The Grim Pattern of Unemployment in NC

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NCGA and Governor have paid scant attention to the plight of the unemployed

Within a week, as the news and analysis of Osama bin Laden's demise fades, the people of North Carolina will focus once again on the issues that matter most to their daily lives. For most North Carolinians, that includes the jobs market and the state of our economy.

But no one is talking about jobs. Except for North Carolina voters, that is. Does anyone in the NCGA care -- or even know, for that matter -- that jobs and the economy are still the most important issues to voters?

The April employment report was released on Friday. There was a jump in the current 8.8 percent unemployment rate to 9 percent and a jump in private sector job growth, offering a harsh contrast of how deep the roots of North Carolina's job problem goes and how great the challenges remain. Keep in mind that our economy needs to add thousands of new jobs every month just to keep pace with new entrants into the job market. While other economic indicators, such as the stock market and GDP growth, are rising, employment is lagging far behind. In fact, job growth after this recession is the weakest on record. Ultimately, job security matters the most to the people of North Carolina.

We are now more than four months into the new congress, and discounting partisan rhetoric, congress, the senate and the governor have paid scant attention to the plight of the unemployed.

Last week, McDonald's announced with much fanfare that, after sifting through more than 1 million applications, it will be hiring 62,000 new workers. As one sly writer noted, a higher percentage of applicants got rejected by McDonald's than by Harvard, though the prestige of flipping Big Macs is not yet on par with a Harvard degree. We will not "win the future" by relying on low-wage service sector jobs to lead employment growth.

Other troubling facts are being overlooked. The outlook for summer jobs for teenagers is the worst on record. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates is 9 percent. Hiring in manufacturing, which has recorded more than 250,000 net new jobs over the past 15 months, has slowed in each of the past two months.

As the NCGA obsesses about spending cuts, the impact of fewer jobs has been swept completely under the rug. The consequences of this has been a political backlash and an economic turn for the worse. North Carolina lawmakers are sacrificing ten of thousands of long term unemployed, for a budget that is consuming all of the political oxygen and time at our state's capital.

Finally, the NC Republicans, led by Senator Phil Berger seems unlikely to initiate a stand alone bill for continuing extended unemployment benefits, which has provided some fuel for our economy at a time when private sector investment has been lagging. Indeed, the NC Senate seems to have chosen to fight job loss at the expense of the jobless. That's precisely the wrong course.

When will someone show enough courage to throw down the gauntlet on jobs in the way that some Republicans have thrown it down on spending cuts? The squeaky wheel gets the grease. A cliché, yes, but also a truth in Raleigh.

There are, however, some smart policy proposals that could be considered. Investing in both infrastructure and R&D come to mind, as does legislation to stop China's currency manipulation (which would do wonders for North Carolina's manufacturing). There is also a consensus that our vocational education system is in need of serious repair, with shop classes disappearing, and shrinking opportunities for the next generation of skilled workers. Last but not least, we need to enforce 'Buy America' laws and other domestic procurement requirements to ensure that tax dollars are directed to America's manufacturers and their workers whenever possible.

One way or another, the economy will catch up with our political leaders in North Carolina. The smart ones will remember the lessons of the 2010 campaign. The not-so-smart ones? When they find themselves looking for a job in 2012, they'll wish they'd made a real effort to create them.

Contributing Article: Alternet.org

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The NCGA actions thus far this week have been to:

• Eliminate thousands of teachers 
• Ensure that clean water is not necessary 
• Remove free & low-cost health care through planned parenthood defunding 
• Stop long term unemployment benefit payments 
• De-fund Medicaid (because facts hurt)
• Raise the cost of public justice for all 
• Prohibit rape victims that are seeking abortions
• Endorse that Cinco de Mayo should become a national holiday.

Seriously? What have I missed here? It is like the campaign commercial­s for 2012 are being written by themselves­.

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37,000 are still being held hostage by NC Lawmakers

As of today, 37,000+ North Carolinians who were cut off from their unemployment benefits three weeks ago, because the GOP-led legislature tied extension of their benefits to their disastrous budget, are still being held hostage by Senator Phil Berger and the Republican majority.

The Republican majority agreed to extend jobless benefits ONLY if Gov. Bev Perdue would agree to their budget proposal, which isn’t even finished yet.

Most of the unemployed rely on those benefits to put food on the table. The average payout is $300 per week, and without it, people have nowhere to turn. Few have managed to put away enough savings to see them through until the economy turns around for those who have to work for a living.

