I receive letters from the long-term unemployed, which highlight the desperate straits faced by those abandoned by the jobs market, the social safety net and Congress. Some letters are lengthy and others are one or two sentences. All of the letters ask the same questions; will the long-term unemployed be helped or will they lose everything they have worked for all their lives and where are the jobs? A few of those letters follow.

I am a resident of San Antonio, TX.  I have been unemployed since December 31 2008, the title company I was working for filed bankrupt out of no fault of my own I was laid-off. I received unemployment benefits from Jan. 2009 till Jun. 2010. I didn’t receive all 99 weeks of unemployment. I called TWC in Austin and I was told that I had used all by benefits but to keep filing my work searches in case another extension was approved. The extension was approved and I then was told that I did not qualify for that extension, so what happened to the rest of my weeks?

I am 54 years of age and been trying very hard to find a job but have had no luck. Some places say they don’t discriminate from age, sex, or race, but they do. I have worked many years of my life to know that they do discriminate. Back in June I lost my unemployment, in July I lost my mother, and in August I lost my apartment. The only thing I have left is my car and I’m about to lose that too this month. I don’t know what else to do, I feel like we are left out in cold in the middle of nowhere all alone and nobody can hears us. Thank You!!   E. S.

The following letter shows how even the best qualified individuals can come up short in the job hunt due to discriminatory hiring practices.

My story I’m sure reads like millions out there struggling to get back to prosperity.  However, right now the thought of self worth and regaining my dignity while putting food on the table for my family through my efforts is a dream come true.

Not only do I send out hundreds of resumes, I have exhausted my sphere of influence to obtain my goals of employment.  I have been fortunate enough to obtain several phone interviews and even a few 2nd interviews in person.  There have been 3 occasions that I was the final candidate for the position and even received 2 verbal offers!  I was excited that I finally found work again……then I was notified that they were unable to offer me the position because of my recent credit history.  Humiliated, I sent an explanation letter with my tail between my legs explaining my circumstances of loss of income but apparently they fell on deaf ears and once again my value and self worth is lowered and my confidence is shattered.

As millions of other good Americans, I have run into brick wall after brick wall watching peers move from one company to another but I cannot get a look due to the fact I have been unemployed for over a year.  With the facts that I am currently unemployed, I’m 42 years old and my credit is now poor, I wonder if I will ever find employment.

Concerned and Lost C.H.

I find deplorable that banks and businesses can scam the US taxpayer out of billions of dollars and then receive million dollar bonuses, but if an individual finds it difficult to keep a great credit score during a Great Recession, they are penalized. I have not seen one crooked, corrupt; swindler bankster discriminated against for nearly destroying the American economy.

This next letter is a cry for help and I hope someone is listening:

I am a divorced 47-year-old woman.  I don’t know if my government is hoping people like me will just die off or like a lot of people commit suicide or something.  I am being penalized for trying to work.

I have been just barely hanging on. I did not get the unemployment extension because I tried to work at Temporary Agencies.  When I spoke to the unemployment people in the past I was told that with the three temp agencies I had enough time to get on the new extension.  Now last week they are saying no I cannot.  The girl at the unemployment back in September noted that I had a notice of hire.  I told her that I was hired by the Washoe County Coroners Office only on a temporary basis while their girl is out on vacation.  She said she would note that on the notes.   I only worked for them from September 29 to October 6 2010 and only 26 hours.   I will not work for them again till Maybe March a few days and May a few days of 2011.  She assured me that I would still get benefits.  I am being penalized for trying to work.

I try to work for temp agencies so at least I have my foot in the door and possibly get a job.  I am not lazy.  My days for the four temp agencies I worked for should be my extension.  Please help me.  I called the unemployment office on 01/12/11, and they said i have benefits. Today I noticed I have a code on my payment status.  I called again today 01/13/11, and they say that I am not eligible until I have twenty weeks.  Where am I going to get 20 weeks?

I have asked on Craig’s list for food, I have nothing not even a penny.  The unemployment says that I don’t have a chance with the appeal.  Since I have been unemployed I have been to the mental health here in Carson City because I have been so depressed and do not want to lose my mind. I am trying my best, but I feel like my government expects me to just die somewhere now.  Please help me.

Every month it was questionable if I would be able to keep my car insurance because of affordability.  I finally could not pay.  I had to choose between food or insurance.  Because of this my driver’s license is suspended.  I cannot afford to pay the 250.00. When I apply for a job they see the suspension and do not want to hire me.  I am trying my hardest to work to get my foot in the door anywhere and now I am penalized for this.

I have worked since I was 16 years old.  I thought we are supposed to try and work!  What am I supposed to do now? This is my daughter’s senior year in high school and it is supposed to be special. I cannot afford anything for her, not even her senior pictures or gown.  I am trying to write to everybody because I am just barely hanging in there.  I am trying so hard not to be homeless please help me with this.  I am not a throw away, I am an American Citizen. R.F.

I responded to all letters and offered some suggestions, but these issues need to be addressed by a competent unemployment system, fortified social services, non-discriminatory hiring practices and a Congress willing to show some humanity and consideration to the millions of long-term unemployed. As of this writing, none of those situations exists, but the pain suffering continues unabated. As R.F. cried out, she and the other long-term unemployed are not throw-aways, they are American citizens. Treat them as such.

