You know, I don’t put a lot of effort into certain stories because 1. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know and 2. facts don’t really have anything to do with it. These people want to believe that if you’re unemployed, you’re just lazy. They don’t care that there’s more people seeking jobs than jobs available — it would require them to rethink some of the things they believe, and they’re not about to do that.
In July, as Congress debated extending emergency jobless benefits, an economist from the conservative Heritage Foundation said on PBS’ “NewsHour” that increasing unemployment insurance payments to 99 weeks — the maximum now available — had “created a bit of a problem.” Giving help for extended periods, said William Beach, “changes the behavior of the people who are unemployed. They don’t look for work as much as they otherwise would.”
In an opinion piece on the Fox News website, economist John Lott wrote that the unprecedented length of today’s unemployment benefits “is almost like a drug addiction.”
Advocates for workers, and the unemployed themselves, are pushing back. Last week, a Facebook group called Extend Unemployment Benefits, with nearly 4,000 members, received a flurry of attention. It is devoted to lobbying for a bill introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that would create a new tier of jobless benefits for those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance.
Pointedly called the Americans Who Want to Work Act, the bill would provide an additional 20 weeks of financial assistance. Unemployment compensation is funded by taxes paid by employers, not by workers. The average weekly check is about $300.
Dave Yocom, a 60-year-old college graduate, has been unemployed since 2008. After recovering from a stroke at 54 that wiped out his savings, he left the high- stress restaurant business and went to work for a construction company that repaired residential fire and water damage. He said he is insulted by the idea that receiving about $400 a week in unemployment diminished his desire to find work, or that it was comparable to drug addiction.
Critics of unemployment, he said, “are either incredibly naive or they … have quite the opinion of themselves if they think it can’t happen to them.”
Since losing his job, Yocom estimated, he has sent out 50 resumes a week. He said he has received no job offers. He believes that his age is his biggest impediment. That and his ruined credit score, which prospective employers often check.
His 99 weeks of unemployment insurance ran out in April. He receives food stamps and lives in his sister’s home in suburban Chicago. His sister, unemployed as well, will receive jobless benefits through November. After that, Yocom said, he’s not sure how they will make ends meet.
James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation, agreed that workers like Yocom are in terrible straits, but said that such suffering does not change the fact that unemployment benefits lead recipients to have unrealistic expectations — particularly in hard-hit industries such as construction or automobile manufacturing.
“Encouraging someone to look for a job that is not going to return is not ultimately helpful to them,” Sherk said. “If you have two years of benefits, it’s natural to spend the first six months looking for the same job you had. Some will find jobs, but the vast majority won’t, and they have become less productive employees because their job skills are deteriorating.”
But Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, an advocate for workers and the unemployed, said the point of unemployment insurance is to provide a cushion that might protect against downward mobility.
“There’s nothing wrong with the idea that unemployment benefits would actually enable someone to spend a little more time looking for an appropriate job — or, for that matter, spending time in job training,” Owens said. “You want people to improve their skills and find a better job.”
In the current job market, there are nearly five unemployed people for every job, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank. That alone, Owens said, means that most unemployed workers are out of luck, no matter how much they yearn for a paycheck.
