Long-Term Unemployment

Posted on June 7, 2010 by townsend

• Without COBRA subsidy, health care would require 79% of jobless benefits, By Deb Price, June 6, 2010, Detroit News: “Newly laid-off workers in Michigan face average monthly COBRA health care premiums of $1,019, which would gobble up more than three-quarters of their jobless benefits, according to a report released today by an advocacy group urging Congress to help. ‘The elimination of COBRA subsidies means that people losing their jobs will also lose their health care coverage,’ said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. ‘Such a loss of health coverage flies in the face of the recently enacted health reform legislation that is intended to expand health coverage to tens of millions of people.’ The House passed a slimmed-down $102 billion jobs bill May 28 that dropped a proposal to extend eligibility for the federal COBRA subsidy through the end of the year. The result is workers who lost their jobs before June 1 get the COBRA health care subsidy — a 65 percent subsidy of health care premiums for up to 15 months. But those laid off after June 1 aren’t eligible…”
• Long-term jobless facing longer odds in job market, By Jeannine Aversa (AP), June 6, 2010, Wilmington News Journal: “If you lose your job these days, it’s worth scrambling to find a new one — fast. After six months of unemployment, your chances of landing work dwindle. The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That’s the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans. Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up. Their growing ranks also will keep pressure on Congress to keep extending jobless benefits, which now run for up to 99 weeks. Overall, the economy has created a net 982,000 jobs this year. But for Jeff Martinez and the record 6.76 million others who have struck out for six months or more, their struggles are getting worse, not better…”