Amy Traub

Work to Do on Jobless Benefits

15 million Americans are desperately looking for jobs that don’t exist.

Almost half have been looking for more than six months.

So begins a powerful new video from the National Employment Law Project, (NELP) which points out that if Congress doesn’t extend unemployment benefits by November 30th, out of work Americans will begin to lose their benefits right after Thanksgiving.

Extending a lifeline to families with a breadwinner out of work should be an uncontroversial and even self-evident step at a time when there are just ten job openings for every 46 unemployed workers. The fact that unemployment benefits are also among the most cost-effective ways to support the broader economy makes the policy still more obvious, particularly in cities hit hardest by the recession.

Yet, as NELP points out “the public debate to extend jobless benefits has been plagued by contradictions and distortions… The job market is falling deeper into crisis, yet it’s the workers who are being blamed for unemployment. The vast majority of Americans strongly support the extension, yet a small minority in Congress can pull the plug on the benefits.”

Watch the video here and visit NELP’s revamped site UnemployedWorkers.org to see their resources on the issue.

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Posted at 1:47 PM, Oct 18, 2010 in Employment
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