More jobless $ hits Senate snag

WASHINGTON (PAI) – By a 331-83 margin, the House voted on Sept. 22 to extend jobless benefits to millions of unemployed people in at least 28 states, plus D.C., who were facing the end of their unemployment checks. 

With joblessness at 9.8% and rising – analysts say it will climb above 10% next year – Democrats voted overwhelmingly (227-17) for financially strapped workers and families, while Republicans backed the extension by a smaller margin (104-66).

The bill would extend unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks for over 300,000 workers who reside in high-unemployment states, like Michigan, and who were projected to run out of compensation by the end of September.  It would also aid more than 1 million workers whose benefits would be exhausted by the end of 2009.

The longer benefits would go to workers in 28 states, plus D.C., with jobless rates of 8.5% or more.  The bill went to the Senate, where, predictably, lawmakers in states with lower unemployment held up the legislation because they felt they were getting a raw deal. At press time, no deal had been reached.

Job-wise, lots of catching up to do

On Oct. 2 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the employment situation report for September – and the news is not good.

According to the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute, September marked the 21^st month of consecutive job loss, making this the longest streak in 70 years. While losses have moderated since the huge drops early this year, they remain substantial – 263,000 jobs were shed in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%.

The only factor that kept unemployment from rising higher, the EPI said, was that 571,000 workers dropped out of the labor force.

Between the 7.2 million jobs lost since the start of the downturn in December 2007, and the 2.7 million jobs (about 127,000 per month) that should have added to keep up with population growth, the gap in the labor market has now reached approximately 9.9 million jobs.

To close this gap and return the labor market to pre-recession conditions by September of 2011, employment would have to increase by an average of 538,000 jobs every month between now and then.

The EPI’s Heidi Shierholz said job losses “are moderating. But the hole in the labor market is now so huge that it will require enormous, sustained levels of growth to fill it any time soon.”