A wave of unemployed persons who will run out of unemployment benefits. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) estimates that by the end of September 500,000 Americans will exhaust their unemployment. By the end of the year, that number will be 1.5 million. While one of the good things the stimulus did was extend unemployment benefits, NELP notes that since the stimulus passed an additional 2.7 million people have lost their jobs.
There are now an all-time high of 4.4 million Americans who have
been out of work for more than six months, up dramatically from 2.6 million in February. That translates into 29% of jobless workers who have been out of work for six months, a record since data were first reported in 1948.
And the pain will not be localized:
*Thirty-one states now have three-month average unemployment rates over 8%, affecting over 400,000 jobless workers who will be cut off unemployment by the end of September. Benefits are running out the soonest in these high unemployment states because they triggered on to the full packages of unemployment benefit provisions the quickest.
*Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now have three-month average unemployment rates over 10%, with an estimated 230,000 workers facing exhaustion by September. Some of the nation’s most populous states – like California and Florida – are the hardest hit. But while severe unemployment and benefit exhaustions are significantly impacting southern states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina) and the Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana), the exhaustions are hitting the nation from the West coast (Nevada, Oregon, California) to the East (Rhode Island).
Things are going to get bad. Very, very bad. Or rather, they're going to get worse because they are already plenty bad for millions of people--
According to the BLS, there are almost 4.4 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job). This is 2.8% of the civilian workforce.
Yet, all we keep getting is the same old corporatist shit. I continue to believe that something has to give. People will not go on like this, not even the sheep-like American people.
Via Calculated Risk.
NOTE - Maybe folks will stop talking about Sarah Palin long enough to see that this country continues to have huge economic problems if I note that on that list of states that are going to get crushed are swing states like Ohio, Florida and Michigan. Not only is his a human disaster (which should be sufficient to get to get people's attention), it's an impending political disaster. Unless you think massive unemployment is good for the incumbent majority party.
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Hey, they've got no place else to go
Where else would the voters of OH, FL, and MI go but the Democrats? Let's get real, here, please.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
I understand there is at least one county-wide layoff TODAY
Birmingham: Jefferson County to lay off 2/3 of county employees today
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
This Is Why Not Bailing Out States
was stupid. I understand the whole moral hazard argument, but that hasn't stopped them from shoveling money at Wall Street. And unlike Wall Street (we need a functioning banking system, we don't need particular banks), these collapses of state government will make things a lot worse.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Wonder what loss of unemployment insurance will do to all
those tender green shoots, hmmm?
Oh, yeah, they're mostly rolled up green $100 currency, right? In the hands of Banksters....
Banksters are doing quite all right.
america decided it needed to Go There
i'm sorry to say it, sorrier for all the people who will suffer, sorriest of all for those of us who have been over here shouting about this for so long. but this is what the american people, or rather, a large group of them who make up the most politically influential group of voters, decided in several elections beginning in 2000. the degree of "la la la, i can't hear you! everything's going to be OK! american idol is on!" has really sickened me, even as i know that it's not entirely the fault of the people doing that. the propaganda and corporatist pressures have been very strong. still. i look at Iran, i look at other countries around the world, in which people are actually fighting for change, and all i can think is how badly we suck. so. Depression. i don't know if we'll come out of it with a Hitler, or a new FDR. but that's where we're going, it's mostly inevitable now.
Well, CD, They're Dancing As Fast As They Can
The propagandists, I mean. I think the depth of pain a lot of people are feeling and, while I can't prove it, how many seemed to know it was coming last year (while I can't prove this either I think that's why we had such high participation rates in the Dem primary process) meant that there was a national appetite for change. Maybe not, end the empire entirely stuff, but if you look at polls, they show the population generally is against both wars, wants Medicare for All or some other government health system, and was adamantly against the bailouts. There's also growing support for legalizing marijuana.
That's not everything, but just those changes would be huge in this country and certainly start to get us on the right path.
It's pretty clear, however, we're not getting any of them. And, while that's not a surprise to me, I think some of it will be a surprise to a lot of people (particularly the on-going wars and healthcare) and they're going to be pissed. Which is why we see the media spinning as fast as it can. The blackout on single payer. Virtually no coverage on the wars. Rationalizing the bailouts. Already gearing up to fight a second stimulus. Repeatedly telling us that we can't afford anything we need (while ignoring all the shit we keep paying for that we don't need).
I've said before, but something has got to give. I don't care how well-trained the American people are, when they finally turn off their teebee and realize how screwed they are, something is going to happen. Something beyond people simply voting in the next couple of elections. The only question is yours, whether the something will lead to better things or worse things. It could go either way.
Personally, I think healthcare may very well be where Versailles
breaks. You can lie to people about a lot of things because they don't know the truth. Well, they're going to know the truth about their sick kid and whether they can take him to the doctor. The TV talking heads can't spin that.
And I think the great thing about trying to build a Medicare for All movement (or more accurately continuing to build) is not just that healthcare is one of the great social justice issues of our time (it touches on race, sex, class) it also has the ability to channel the anger somewhere positive. To try to make sure that what comes next is better and not worse. Something that I think all of us have a responsibility to do.
But, yeah, to a large degree the American people got us into this mess - with plenty of help from propagandists and corrupt leaders - and the American people are going to have to get themselves out. Because it's become clear that except at the margins (Anthony Weiner, Alan Grayson), our elected leaders aren't going to do anything unless we make them (and I do mean make them).
It's nice to see you around here, btw.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
George tells Little Timmy about the trouble
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/0...
That still leaves out people who became unemployed prior to
the date selected to use for the first extension of unemployment benefits.
We're already in the worst unemployment numbers since the Great Depression, I hear or read. I need find the source.
The U-6 measure, which is considered closest to how unemployment was measured during the Great Depression:
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force, plus all marginally attached workers: 16.5% seasonally adjusted
July should be out soon, not sure how many days into the August it takes.
Where are the Obama jobs programs? Looks kind of sink or swim, eh?