There’s no excuse for this behavior.  The budget should be debated on its own, not tied to the economic survival of tens of thousands of families who are victims of the economic ruin Wall Street perpetuated upon the country.

Other states have passed the technical language needed to continue benefits for up to 99 weeks, but not North Carolina. Our legislature takes the cynical approach, hoping people will blame the governor for vetoing the extension to unemployment.

The 37,000+ will remember this come Election Day 2012, and they will blame ALL of the Raleigh lawmakers who held 37,000 people hostage while playing political games with their families.

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NC Politicians need to wake up and help the unemployed!

A story emailed to ncpundit@gmail.com
 
"I do NOT think politicians are doing enough, or anything to help the thousands of people that are unemployed. I have sent out more resume’s than I can count, of course I have a log of it as required by the state of NC. I first wrote the Governor, Beverly Perdue. I was then advised to write the Senator, Phil Berger. I did both, and have emailed Senator Berger many times, with no reply. I have been unemployed since April 09 and have done an extensive job search. The message states the extension was cut due to an increase in jobs. I would LOVE to know where they are. I wish the politicians that have made this ruling would visit Harnett, Moore, Lee, Cumberland and counties I have searched for work in within a 35-40 mile radius. I would extend the search further, but with the price of gas I couldn’t afford to drive any farther than that. I have an Associate Degree in Medical Assisting, and I have targeted every MD office I can find, as well as applied at the hospitals that are close enough for me to drive to. I have now stepped up my search and applied to Walmart, Kmart, McDonald’s and convenience stores. I will take any position I can find if I can and if it’s legal work. With the little amount I was receiving from unemployment benefits, I was not able to save anything, after paying rent, electricity, car insurance. I don’t even have medical coverage and I buy very little food because I can’t afford to. These politicians that can’t, won’t, or for whatever reason aren’t signing a bill to keep the extension going are going to see children in NC counties going hungry, homeless. I just hope those that took away the benefits will at LEAST understand that some of us soon will be living in our car, and maybe they will allow us to park it in their parking lot, where it might be somewhat safer than a street somewhere. To the politicians that took away the benefits, I invite them to visit the counties I named above, and if there are ANY jobs there, please tell me and the thousands of others that are unemployed, because we sure aren’t seeing them. I am not lazy, I am 50 years old and have worked somewhere since I was 15 years old. I am looking extensively for a job, there just aren’t any. The people that are employed sure aren’t leaving, and the ones that are looking are finding no vacancies. Something has to give. I live in NC so I speak for them, because I know the situation here, however, I know it is the same for others in other states. I have never seen our economy in such a condition. You can’t drive very far to work if you could find a job because you couldn’t pay the gas to get there. This situation is TERRIBLE!"

- in North Carolina

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POLL: Are you still able to make ends meet without an extension?

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37,000 NC Unemployed Blame Raleigh Lawmakers

Democrats and Republicans in the N.C. Legislature are blaming each other for the political gamesmanship that has cut off unemployment benefits for 37,000 longterm jobless North Carolinians.

Meanwhile, the unemployed citizens caught in the middle aren’t interested in keeping a tally of political points. They’re wondering how to pay their bills and avoid falling into an even deeper hole if this standoff doesn’t soon end.

It began last month after the U.S. Labor Department notified state officials that the extended benefits program had to stop paying out after April 16 because the state’s recent three-month average unemployment rate had improved from 2010 and 2009. N.C. is among three dozen states that have participated in the federally funded program which allows those who’ve been laid off to collect unemployment benefits for an extra 20 weeks. Given how slowly hiring has expanded during the recovery, many laid-off workers are having a hard time finding new jobs. A few extra weeks of benefits can be a godsend for those staring at a stack of bills and depleted savings.

Fortunately, the problem has a fix. All that’s required is for state lawmakers to adjust the formula for calculating unemployment benefits so that it once again satisfies the federal criteria. It’s an easy fix, and many other states have already done this.

Unfortunately, the benefits problem revealed itself in the heat of a highly partisan legislative session, where the parties have circled their wagons and are battling over practically every issue, from the budget to redistricting to voter ID requirements. Republicans contend that state officials, in league with Democratic leaders, sprang the benefits cutoff on them without sufficient warning. They then linked the benefits extension to spending cuts that Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed, calling it “extortion.”

There’s plenty of blame to go around here. The machinations over this issue serve as a reminder that lawmakers in Raleigh can be just as dysfunctional and self-serving as those in Washington.