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support held a hearing on June 10 titled: Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment. I asked readers of Rochester Unemployment Examiner to send me letters they wrote to the Committee that they also wanted to have published.* Below are a few of those letters. I’ll be posting other letters on a regular basis.

While you can no longer submit letters to House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support hearing, you can send your letters to me at mike@layofflist.org and I’ll publish them at Rochester Unemployment Examiner or at http://layofflist.org. Your stories are important and hopefully some of the clueless ones in Congress read them to see how their actions, or inactions, can harm Americans from all corners of the nation.

I want to thank all of you for including me in your letters to the Hearing. I will do my best to reply to each and every one of you.

As you can see from the following letters, this jobless recession has affected people of varied careers, education, and backgrounds. While many Americans will be enjoying their summer vacations and hosting backyard barbeques, there will be millions who won’t be enjoying their summer because their congressional representatives have abandoned them at the worst possible time.

Here are those letters:

From KB in AZ:

I am an award-winning human services professional who enjoys helping people, communities, and agencies expand their capacity to the fullest.  It has been my calling for most of my life.  I am ABD having completed my doctoral dissertation though I ran out of money before I could do my re-writes.  I did all of this because I wanted to learn as much as I could to be the best I could be as a community development professional.

My graduate education was primarily funded by student loans and I want to pay those student loans.  However, I was laid off 2 years ago when the economy went bad.  Since then I have been applying for positions of all kinds…kitchen work, janitorial, office work…it doesn’t matter as long as I don’t have to feel like a freeloader.  In the past 2 years I have lost my car and almost had my mobile home foreclosed on.  In a rural area where I live with no public transportation there is very little hope of working, so I have submitted resumes all over the country.

Thanks to the program that allowed for a re-packaging of my home loan (I have lived here 20 years) my home was saved by lowering the payments.  The payments and home insurance were made using my unemployment, now that the unemployment has ended, I don’t know how I will keep paying the mortgage.  I am 58 years old and my husband of 36 years is 72.  His disability insurance pays the bills but not the mortgage.  I never in my life thought things would end up like this.  I want to work but nobody will hire me.  I have even tried to be a VISTA volunteer and no one has picked me.

I am at my wit’s end.  I send out 10-20 resumes a week.  I have revised my resume several times using tips from employment agencies.  I have a resume for doing kitchen work, office work, and then my professional one.  I know there are people in the country with children who are having an even more difficult time of it and I make a daily list of things to be grateful for.  Still, it seems to me that given the great numbers of unemployed, it would make sense to extend a Tier 5 until the economy gets better.  Or, even better, create jobs that could help America through these hard times.  I would work just for living expenses.  At this point, it is hard to believe that I was chosen as Executive Director of the year for the State of Arizona by my peers.

Please try and think of ways to take advantage of the skills and knowledge that those of us who are unemployed have.  We can help get through this if you let us.  Thank you for reading my story.

From AMS in PA:

My name is AMS and I am from northeastern Pennsylvania.  I am 38 years old and have been unemployed since April 2008 after being separated from my job as assistant manager with a regional sporting goods retail chain.  Currently, I am in my third week of Tier 4 Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and without more weeks of Tier 4 or a Tier 5 added, my benefits will end in early or mid-July.  My primary background is in public relations and communications – I was a journalism major in college, graduating with honors from a small liberal arts school in 1994.  None of the above seem to be very good fields in this economy.  I also have good professional experience in customer service and retail.  Prior to being separated from my company in 2008, I had worked since I was 17 years old, including summer jobs in high school and college and parttime work in various campus offices as an undergraduate.

Over the past two years I have applied for numerous jobs in various fields, both fulltime and parttime.  In addition, I have registered with several temporary agencies.  One of the most frustrating parts of the job search process is the lack of communication from employers.  Many applications are done over the internet, and applicants rarely hear back from the employers.  It has also been indicated in the news lately that companies are unwilling to hire workers who are unemployed or who have been out of work for a long time.  This is just wrong.

In addition to an extensive job search, I have accepted any parttime, seasonal work that I can get.  I have helped at a local college in their campus police office during back-to-school time and also with their home athletic events.  I have also worked at our local visitors center during the busy Christmas holiday season.  Unfortunately, the visitors center was unable to hire as many workers this past winter due to budget cuts, so I was unable to work there during the 2009 holiday season.  I have been able and available for any work offered to me.

A scary part of this situation is being a Type 1 diabetic without health insurance.  My 18 months of COBRA expired October 31, 2009 and I was unable to obtain medical assistance from my county government because it was determined that my $280.00 weekly unemployment benefit was too high.  Taking care of my diabetes without insurance and on a very limited income is very hard, but I am doing the best I can.  My diabetes is under control – all of my doctors would agree that I am handling it very well and am employable.  I am so afraid that if I have no money coming in and can’t afford to take care of myself, I will end up in the hospital, or worse.  All I want to do is get a decent-paying job with good benefits including healthcare.  However, I am aware that in the near future I may have to accept parttime or temporary work until something else comes along.  In the meantime, I need some kind of income to live on.

