, that figure is shockingly high. In November, the BLS said it took unemployed workers an average of 33.8 weeks — or more than seven months — to find a new job.
For older workers, the job search generally is taking even longer.
And for the so-called “99ers,” the situation is even more bleak. These workers have exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of unemployment benefits offered under state and federal plans, and yet they still have not found work.
The BLS said the new data will be incorporated into its unemployment report beginning with the release of the January data, which happens in early February.
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I suppose the B.L.S. is doing this so it can lower the national unemployment rate from 18.5%, currently. Just another way to skewer the numbers from reality and lie to the American people.
First, the rate you cite is one of convenience, when you are being political. It is not the "official" rate. Although, I admit, it is the accurate rate. However, I still don't understand your comment (or, you don't understand the article). If people can still be counted as unemployed longer, it makes the number go up, not down.
WL and grumpy,
The change shouldn't lead to any difference in the unemployment rate. What it could mean is that we see an increase in the data on how long it takes unemployed people to find a new job.
In terms of the higher unemployment rate figure you referenced, I think you are referring to the broader measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but haven't looked in the past 12 months and part-time workers who are seeking full-time work. That figure is actually around 17 percent currently.
Until & unless Federal & State govts act quickly to re-balance the marketplace--providing true, fair access, competition for domestic, locally produced goods and services versus imported goods & services--there will be NO substantial improvement to our economy and we may face a more serious economic collapse.
No existing "Republican" or "Democrat" plan has a chance to work until the underlying imbalance to our economic engine is fixed.
A domestic true & fair marketplace is one where imported goods and services are required to meet or exceed the USA's business, labor, and environmental standards or face 100% cost offset surcharges to be offered for sale/consumption in our marketplace.
Examples: If imported goods and services were required to meet/exceed our minimum wages & compensation laws, then USA domestic businesses would be more likely to produce competitively priced goods using our domestic labor force. If imports were also required to meet/exceed our environmental protection laws or pay an offsetting surcharge, then worldwide pollution would be reduced and domesticly produced products would also not be at an unfair disadvantage, and thus compete fairly. Requiring imports to meet USA's business standards or face offsetting surcharges would also equalize cost for doing business in our local marketplace.
This isn't about Trade "Protectionism" -- which is a punitive action and creates its own serious marketplace imbalances. This isn't about politics. This is about restoring fairness, true competition to the marketplace. Without it, the USA economy, government budgets, and our quality of life will continue to deteriorate.
This is a long-term, sound economic and 'Green' Plan that will benefit the poor and the wealthy alike. Most importantly it will benefit not only the USA but also the world.
Wow, RDF, I couldn't agree more. I suppose, then, that you aren't a corporate mogul for a multinational? ;-)
I think that the worst part of all of this is that businesses that try to improve profits through outsourcing were cutting their own throats all along. Short sighted policy tended to ignore the basic fact that if people are not working or not making good, livable, wages, they won't spend money (that they don't have). Its actually sad that multinationals are profitable now (without any hiring); they will continue to think that unemployed and/or underpaid people will support their ravenous greed.
Multinationals aren't counting on American customers for profit growth any longer. Many American companies derive over 50% of sales and profits from Asia and Europe.
This is a bunch of BS along with other government numbers.
The IRS requires quarterly filings and PAYMENTS if you work for someone else or are self employed so they know everything on a three month basis.
They feed this line of garbage that they can only track if you collect or do not collect, because so we can only assume assume two things: 1) They have not been given the phone number of the IRS or do not have access to that info 2) The government does not want the general public to know what the real employment numbers and tax income is each quarter.
Either one of these is well, you go figure
Glen, you must be on the wrong page. This has to do with unemployment numbers, not tax rolls. Are you obsessed or lost?
No this is funny! I don't care who you are.
Grumpy Jon you're truly making a joke and, you're truly not serious in asking me if I am lost right?
If you are joking, I apologize.
If not the fact I am making is that (un)employment and taxes is coupled so tightly hand in hand that they cannot be separated. That is truly my point. No one has to extend any tracking based on benefit collections or anything else for that matter. Beyond the initial day of calling up and reporting you lost your job, it is pointless and a waste of labor and resources. The IRS has the up to date, real employment numbers with the granularity of any 3 month period, and the ages, and yearly incomes, up or down from the previous quarter, for any individuals. They know if you took a job at McDonald's for 1/10 your pay and they know if you have started your own company or your wife now got a job. They also know, at least only by number count and new employee payroll with deferred taxes, if the company you got laid off from is probably outsourcing your job.
even better, since the IRS outsources the processing of the returns, some schmuck in India or a foreign country knows if you are unemployed and if you did or did not take that job at McDonalds.
The whole premise of the article that you have to report your unemployment for the government to get numbers is stupidity sold at its finest.
"...the Labor Department is extending how long people can report that they have been unemployed."
If you want to talk about why we've got a problem. I can do that as well.
they sure don't have any reason to go get a job now for sure.
i know a guy that's been on unemployment for sometime now.
he's happy as a g.d. clam. i asked him if he planned to go find
a job any time soon? not unless the unemployment stops, he said.
so the rest of us still go to work & support those like him.
