Jobless benefits running dry for many
By
MICHAEL E. KANELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If the hiring doesn’t pick up soon — and there are few signs it will — a growing wave of Georgians will stop getting unemployment benefits in coming months.
Hyosub Shin,
hshin@ajc.com Gayla Mass, of Atlanta, lost her customer service job in early 2008 and has had trouble even getting an interview for a new one.
An unemployed worker can now potentially receive as many as 79 weeks of checks, but many workers are not finding jobs in that time. Margaret Barnett of Villa Rica estimates that she has applied for 300 jobs since being laid off at the end of 2007. In that time, she has gone through the initial, 26 weeks of state benefits, two federal extensions and another state-federal program.
She will draw her final check in a few days.
“When it happens, we will be struggling,†she said. “Like we have been.â€
Barnett, 57, who worked in customer service at an Atlanta company that distributed plastic bags, said the job search has been discouraging.
“You see the job fairs and there are thousands of people applying for twenty or thirty jobs,†she said. “It is bad.â€
Advocates have called for Congress to pass another extension, an idea that has some bipartisan support. Several bills to extend the benefits were introduced just before Congress took its August recess.
More than 6 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, although there are about 15 million officially jobless. In Georgia, only about 60 percent of the half-million jobless receive benefits. Others were not eligible because they quit or were fired, because they have stopped looking for work or were self-employed. Some already exhausted their benefits.
Unemployment checks are calculated from the worker’s former earnings, with a cap of $330 a week. A $25-a-week boost was added by this year’s federal stimulus package.
As more of the unemployed reach the end of their checks, “I think we will see more
foreclosures, more descent into poverty,†said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute.
The end of benefits also removes a stream of spending that aids the economy, she said.
“The money goes to people who are the most cash-strapped. These people have no choice but to go out and spend that money.â€
The federal extension injects nearly $1 billion a week into the economy, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project.
In Georgia, 13,844 people will lose their federally-funded benefits during September, according to the NELP report. By the end of the year, 58,887 Georgians and 1.33 million Americans will have reached that destination.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s unemployment rate keeps ticking up, reaching 10.3 percent in July.
Between March and September 2008, more than 353,000 Georgians filed first-time jobless claims for unemployment benefits. Many found another job, but hiring fell far short of offsetting layoffs.
Some of those laid off dropped out of the labor force, gave up the job search, returned to school or even left the state to seek employment elsewhere. But others who lost jobs at the start of the period are now nearing the end of benefits, barring further extensions.
Gayla Mass, 57, of Atlanta, lost her customer service job in early 2008 and has had trouble even getting an interview for a new one.
The $240 a week that she receives in unemployment benefits is roughly half of what she had been making, but with income from her fiancé — and a discount from their landlord — it’s been enough to meet expenses.
But when her benefits end in about eight weeks, she said, “I think I’m in big trouble. We’ll probably have to move.â€
Although some economists say that the recession is ending, virtually no experts predict improvement in the job market until at least mid-2010.
On Friday, the government reported that the nation lost 216,000 jobs in August — the best monthly report in a year. The official unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent.
Jackie Jackson, 52, of Stockbridge, is among those with dim job prospects and worries about losing benefits, which for him are only $86 a week, he said.
Jackson has been using his mother’s car since his 11-year-old Ford was repossessed. His landlady trimmed his rent to $50 a week.
“That leaves me $36,†he said. “If it weren’t for the food pantry and the food stamps, I couldn’t make it. And when unemployment runs out, I don’t know what I will do.â€
The Illinois native has been in construction since he was 17, working pretty steadily.
“When the job finishes, you move on to the next one. But now, there’s no jobs.â€
He worked a one-month project in the spring but since then has found nothing despite trips to the unemployment office and searching via computer and phone.
“I’m a heavy equipment operator, but right now I’d take anything,†he said.
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