At the end of November, slews of unemployed persons will be cut off from unemployment benefits when emergency federal extensions end.

It is important to recall that unemployment benefits are not an entitlement program or a form of welfare. Unemployment is an insurance program that tides folks over through temporary periods of unemployment. It allows them to maintain their dignity and the basics of life so that they may be best prepared to re-enter the job market (it is a lot harder to get re-hired if you haven’t had a shower or a decent meal in weeks, or are living out of the back seat of your car). It is also a program that requires the active participation of beneficiaries in job searches, skills readiness training, and other such programs that best prepare them for re-employment.

Unfortunately, every recent recession has seen an increase in the time necessary for a jobs recovery. This recession has been by far the worst. The chart below shows the relatively fast jobs recovery following past recessions. Jobs recoveries began to lengthen with the 1981 recession.

There is no jobs recovery right now, and many of the jobs unemployed persons lost will never come back. Many have already received a full 99 weeks of benefits. Many will need significant retraining to prepare for new jobs. With the November cut-off, others will never get that far. In the following article, the National Employment Law Project projects that 1.2 million people are faced with a November 30th cut-off. The question is, how will they and their families eat, how will their rents be paid, how will they prepare for jobs if they become homeless and transient? As Christians, and particularly members of the PNCC which has a long history of advocacy for workers, we need to ask those questions and make our voices heard so that those who are ready, willing, and able to work are not abandoned.

From NELP: Some 1.2 Million Jobless Workers Will Lose UI Benefits if No Extension, Report Says

About 1.2 million jobless workers will lose emergency unemployment insurance benefits if Congress fails to extend the benefits again by Nov. 30, according to a report released Oct. 22 by the National Employment Law Project.

The 10-page report found that of those 1.2 million workers, 387,000 are workers who were recently laid off and are now receiving six months of regular state benefits.

“These are people who have been laid off through no fault of their own and are desperately looking for jobs, but would be snapped from the lifeline of jobless benefits just as the holiday season kicks into high gear,” said NELP executive director Christine Owens. “Congress will have to act fast when it reconvenes to avoid a catastrophe. The clock is ticking.”

California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York top the list of states that would face the most cutoffs, according to the report.
Report Findings

The report includes the following findings:

• Since the unemployment insurance program was created in response to the Great Depression, Congress has never cut federally funded jobless benefits when unemployment was this high for this long (over 9 percent for 17 consecutive months).
• Businesses and the struggling economy—especially the retail sector—will take “a major blow” if Congress fails to continue the federal jobless benefits during the holiday shopping season.
• In 2009, the increase in the number of people in poverty would have doubled were it not for unemployment insurance benefits.
• With the average unemployment extension weekly check of $290 replacing only half of the average family’s expenditures on transportation, food, and housing, jobless workers have a major incentive to look for work.
• The 51-day lapse of the federal UI extension program this summer caused substantial hardship for many of the more than 2.5 million unemployed workers cut off from benefits.

“Cutting unemployed job seekers off the extended unemployment benefits they need and have counted on receiving is hard any time, but doing so around Thanksgiving and the ensuing holidays is especially harsh—and counterproductive,” Owens said.

In New York, per the Department of Labor (my employer), 190,000 will be loosing benefits immediately:

NY state prepares for end of jobless benefits: New York state prepares for end to extended unemployment benefits; Congress controls fate

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is preparing for the possibility that an extra 190,000 residents could lose emergency unemployment insurance benefits at year’s end if Congress fails to act next week, state Labor Commissioner Colleen Gardner said Friday.

“This is no time to cut off benefits,” Gardner said. “We still have a job market where there’s only one job opening for every five people looking for work.

“We estimate that for every dollar invested in unemployment insurance benefits, close to $2 is spent in every local economy,” she added in a conference call with reporters. “That’s especially important between now and the end of the year as the holiday time approaches.”

More than 100,000 New Yorkers already have exhausted their emergency benefits. Some 30 percent of those have tapped public assistance, typically food stamps and sometimes the Medicaid health care program for the poor, Gardner said.

An additional 190,000 state residents could lose out by Jan. 1 or around 400,000 by May 1, she said.

Republicans in Congress want spending cuts of $5 billion to $6 billion a month as a condition for extending emergency benefits scheduled to expire in December. Up to 2 million people could lose the benefits if the Democratic-controlled Congress doesn’t act in the postelection lame-duck session.

Jobless people are eligible for up to 99 weeks of benefits in most states. The first 26 weeks are paid by states. About 3.7 million draw them now.

Democrats argue that the extended benefits should be paid for with deficit spending because it injects money into the economy. Jobless people immediately spend the cash, they explain. But Republicans note that the government had to borrow 37 cents of every dollar it spent last year, and it’s time to draw the line.

From a Call to Action by IWJ (please sign the NELP Petition to Congress):

The good news for the new unemployment numbers: The economy added 151,000 jobs last month. The bad news: Official unemployment remained at 9.6 of the work force. Long-term unemployment continues to affect almost 42 percent of the nation’s 14.8 million jobless workers, according to the National Employment Law Project. The average spell of joblessness grew to 33.9 weeks in October, the worst since the government began collectinmg this data in the 1950s.

But, it’s one thing to talk about numbers and quite another to remember living human beings: unemployed workers and their families who are suffering severely. Every day, untold numbers of unemployed workers are asking: How can I feed my family? How can I buy the medicine to heal my sick child? How can I pay the mortgage? How?

On November 30th jobless benefit extensions expire. Unless Congress acts to extend benefits for another year, two million workers will be cut off next month alone and any brief extensions will still put millions at risk of cut-offs next year. Not only would this be catastrophic for millions of families; it would deny struggling businesses needed revenue during the rapidly approaching holiday season and beyond.

We can’t let this happen! Please call your Senators and Representative 202-224-3121 to urge them to extend jobless benefits for another year. Please tell your relatives and friends to call also.

It doesn’t matter whether your members of congress were elected, defeated or didn’t run last week. They are still your representatives now and need to hear your voices loud and clear.

And then join tens of thousands by signing this online petition to Congress:

The holidays will soon be here. Our joint efforts can make the difference between a season devoid of hope and joy for so many or a renewed sense that in the midst of pain there is a glimmer of light on the other side.