Legislative leaders have said they expect to reach a compromise on the benefits extension ... eventually, and the extended benefits apparently would be restored retroactive to the date they expired. But they’re obviously in no hurry to provide this relief. For now, the checks aren’t in the mail, and several thousand jobless North Carolinians have reason to feel they’re simply pawns in a political power struggle.

Source: SalisburyPost

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GOP signatures absent from Unemployment Petition

Last month, the GOP-led General Assembly passed House Bill 383 that would extend unemployment benefits to 37,000 people who have been out of work for more than a year. The bill, however, contained an unrelated provision that would have required Gov. Bev Perdue to cut 13 percent from her proposed budget, according to The Associated Press.

Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed the bill April 16, and the legislature has been unable to override it.

The unemployment benefits expired in mid-April.

Democrats are trying another tactic to force the issue. Many in the House have filed what is known as a discharge petition to House Bill 676, which supporters say would extend the unemployment benefits without any strings attached.

House Bill 676, filed April 5 before the jobless benefits expired, has languished in the House Committee on Commerce and Development.

All five Democratic House members who represent parts of Cumberland County have filed the petition, which allows House 676 to go directly to the House floor for action if supported by the majority of the chamber's members.

"I think it's despicable to hold unemployed workers' benefits hostage to obtain partisan, political gain," state Rep. Rick Glazier said in a statement last week. "These workers are already struggling and deserve better than to be used as political pawns."

Glazier is chairman of the Cumberland County legislative delegation.

Other local Democratic House members who signed the petition include Diane Parfitt, Marvin Lucas, Elmer Floyd and William Brisson, who lives in Bladen County.

The county's lone Republican lawmaker - state Sen. Wesley Meredith - could not be reached to comment on the issue. State Sen. Eric Mansfield, also a Democrat from Fayetteville, said Thursday he agreed with the House Democrats on the petition.

"If it was a standalone bill addressing the unemployment benefits, it would pass 50-0 in the Senate," Mansfield said. "I don't think we as freshmen came up to the General Assembly to play this type of politics."

Lucas, in the same statement from Glazier's office, said House Democrats would support House Bill 676 if brought to the floor.

"We are acutely aware that lives are at stake and we take our responsibility very seriously," Lucas said.

The Republicans maintain majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in more than 100 years.

By: http://www.fayobserver.com/state

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FEATURE: On the Record - Reps Stam and Michaux talk budget VIDEO

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NC jobless take on Perdue jobless benefits veto

Some of the 37,000 out-of-work people who just lost their extended unemployment benefits came to the state capitol Tuesday to protest the political faceoff between Republican legislators and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue that caused their loss.

Perdue on Saturday vetoed legislation that would have kept benefit checks flowing, but only at the cost of her accepting a double-digit budget cut that Republican leaders wanted. She called that "extortion." GOP leaders said they combined the two issues to ensure that schools, state agencies and contractors know how much state spending they could count on if budget negotiations drag beyond the start of the new budget year in July.

Jobless workers whose payments were stopped could recover the money later if legislators and Perdue can agree to change an eligibility formula.

Tracy Whitman of Burlington said he understands what both sides in the political tussle wanted to accomplish, but he risks losing everything unless his benefits are restored.

"Both the House and Senate and the governor are all wrong," he said at a news conference organized by North Carolina's AFL-CIO and the North Carolina Justice Center, a liberal think tank. "It's third-grade posturing -- you either do it my way or else. ... Thirty-seven thousand people are out here watching this tennis match between our legislature and the governor. Nobody's winning."

The 50-year-old was laid off by a road construction company in September 2009 and started studies this year at a Durham community college in health information technology. He said he's continued looking for work while attending school. Without a job or the restored benefits, he said he'll have no choice but to move in with his 78-year-old mother in Florida.

"I stand to lose my house, my car, everything. If I can't have a car to go back and forth to school, I'll have to drop school, so I lose that," he said.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, indicated Tuesday they had no immediate plans to revisit what they wanted in return for extending benefits.

"We sent a bill to the governor that extended the unemployment benefits. We need to remember that we're talking about the extension for folks who have already received benefits" for a year and a half, Berger said.

The $494 a week Gary Price of Salisbury was collecting paid the bills for his wife and three children, as well as paying the loan his grandfather took out to buy Price's home and land to keep from losing it to repossession.

"Family has stepped in to help, but now they can't help no more," said Price, 43, who's been jobless since March 2009. "What benefits I had coming in, every penny went to the bills, groceries, or clothing or something for the kids. It's been five years since I bought the kids Christmas."