I am currently living in a small two-bedroom apartment with my parents, who are in their 70s and both have physical problems of their own.  They live on a fixed income of social security and a parttime job that my father has as a campus police dispatcher at a local college.  I would love to be able to contribute to my household financially, but unfortunately right now that is not possible as I am just able to pay my bills and other expenses with unemployment funds.  I have tried to cut back financially, but there are certain bills and other expenses that must be paid.  I am worried that if my unemployment ends in July, I will not be able to pay bills or afford my medical expenses, nutritious food, gas for the car to get to possible job interviews, etc.  This will cause a very big strain not only on myself, but also on my parents, who do not deserve this after working very hard all their lives.

Thank you very much for reading my story and those of the others like me in this country.  We need your help right now in this difficult time.  Respectfully submitted, June 8, 2010.

From RM in WI:

I have been unemployed now for almost three years.  I realize that I may have used up all of my unemployment benefits but I’ve only been getting a little over $200 a week.  My husband is retired and receiving social security.  He was forced into early retirement at the age of 62.  I have been trying everywhere, including over a 30 mile radius within my area of living to try and find work–any work.  I’m usually an office clerk with data entry skills and knowledge of computers but the jobs I’ve been applying for have been part-time housekeepers, hotel clerks, all night dispatcher, etc.  I cannot find anything in the field I’ve worked in for over 30 years.   I’ll take any kind of work if I can just FIND ANY!  I can’t get an answer back from some of the places where I’ve applied and when I do and I go in for an interview, with the looks they give me I know I’m not wanted there.  I turn 61 this month and I know that it’s turning a lot of people off as far as hiring me.

If I could find a good job, I would not retire next year but would keep on until at least 66 or maybe even 70 years of age.  I feel I am a good asset to any office but that’s not what some people are seeing.  I know they are looking at someone who they consider “over the hill” and not worth a second look, much less a chance to prove themselves.

I really need and depend on the emergency unemployment.  It helps us to pay our bills and buy food and our medications.  My husband’s social security check will not do it alone.

I’m asking that you PLEASE allow more emergency unemployment to come my way until I can find a job or am forced into retirement and social security next year.

The State of Wisconsin needs to allow this to happen for not only myself but so many others.  I’m asking, and I’m not too proud to beg, that you help us.

Thank you for your time,

From GV in NY:

Chairman McDermott

Please Help and extend benefits.

I have been unemployed since February 2009.  My work history speaks for itself.  Educated, motivated and eager to find a job that will improve my life and stop dwindling down my savings, which slowly empties day by day just to live.  Do you have any idea what it takes to find a job that will pay the bills as they use to be paid, and have a little to spare.

Here’s the rest of my story 61 years old soon to turn 62 and going broke day by day.   The jobs are not plentiful and are paying nothing, but you continue to give to banks, fight the wars, and give money to other countries when you cannot support the unemployed??  I like the bonuses that Wall Street continues to give out.  But AIG is the worst of them and you gave them money but will not help us.  Please explain? So next for me will be food stamps and welfare?  Why do this?  I hope you realize just how many people are still unemployed, please don’t sugar coat the fact that the economy is getting better, it is not.  Say hi to Louise (Slaughter) I voted for her & she was a friend of my Dad’s.

From FP in NJ:

My name is FP, I am 35 years old and I have been unemployed since December, 2007.  I was a licensed title insurance settlement agent and have been my entire adult life.  I was laid off because the company I was working for had begun to downsize due to the failing economy.  This company eventually closed its doors for good.

In the midst of searching for work, my husband was laid off from his job due to downsizing.  This company eventually closed its doors for good as well.  This left us in a very bad financial situation as we were both unemployed at the same time and there were very few jobs to choose from.

This led to the foreclosure of our very first home which we are in the midst of negotiating with the lender for a short-sale.  We are being sued by our homeowner’s association because we have been unable to pay our association fees.  We have countless collection agencies calling and hounding us for money that we don’t have and we can barely afford groceries.

My husband finally found a job in September, 2009 but to our dismay, several months later, he was forced to take a pay cut due to the failing economy.

So, at this point, there is only one income coming into our house which is now significantly less than it was when my husband started his position.  The cost of living is rising and paychecks are decreasing.  I can not find any work and have been applying to every store, fast-food restaurant, company, etc. that I can think of.

We can’t apply for government assistance or food stamps because my husband has a job and according to them, “We make too much money.”  Well, we’ll see about that when you are passing us by on the street.  Oh, yeah, we’ll be the ones living in a cardboard box!!!

You have no idea how much it would help if additional unemployment benefits were given to those of us who have already exhausted our 99 weeks.  Don’t you want to see the economy improve?  Extend unemployment benefits for those of us who have nowhere left to go but downward.

From MM in AZ:

My name is MRM, I’ve been an Arizona resident since February 2009.  My work history comes from California, I have yet to secure employment in AZ.  I got laid off from Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. Dec. 31, 2002.  After that I could not find an employer willing to hire me as an FTE.  They avoided a head-count/benefit increase due to the beginning of the faltering of the economy that finally caught up with the rest of the country.   Employers avoided hiring FTEs by using contractors, temps and off-shoring jobs.