This "guy" you refer to is by far the exception, dragonfish. I just returned to work after being unemployed for 26 months. Believe me, it was no picnic. Had it not been for my faith, friends and family, I don't believe I would have made it through what was easily the most difficult time of my life.
I find it interesting that people like yourself paint the unemployed as these lazy, good for nothing bums who have no desire to work, when people who are receiving unemployment benefits had to have WORKED to be receiving them in the first place.
It's so easy to point fingers, but, especially if you've been fortunate enough to remain employed for the last 20 years or so, you have no idea what people who are currently unemployed are up against - especially if you're older than 45.
Well, government may need to increase the retirement age again!
We better save money now.
There is a new website created by Nicole Sandler that is to help the 99er's--those who have been on unemployment for more than 99 weeks. The website is: http://helpthe99ers.com. It's a website for those that are forgotten and for those that want to help.
i say we should deport the unemployed and of course people we don't like too by using private companies since we can't have government do anything. havent these people burdened us enough and killed our economy, they've been carried by our most golden of businesses. all they want is a free handout, i saw 2 job posting in the classifieds a week ago. there are jobs, they pretend its so bad. these freeloaders need work one day in their lives.
better to let the rich keep all the money as it trickles down their inner leg to undeserving peasants, don't they know its the company that makes you people, not the people who make a company. the trillions we spend on helping freeloaders and crack-moms could build a candy bridge to the moon, oxygen extra.
(satire you idiots who agree)
All 99ers, Come to From the Trenches World Report where we are discussing strategies to get the attention of our so called representatives, counter attacks against the mainstream media propaganda which has portrayed us as lazy. We have an Entrepreneur's page to get together with other 99ers to pull ourselves out of this mess. We have a Think Tank to come up with new ideas. We have the Nationwide Rally to Extend Unemployment Insurance where you list the address of your closest Unemployment Office, when we get enough people we can have a rally for civil disobedience.
This site belongs to all of us and your comments will be read by fellow 99ers.
www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com
I have been in business since 1970. I associate with businessmen from all industries and It takes perspective to know what is going on in business. The big fish are eating the little fish. Every industry is being taken over by corporate interests and increasing the cost to consumers. The government, up and down, is party to this takeover. It is not a reorganiation; it is an illegal anti trust anti competition trend and it is killing the quality of goods and services. If it can't be manufactured offshore then it will be accomplished using illegal aliens. I spent a week last year in various classes to accomodate new and often rediculus regulation that was unleashed by the liberal adminisration. I mispoke. The regulation approached was always rediculus in that they all should and could have been explained in a form and I could have signed as having read the material and mailed the form in, but no. I had to go and pay for each requirement of each agency and most often receive a certificate to do what I have been doing without incident for forty years. The new health insurance requirements of health care will take a week of classes to accomodate. And mark my words. If you need to take such a class you will come away totally confused and frustrated with the new requirements and your attempt to legally comply will be a best guess at compliance. Why not just shoot every small businessman in America?
Amen. No one except the two of us on this board would probably realize all this. You have to own your own small company to see how America really works.
The majority of people that draw unemployment do not seriously look for work until their unemployment benefits are about to exhaust. I worked for a local unemployment office for 17 years and know this to be a fact. Oh sure there are those that do truthfully seek employment and would not rather draw unemployment but they are few and far between. However, as long as there are extensions, the longer the vast majority will remain unemployed. By the time all of the benefits are exhausted those people have become so used to not working it is difficult to get back into the workforce. There should be extensions I agree but 99 weeks, get real. I hear people bragging that they have been on unemployment for almost 2 years, is that reasonable? I do not think so.
Stereotyping of the unemployed at its' worst. I just recently returned to work after being out of work for 26 months. It was 26 months of pure hell. I can honestly say that not once did I brag about being unemployed, nor did I ever hear anyone else who was going through the same hell I was do the same. Being out of my mind with worry was more like what I felt on a daily basis.
Until you've faced what the majority of unemployed people are facing, especially people who are older than 45, you can't begin to imagine what a nightmare it is to try to find gainful employment again in this economy.
The fact that you worked in an unemployment office means nothing to "prove" the validity of your statements. People receiving unemployment benefits are only required to list their employment searches during the last 20 weeks of the FED-ED tier. During the first 6 months and for the tiers before the FED-ED extension, specific job search information is not required on UI claims forms. But, just because you don't know where someone who is out of work has applied for jobs doesn't mean the person hasn't applied.
Funny how the unemployed are always vilified - but not the greedy corporations who put them out of work in the first place!
Underemployed for 3+ years with no benefits ever received. Now I do contract work (1099) but only average maybe 15 hours/week. There's not much out there in my line of specialized work and most employers these days really favor hiring younger and inexperienced people even though older workers are willing to work for less than they were paid on their last full time job. Plus, when one gets involved in contract or part time work, their job search can be hindered because of the time they spend on their part time business. I used to find full time work in under 20 weeks in the distant past and worked for one company for over 23 years. Now we're talking about 3+ years of practically nothing. Pretty sad.