He spent two decades driving and then manufacturing trucks, but the available jobs for truck drivers are closed off because employers want to see two recent years of experience, he said.

North Carolina is one of about three dozen states in which an extended benefits program of up to 20 weeks of compensation was created as a way to lessen the pain for the long-term unemployed caught in the recession's massive job losses.

The U.S. Labor Department notified North Carolina officials two weeks ago that the extended benefits program had to stop paying out after Saturday because the state's recent three-month average unemployment rate had improved from 2010 and 2009. South Carolina and 13 other states have passed legislation to revise their formulas and keep the extended benefits flowing, the state's Employment Security Commission said.

While North Carolina has seen its unemployment rate drop slightly from double digits last recorded in September, no one expects the thousands of jobs lost in manufacturing, construction, banking and other hard-hit industries core to the state's economy to return soon. In March, the unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.7 percent, compared with 9.8 percent in February and 11.3 percent in March of last year, The Employment Security Commission said Tuesday.

But most economists believe the jobless rate will stay high as workers who have run out of unemployment benefits or who have given up looking and are no longer counted in the official data come back into the work force. Tuesday's data show the number of people on state unemployment rolls decreased by 1,949 workers, to 434,996 on the official jobless count. At the same time, the number of people employed increased by 13,402 to 4.05 million.

Keith Fountain, 48, of Concord said he supported Perdue's decision and wanted GOP legislators to understand that a family was behind each of the 37,000 jobless like him who've had their benefits stopped.

"This bill has nothing to do with any budget. We're not line items on the budget. We're people who need to have a little bit of support. We're not beggars. We're not hobos. We're not bums. We're out looking for work, it's just not there," Keith Fountain. "We deserve more than to be treated like a political toy."

@ The Associated Press

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Unemployed NC residents plead with lawmakers to end stalemate.

RALEIGH — About a dozen unemployed North Carolina residents paraded in front of a legislative committee room Wednesday afternoon to ask lawmakers to end the stalemate that resulted in their jobless benefits ending almost two weeks ago.

Some said that they had to borrow money from their children to put gasoline in their car. Some pointed fingers at state officials for not recognizing the problem that led to the need for a new law that would allow for the benefits to continue.

“The only thing I’m going to ask you today is to have compassion,” said Faye Wynn of Bertie County, who is also trying to recover from the tornadoes that hit North Carolina on April 16.

“I lost my pride a long time ago,” said Ken Williams of Wilson. He said that he needed to go see his daughter Tuesday night. “She had to give me gas money to get there,” he said.

Unemployment benefits for about 37,000 long-term jobless North Carolinian's ran out on the same day the tornadoes struck North Carolina. The Republican majority in the General Assembly put together legislation that would have allowed for 20 more weeks of such benefits, funded entirely by federal tax dollars.

However, the bill was tied to a budget provision that GOP leaders said they wanted in place should lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue not reach an agreement on a spending plan for the state.

Perdue, saying the budget provision was unacceptable, vetoed the bill.

The hearing was quickly called and sponsored by the Senate Democratic caucus. In addition to Democratic senators, some Republican and Democratic House members attended, including GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg.

Tillis said that he understood that the expiration of benefits was a serious matter.

He said that compassion needs to be extended to everybody who is at risk of uncertainty related to the budget.

Tillis said state employees could face uncertainty come July 1, the first day of the new budget year, if the state’s fiscal house isn’t in order by then.

“We do want to find a way to get those dollars here,” Tillis said during an impromptu press conference after the hearing broke up. “We understand the relief is needed. It’s needed now more than ever.”

He said a resolution would require the governor to take a step in their direction.

Tillis said the short notice about the jobless benefits expiring showed a lack of leadership. He said the governor needs to address how to take the politics out of balancing the budget and give certainty to state employees who could be unemployed if a new budget isn’t in place by July 1.

“The governor can do that with the stroke of a pen and by reaching to us and figuring out what we need to do to reach a compromise,” Tillis said.

David Clegg, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of the Employment Security Commission, said that the state needed to change a calculating method in order for the 37,000 people to be allowed to get the continued benefits.

He said the average benefit for the workers was $300 a week, bringing in about $10 million a week statewide.

Joyce Fowler of Garner said she went back to school after being laid off in 2009. She said she needs the extended benefits in order to continue going to school.

Greg Smith of Castalia said that he’s finally able to get more job interviews.

“Now I’ve got to figure out how to get to my interviews,” Smith said.

@ http://www.newbernsj.com/

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