I am an Executive Assistant and temporary jobs were unavailable to me in 2008.  I moved to AZ early 2009 in hopes of finding a position in a smaller venue.  I’ve had 2 interviews despite submissions of hundreds of resumes.  I was laid off December 31, 2007 from a contract position of 16 months through Adecco working at the Bank of America Concord Tech Center in California.  I managed to survive on unemployment benefits until they were completely exhausted March 2010.  Since then, the help of friends and family have kept me from homelessness.  That will end very soon, they have families and their own needs.  Two of my sisters who work for the City of Los Angeles have 6 furlough days per month between them, including losses in pay for the days that they do work.  They are unable to help me, as they are stumbling themselves.  My younger sister who is on the Social Security Disability Ticket to Work Program, moved in with me so we could pool our resources in order help one another survive.

I just qualified for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program benefits last week, Food Stamps May 7^th , which were supposed to be issued today for June, but my worker still had the hold on them pending receipt of additional paper work that I provided May 12^th.  I am still awaiting the decision on AHCESS healthcare benefits June 16^th.

My parents came to this country to make sure we were afforded the opportunities their country lacked.  I was born and educated in America, upper middle class.  All of my siblings and I have 4 year college degrees.  I’ve 20+ years of work experience and I’ve been reduced to poverty.  My younger sister went back to school to get her Bachelor’s Degree and she too can’t find work, despite more than 20 years of finance and teaching experience.

I would like to close with a quote from a local AZ newspaper last week:

“We now have one trillion reasons to oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 5/30, those 2 wars cost one trillion for operations alone, not even counting the interest on the debt of that borrowed money, or the healthcare cost for returning vets.  It is an amount so incomprehensible that it can only be understood in terms of what it could have bought, rather than missiles and destruction. For one trillion dollars, we could immediately give everyone of the 15.4 million unemployed people in the U.S. a 50K job and still have 235 Billion left over…” Eric Stone, Mesa, AZ

From FO in NJ:

TO WHOM IT CONCERNS,

I HAVE BEEN OUT OF WORK SINCE AUGUST 2008 DUE TO DOWNSIZING. I AM ONE OF THE “99ER’S” WHO IS ABOUT OT LOSE MY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS IN A FEW WEEKS. I HAVE SENT OUT 1000′S OF RESUMES WITH LITTLE OR NO REPLY. “I AM TOO QUALIFIED, I AM NOT QUALIFIED ENOUGH”. I AM GOING CRAZY. MY CREDIT CARDS ARE AT THE LIMITS, I AM BEHIND ON PAYMENTS IN SOME. MY CREDIT SCORE IS HORRIBLE. I AM ABOUT TO BE KICKED OUT OF MY APARTMENT. I HAVE NO FAMILY AND MY FRIENDS ARE IN THE SAME BOAT.

I WILL BE LIVING IN MY CAR SOON WITH MY CAT BELLA. PLEASE EITHER CREATE A TIER 5 EXTENSION OR FIND ME A JOB. I HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE FOR.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME,

FO AND BELLA

From KCS in CA:

My name is KCS, I have been laid off since 03/2008. I worked for (company) for twenty three years, the ten last years as a District Manager. I have been on over thirty five interviews, some people say that I am over qualified others say they thought I would not take the pay. I would take anything right now because my gas, phone and electric are all off right now as I speak.

I have never asked for anything free and I lost my job for no reason but the company had to cut back and sixty two of us are all out of jobs now of our faults will be homeless in two more months if nothing happens I look for work every day even Saturday and Sundays. And if they do ok this extension it needs to be retroactive so that we who have lost so much can get caught up.

PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE HELP US AND PASS A TIER 5 EXTENSION.

From RW:

I have been unemployed since December 31st of 2008. I’ve been drawing unemployment checks since then. I received a letter yesterday saying my benefits have expired and after talking to a representative today it was confirmed. I thought a bill was passed so I could receive benefits for “99″ weeks? There was a big deal made of it like it was the next coming.

Now, I can’t pay my utilities or house payment which I’ve struggling to do even with the benefits.

I’ve tried to reduce my house payment 3 times now and keep getting rejected. The first time I was told I had too much money in my checking/savings. At the time, I had around $4500. That was all the money I had in the world. They said as long as I had enough money to make 3 house payments, I didn’t qualify for a loan modification. After paying general bills and house payments, 2 months later, I was down to $2000. Again, I was rejected saying I don’t have proof of earnings sufficient for a modification. I’d sent them all my unemployment info. The last time I tried, I received a letter from them saying they recommend I sell my home. I owe $80000 on my home that was valued at $450000 just 2 years ago and now is valued at $200000. Even if I decided to sell, people can buy a brand new home for the same amount and….where would I go. I worked all my life since graduating HS and paid taxes to ensure something like this wouldn’t happen to me when I get older and look what’s happening. I can’t find a job at age 62 and am at the mercy of others who really don’t care what happens to me.

And, not even mentioning health insurance which has to be paid. I was aided by Cobra which, by the way, just ended this month also so I have to pay the full premium which I can’t afford.

I could go on and on but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before.

I guess my question is what happened to the “99″ weeks of benefits that were supposed to be in effect?

