Big companies join Obama in initiative to help long-term unemployed, By Peter Baker, January 31, 2014, New York Times: “President Obama has persuaded some of the nation’s largest companies, including Walmart, Apple, General Motors and Ford, to revamp their hiring practices to avoid discriminating against applicants who have been out of work for a long stretch of time. Mr. Obama hosted a group of corporate chief executives at the White House on Friday to highlight those efforts and the use of presidential persuasion to help the jobless find work. In all, White House officials said, about 300 businesses have agreed to new hiring policies, including 21 of the nation’s 50 largest companies and 47 of the top 200…”
Obama wants job training revamped, By Jeff Mason, January 31, 2014, Columbus Dispatch: “President Barack Obama promised to overhaul federal job-training programs yesterday on the second leg of a tour intended to highlight his proposals to improve the fortunes of low- and middle-income Americans. Obama traveled to Wisconsin to discuss the efforts to ensure that training programs match up with the demand for jobs. It was part of a trip that will include a stop in Tennessee to discuss education. The trip is a follow-up to Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday, in which he called for greater economic fairness in a nation that is still recovering from the deep 2007-09 recession…”
Going back to college at 50, and why it’s a dream come true, By Luisa Deprez and Sandy Butler, January 24, 2014, Bangor Daily News: “When she graduated from Mount Desert Island High School in 1981, Kaloe ‘Kay’ Haslam was the first in her family to earn a high school degree. She took ‘business’ and ‘general’ classes rather than ‘college-bound’ courses. She had no aspirations to go to college, nor was she encouraged. ‘I never thought I could afford it,’ she said. ‘I was one of three in a single-parent family. It was like, ‘This isn’t anything I can afford to do.’ I basically just went to work.’ Her dream at the time was to work in an office. ‘I didn’t even care what I was doing in an office,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to work in an office.’ But living in a high-tourism area, office jobs were not widely available…”
Unemployment benefits dominate the agenda, By Ed O’Keefe, January 31, 2014, Washington Post: “Stephanie Ransom is 30, single and the mother of a 3-year-old girl. She has thousands of dollars in credit-card debt and suffers from a rare thoracic disorder that causes severe pain in her neck and shoulders. Last July, Ransom lost the job she’d had for nine years at a parts manufacturer in Walworth, Wis., and has not been able to find another one. That prolonged joblessness has become the defining feature of her life…”
States cutting weeks of aid to the jobless, By Annie Lowrey, January 21, 2014, New York Times: “After losing her job as a security guard in June, Alnetta McKnight turned to food stamps and unemployment insurance to support herself and her 14-year-old son. But her jobless payments ran out after 20 weeks, and now they are living on close to nothing…”
6 months after unemployment aid cutoff, job-seekers report tough market, By Eric Frazier, January 21, 2014, The State: “Six months after North Carolina’s much-debated decision to cut off federal long-term unemployment benefits for nearly 70,000 people, some of the jobless have taken on lower-paying part-time posts; others have given up looking. One thing they all seem to agree on: The job market, despite declining unemployment rates, remains brutally competitive, with far more applicants than good job openings. It’s even more difficult, they say, for job seekers over 50…”
EDD answers only 10% to 17% of calls from jobless, records show, By Marc Lifsher, January 20, 2014, Los Angeles Times: “Four months after a botched computer upgrade delayed unemployment benefits for tens of thousands of Californians, jobless workers are still finding it nearly impossible to reach state employees for help. On any given day in recent months, as many as 90% of callers to the Employment Development Department seeking information about missed payments or unprocessed claims failed to reach a live worker, according to agency phone records obtained by The Times…”
Life without benefits gets tougher for jobless, By Jennifer Liberto, January 20, 2014, CNNMoney: “Some of the 1.3 million jobless Americans entering their fourth week without federal benefits are facing tough choices. Jean Winsor borrowed money from a friend to pay car insurance this month, so she can drive to interviews. She can’t pay her Shinglehouse, Pa., mortgage. Marcus Wesley is a few months from finishing a course in his Houston suburb to transition into medical information technology, a field that’s hiring. ‘If I had to, I would have to live in my car,’ said Wesley, who has rent coming due. Kerstin Foster got a job that starts in February, but she can’t pay the grocery bills now. She spent most of two days last week in a long line — with dozens of other jobless workers who lost benefits — waiting to sign up for food stamps in Waterbury, Conn…”
Congress leaves with no deal on unemployment benefits, By Susan Davis, January 17, 2014, USA Today: “Congress recessed for a week-long break no closer to reinstating expired jobless benefits for the 1.3 million Americans who have been out of work for six months or more. The impasse is unlikely to be resolved prior to President Obama’s Jan. 28 State of the Union address, where he is likely to promote new efforts to close the gap on income inequality and call on Congress reinstate unemployment benefits…”
As jobless-aid bill fails, unemployed grow more desperate, By Ronald J. Hansen, January 15, 2014, Arizona Republic: “Out of work since July and now ineligible for unemployment aid, Margaret Turner is increasingly feeling a financial squeeze. At 56 years old, the Phoenix resident estimates she has sent 150 applications since losing her job as a school bus driver last summer. With no interviews and $190 in weekly unemployment assistance gone, she traded her apartment for sleeping in her car when she’s not in a homeless shelter…”
