Jobless benefits bill: 1-week waiting period, higher taxes, By Jonathan Starkey, June 2, 2013, News Journal: “Delaware racked up more than $70 million in debt sending out unemployment checks during the recession. Now the bill is coming due, and proposed legislation would pay down the debt by raising taxes on businesses and forcing jobless Delawareans to wait a week before collecting state benefits. Gov. Jack Markell is backing the proposed changes, which administration officials say would stave off even higher federal taxes in coming years. The proposal is working its way in the Legislature. Delaware, which is not the only state needing to tackle the problem, began borrowing from the federal government in March 2010 to pay for unemployment benefits, with the bill reaching as high as $78.5 million. The state-administered unemployment trust fund currently owes about $71.5 million…”
Tag: Job losses
Youth Unemployment – Europe
Euro leaders unite to tackle soaring youth unemployment rates, By Rupert Neate and Graeme Wearden, May 28, 2013, The Guardian: “European leaders yesterday warned that youth unemployment – which stands at up to 59% in some countries – could lead to a continent-wide ‘catastrophe’ and widespread social unrest aimed at member state governments. The French, German and Italian governments yesterday joined together to launch initiatives to ‘rescue an entire generation’ who fear they will never find jobs. More than 7.5m young Europeans aged between 15-24 are not employed or in education or training, according to European Union data. The rate of youth unemployment is more than double that of adults, and more than half of young people in Greece (59%) and Spain (55%) are unemployed…”
Youth Unemployment
Generation jobless, April 27, 2013, The Economist: “Helder Pereira is a young man with no work and few prospects: a 21-year-old who failed to graduate from high school and lost his job on a building site four months ago. With his savings about to run out, he has come to his local employment centre in the Paris suburb of Sevran to sign on for benefits and to get help finding something to do. He’ll get the cash. Work is another matter. Youth unemployment in Sevran is over 40%. A continent away in Athlone, a gritty Cape Town suburb, Nokhona, a young South African mother of two, lacks a ‘matric’ or high-school qualification, and has been out of work since October 2010, when her contract as a cleaner in a coffee shop expired. She hopes for a job as a maid, and has sought help from DreamWorker, a charity that tries to place young jobseekers in work. A counsellor helps Nokhona brush up her interview skills. But the jobless rate among young black South Africans is probably around 55%. Official figures assembled by the International Labour Organisation say that 75m young people are unemployed, or 6% of all 15- to 24-year-olds. But going by youth inactivity, which includes all those who are neither in work nor education, things look even worse…”