Thank you,

From SD in FL:

I am sending the following suggestion instead of telling my story which I am sure is fairly typical.  I am now 58 years old and have worked steadily since the age of 19.  Two years ago I was laid off from an administrative assistant position with a property management company primarily due to the downturn in the building industry.  When I began to look for work, I was faced with age discrimination and a general lack of job openings.  I have now run out of unemployment benefits.  My suggestion is as follows:

Since the latest jobs report last month indicates an increase in hiring that is largely due to the Federal Governments’ employment of census workers, I believe the answer to the unemployment problem lies with the Federal Government doing what government has historically done in the past—create jobs programs which will put people to work, and give the jobless paychecks instead of unemployment checks. We are spending money on the unemployed anyway so why not get something back?  I see government jobs programs as win-win situation—the unemployed get their dignity back and the government gets workers to do things like clean up beaches in the Gulf and so many other things that need to be done.  Considering that there are so many professional, highly skilled, well educated people who are out of work, they surely must have something to contribute.  Only government can and should do this.  Instead of preaching to private industry to create jobs, the Federal Government should set an example and start the ball rolling.

From DM in CA:

HEART to HEART……Hardship in California.  We need a Tier V!

Tier V for the long term unemployed should be considered and approved.  It’s necessary, justified and the Democratic thing to do.

I’m a 50 year old female living in CA.  I was laid off in August of 2008 from (company) after a 15 year career in the middle of the recession.  Since then, it’s been unbelievably difficult to find work.  I have sent out about 1,500 resumes.  I’ve made sacrifices and cutbacks and have no industry or salary boundary or preference.  My 99 weeks is about to come to an end and sadly, still no job.  California has been hit hard and unemployment is still very high.  The state keeps cutting back on services and there are many layoffs.  The job market is stagnant, competitive and just discouraging. This feels like a war!  A war against the middle class and average American Citizen!

I had a great job with (company)and didn’t ask to be put into this situation.  I’ve worked hard all my life to not be in this predicament.  I’m not looking for a handout.  These are unprecedented times and this is a matter of urgency.  Weeks if not months go by literally with no acknowledgement or response to our endless efforts of applying for jobs.  During several interviews I was lucky enough to get, 100 or more people applied for the same position.  It’s awfully frustrating.  At this point, it’s a matter of luck!

What did we do to deserve this!

Extending Unemployment Insurance for the working class and long term unemployed would avoid a lot of pain and help us to survive while we keep looking for work and hope that the economy begins to rebound.

Welfare and Food Stamps as my means of survival is unacceptable and ultimately will cost everyone more!

Thank you for your time.

DLM in CA:

Dear Committee:

I’ve been asked to tell you my story in hopes to gain support from the elected officials that I have put into office.  I have read many stories from different sources about unemployment which included internet news, newspapers, unemployment websites, magazines and local area work centers about the numbers that are unemployed.  I’m one of them.

I have been working since I was thirteen years old.  I’m 56 years old at this time, female.  I do understand that some people take advantage of unemployment benefits.  In my lifetime I have not been considered lazy or one to take advantage of the system.  I grew up with morals and values for right and wrong.  I have raised two children on my own with no support from others.  I had started college very young but was unable to finish by my own choice.  I had decided to raise my children and to continue to work.  The most recent company I was working for had to lay me off because work was slow.  I was in a management position and the owner decided she could run the business herself and save money.  I have a wide range of experience in Management and as an Executive in the business industry.  I had decided it might have been my resume that was holding me back from a good position.  Well I paid a professional resume writer to rewrite my resume so it would be more competitive and appealing for the market.  Which did get me a few interviews.

I have applied for many different jobs, from management, customer service, retail, and office personal with no success.  I have used many free job finder services, from local employment agencies, local craiglists, monster.com, and even in different cities for jobs, Usajobs, and many more.  When I’ve had job interviews, I realized that there are other people with more qualifications which included Master degrees, Bachelor degrees and more college education for different entry level jobs which just had one open position.    Today on the local area news people had been lining up about 600of them outside of Campbell Soup Company since 5:00 am to be notified to get index cards to fill out so they could fill out applications later.  It almost turned out to be a riot.  It’s very disappointing and very disheartens when I hear people say that I’m lazy or not looking for a job.   I’ve been going back to college for the past year to further my education to be more competitive for different jobs and looking for fulltime work at the same time.

In the meantime, since I have no income or benefits at this time.  I’ve been selling different things, couch, table and chairs, trying to make any money to pay my bills.  Just to keep things going until my school checks come in, I’ve been living within my means.  It’s scary.   I understand that unemployment benefits are only for a short time but I’ve never had to compete with so many people for the same job.  I’m worried for the long term too.  Hoping that maybe with the education I’m getting I might be able to start a little bookkeeping business.  But, that’s going to take some time and money.   It’s an idea that could work.  There are just too many people just like me in the same boat.  I’ve almost been out on the streets with other people no home or place to live.  Don’t understand why the politicians help so many other people in the world, but think we just might go away.  Well, I’m still here.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. 
Sincerely,

DLM,

Mother, Sister, Daughter, Aunt, Cousin and Grandmother

From SW in TX:

As of the writing of this statement, I am a 59 year old woman who lost her job on January 18, 2009 from a law firm here in Houston, Texas where I worked as a paralegal/legal secretary.  I have been unemployed for a year and a half.  I have been searching for a job daily since I became unemployed.  During this time I have been searching on line on all the job sites.  I am listed with numerous head hunters; I have applied for jobs on Craig’s List and attended job fairs.  What I have found is that there are no jobs.  I have had 4 interviews in a year and a half.  There are numerous other individuals applying for these positions as well.  The office managers for the various law firms have told me that I am over qualified for the positions that I have applied for as they are looking for younger individuals, with less experience who will work for a lot less money.   Although I have indicated that I would accept 1/3 to 1/2 less than I have been making I am still passed over.  I have applied for part-time positions and contract positions but have never gotten an interview and no one has responded to my resume.  Since I am 59 years old and will be 60 years old in October they look at me as being ready for retirement and will probably only work for another few years.  I have been asked on many occasions if I will be retiring when I turn 65 which is only 7 years away.

My savings have run out, I am on food stamps and have a disabled brother that I have to take care of and I have no insurance and have medication for my heart which I need daily and will soon be unable to get because I will have no money at all to pay for it.  My unemployment will be exhausting soon and I have nowhere to turn for help.

My unemployment check is just enough to take care of my mortgage payment but soon I will not be able to pay it and will probably lose my home.  I have talked with Bank of American who holds the mortgage on my home and they have turned me down every time I have spoken with them about a mortgage modification because all I have is unemployment and no job to be able to make continuous payments; although, so far my payments have always been on time.  I can’t even sell my home because of the economy and the fact that my home is underwater.

If we don’t get additional unemployment or some alternative I will be on the street with a disabled brother with nowhere to go since I have exhausted everything.

So far you have subsidized wars, tax cuts, you have made bail outs to auto makers, banks and have sent money to Greece when you have millions of older people here in the US who need help and can’t get it.   I have worked hard and played by the rules and I lost my job through no fault of my own and so have millions of others just like me and we would like to be bailed out.

An alternative for people my age who are being pushed out of the workforce because of our age is to let us take retirement and get our social security so that we will have money coming in.  I have worked all my life and have had no help.  I should at least be able to have money coming in until I reach the age for social security because there are no jobs out there for me.  The majority of people who cannot get a job are older people like me and we deserve some relief.

From GS in PA:

I have been unemployed since December 2007. I have been looking for a full time employments ever since.

Right now, I am living on a part par time job. I work 2-3 days a week 4 hours a day at $7.25 an hour. I had to ask my friends and family to pay my gas bill and light bill. My phone service will be off within the next few days.

I do not even have money to get to interviews. I have applied for over 150 jobs at PNC Bank here in Pittsburgh. I have applied for hundreds of jobs at other companies. I even wrote to four CEO’s of companies to ask for jobs. I have written to several other owners of companies in other states.

I will not be able to go to my friends and family for very long. The unemployment I was receiving helped me keep my bills paid. I have a daughter I have to take care of. I have to feed her, and cloth her. How can I do that with $232.00 dollars a month? Yes, I get food stamps; I get $200.00 dollars a month. It does not last the whole month. I have to ask my family for food, or money to buy food.

Please we need to have a Tier 5 added on. If I do not get a full time job soon, I will be force to live in a shelter. How the US government cans lets us suffer like this. PLEASE WE NEED HELP, HELP US.

Thank you

From EH in NJ:

Committee Members

I am writing to you to tell you of my need for the extension of Tier 5 Unemployment Benefits.

I have been out of work since November 2008 and cannot find any work with diligent effort on my part to find any job—resumes, want ads, Internet, newspapers, applications to any possible opportunities, etc.

My family—wife, daughters and I have managed to subsist only on the Unemployment Benefits we have received.  The expenses for food, shelter, medical (doctors and medications), jobs search, utilities and auto have been eked out.  All of our savings and monetary assets are gone.

Now, with the cessation of my Tier 4 benefits, I have nowhere to turn except to plead my case to you.  Of course, I must continue my employment search.  I implore you to extend these benefits to help us.

You must also find solutions to create jobs and prevent them from leaving our country—and you should start in New Jersey to alleviate the excessive unemployment here.  I am willing and able to work at any possible job that can be offered.

Please consider this plea favorably—I am certain there are thousands of families like mine right here in New Jersey and throughout our country—as we have nowhere to turn.

Our fate is in your hands.

From MS in OK:

I want to express my views on the topic of long-term unemployment for those who have exhausted all their assistance.

I among others are seeking assistance from the federal government for help.  I have not had any working income since March 2008, and no unemployment since January 2010.  Although we have bailed out many institutions, assisted other governments, and other needless assistance to a few, the government has not helped the millions who are the backbone of this country.

I had been working on my MBA, worked since I was 13 years old, and supported my family for over 25 years, now I am broke, with no working future in RURAL Oklahoma.  I have NOT received the full 99 weeks like others in other states due to the restriction of the 8.5 % level assistance, Oklahoma is sitting steady at 6.5 – 7.0 %.

Please help ALL STATES, because the unemployed is just that, UNEMPLOYED.  Do not discriminate.  I like others have completed over 300 job applications, and have interview over 100 times, with no success.  Before 2008, in my job career and advancement, I was 100 % on 5 job interviews.  I am not lazy, looking for handouts, but simply want to pay for food, shelter, and try in a simple family life.  Thanks.

From RF in TN:

To whom it might matter,

I was employed as a Program / Project Manager in the automotive industry by a glass company. I led several successful launches such as the Subaru Tribecca, Mazda 6, Hummer and managed many small engineering changes. I was laid off in May 2008. I found a contract job in July that lasted 4 months, then I taught as a substitute teacher (geometry) for four months at a private school. Since then a few interviews, many, many applications and submissions and now my unemployment has run out.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand how our Federal Government can send billions of dollars overseas, spend many more billions on bail outs for those who are arguably criminals, and still more billions on wars we should not be fighting. I guess I know where my 30 years+ of hard work, paying my own way through school, and serving in the Army for four years got me? Nowhere, with little to show and a deep abiding distrust of all elected officials.

The last election is probably the last one I’ll bother voting in as nothing seems to change.

Sincerely

From DB in NJ:

My name is DB and I worked for Builders FirstSource, formerly Blackstone Company for, 4 weeks shy of, 24 years. We were dislocated on December 15, 2008 when the company closed their New Jersey operations. It was a good job, with livable wages, good benefits and excellent people. I literally worked there for half of my lifetime. Would be there today if I had my way.

We were assisted with our unemployment claims at work. I went to the One Stop Career Center the following week and signed up for all available seminars and services which I attended. I started the process for job training. Went smoothly but takes a while.

I started the Computerized Accounting program at MCC on May 27, 2009 and graduated on November 25, 2009. I did very well as the director or my teachers will attest to. I have an exemplary work history and an updated skill set. I have applied for over 200 jobs with no offers. Good jobs I wanted and could do, no “fillers”. Thru school and my PSG group I have met a lot of good people in the same boat.

I want and need to work. All I need is an opportunity and I know I can make a success of it. There are simply too many people for too few jobs, simple as that. Blame whatever or whoever you want, that’s just a fact. I will return to the workforce at my first opportunity. Meanwhile we need the Unemployment Benefits extended. I have never been late much less missed a bill payment in my life. I am a responsible, play by the rules type of person who just needs assistance until he can find an opportunity. And I am busting my butt to get that opportunity too. Please also consider some type of jobs program too.

Warmest Regards

Please visit Rochester Unemployment Examiner to review unemployment information, data and details that you don’t find in the main stream media. You can also add comments about your current situation and what you think needs ot be done to improve the job market and unemployment benefits system. I hope to see you there.

*Due to issues such as software compatibility, the letters posted here may contain some minor formatting edits to improve readability.

Long Term Unemployed

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support is held a hearing on June 10 titled: Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment. I asked readers of Rochester Unemployment Examiner to send me letters they wrote to the Committee that they also wanted to have published here.* Below are some of those letters. I’ll be posting other letters as I receive permission.

There is still time to write; you can submit letters to House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support is holding a hearing until the close of business on June 24.

I want to thank all of you for including me in your letters to the Hearing. I will do my best to reply to each and everyone of you in a timely fashion.

From JB in MA:

Dear Chairman McDermott and honorable committee members.

I respectfully urge you to consider extending unemployment benefits for as long as possible for 2010.

I have been unemployed since November 2008 and have no prospects for employment.

I worked as an IT manager for a company for 30 years who moved our production facility over seas and has outsourced IT support to now be handled by the corporate facility in Tulsa OK.  Our company once employed 130 and now is reduced to 35 through what is called a reduction in force program.

In an effort to see employment and to make myself more employable I have taken the following steps to enhance my chances of success.

- Attended UMass Lowell College using my own money to finish my degree

- Attended Valley Works unemployment center seeking help in my jobs search

- Registered with an employment agency in Boston

- Registered with an employment agency in my home to of Acton

- Assisted in the development of a networking support group with my Church, Acton Congregational

- Posted my resume at several job seeking websites

- Networking through Classmates.com

- Networking through LinkedIn

- Sent emails to all of my friends and former business associates asking for help

As a result of these efforts for the last 19 months, I receive few responses form online submissions and the few I do receive seem to have eliminated the jobs posting or have found the posting to expire.  I have done extensive job searching through USAJOBS.COM hoping to land a government job.  Many of the positions require very specific talents or require a security clearance which one cannot acquire on their own.

Having to also pay for my health insurance which is required by law is depleting our savings.  We are now taking the steps that we have feared for several months now by listing our house for sale in an effort to make ends meet.  I am 54 years old and have worked hard all of my life and have never been out of a job.  It’s very difficult to look into my wife’s and daughter’s eyes and tell them that I’m doing everything I can to find work, but to no avail.

Please help me and others like me who are hard working honest Americans trying to do the best we can.  I know how great this country is and I’m confident that things will turn around but folks like me need help.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Kind regards,

From BJ in CT:

Dear Chairman McDermott:

I am compelled to write you in thanks for your strength and dedication in the effort to resolve long term unemployment.  I was so hopeful for the first time in months when you announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on possible policy responses to long-term unemployment on Thursday, June 10, 2010. Please know that I, and everyone I know of that are currently unemployed, are not enjoying our situation. This job market is so tough; that even after 30 years of business and financial experience, I find that I can no longer define myself by what my career was, or the education and experience I have attained, but how I am attempting to survive this economic recession and maintain just an ounce of respect before it squeezes the life out of me and my family.

I am currently in my fourth layoff.  The first was in early 1991 and the third and fourth were within ten months of one another.  All of my layoffs were large layoffs due to company financial difficulties, i.e. lawsuits, bankruptcies, or a company merger, and yet it was the employee that took the financial hit to pay for what most often was the unfortunate decision of a company’s executive.  With every layoff I have undergone throughout the years, I have taken a substantial pay cut just to get back in the workforce.  I have known what it is to work two to three part-time jobs at a time just to make ends meet until I was able to get a job in my educational and professional background.  Working odd jobs is not even an option this time around, because even part-time jobs are sparse.  I am so very tired and worn out from the day to day search for a job that is not out there. In this flooded unemployment, even in applying for a job one may be well qualified for, or for a job that one is over qualified, the result is a disappointment.  Not knowing if you will be able to pay the bills or even keep your home for another week, is a depressing, demoralizing and physical and mentally-draining experience.

On August 28, 2010, I will have completed Tier 4 of the unemployment extended 99 weeks of benefits.  I realize that 99 weeks is a ling time.  Oh do I know what a long time that is, however, in this recession, it is not necessarily long enough to land a job.  Unless the few slim leads I have for employment come my way in the next few weeks, or without congressional action in the very near future, I will have to decide whether I should continue to use up what little I have left of my 401Ks, or to sell my home of 45 years.

In your announcing of the hearing on long term unemployment you stated “If we can afford wars, tax cuts, and bank bailouts, then we can certainly afford to maintain programs for workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.  But we also need to think about additional steps to help those trying to return to work.  An increasing number of Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules are now finding themselves with no job, no savings and no support.  We must not abandon these workers and their families.”  That statement convinced me that you sincerely are one of the few that understand what the unemployed are going through.  You understand that unemployment insurance is critical and should be extended as long as it takes to get Americans back to work.  The cost of not extending unemployment provisions beyond recent attempts until all Americans in need, are back to work will be substantial – in the form of increased foreclosures, less money flowing through communities, and reliance on other public benefits – and will slow down the economic recovery that will bring us jobs. We need jobs that will not place us in the same situation once again, or in low paying jobs that are being offered to replace the higher paying jobs we were laid-off from; or in what ever industry that happens to be hiring at the moment.  We deserve to obtain jobs we can be proud of because we worked hard at building a career.

The fact that keeping the unemployment benefits extended until all Americans are back to work will add to the government’s budget deficit is a mute point. The cost of not providing the small amount of unemployment that I and others are getting just to keep a roof over our head and put food on the table will be substantial – in the form of increased foreclosures, less money flowing through communities, and reliance on other public benefits – and will slow down the economic recovery that will bring us jobs. Until companies stop the streamlining of their operations to incorporate automation, and cut financial corners to keep their bonuses — America will not be back at work and long-term unemployment will continuing to rise.

Relative to the vast complexity and devastation of the unemployed Americans, little media coverage has been made on the subject of long term unemployment.  Most of what has been published or broadcast has been misleading or just inaccurate.  I have attached are a few articles, statements regarding US Job Development, an e-mail and my current resume that are more accurate as to what is reality, and I believe speak for themselves.  In reading what others have documented on unemployment and job development, may help those that don’t understand to understand that it is not the lack of trying that keeps the unemployed from getting a job; and “extending unemployment benefits does not simply encourage those out of work to continue to accept government aid rather than take any job”.  However, it is all the surrounding circumstances that are beyond our control that is keeping us unemployed.  I have attended job fairs and offered to work for free for the first three months in order to prove myself.  All I got from the recruiters were blank stars.

Please be true to your word, “Our first step to respond to long-term unemployment is obvious  — continue the emergency federal unemployment programs to prevent millions of workers from losing their benefits”….and our lives. I do pray that all those that hold the future of all those unemployed will look at the whole economic recovery and make the right decisions that will truly help those that at this moment have little to no control of their own life’s destiny.  Please make sure that millions of struggling Americans do not face continuing joblessness coupled with an end to any benefits — the small income that has kept us afloat so far; until we can find a job that will pay the bills but will not place us in the same situation again.  Keeping our unemployment safety net is more crucial than ever.

I respectfully thank you for your time in advance.

Sincerely,

From MG in in TX:

To Whom it may concern:

My name is MG, and I am currently unemployed.  I worked hard my whole life, but was laid off in February of 2008.  I have not been able to find another job since then.  I have relocated with my family to San Antonio, TX and have been actively looking for employment for about a year.  I have submitted several applications every week but have not received many call backs.

We are a family of 4 living on a single income.  We have young children who currently do not have health insurance because we are “over income” for a family of 4, yet we cannot afford to put them on private insurance.  We are struggling to put food on the table and pay our monthly bills.  We have maxed out the few credit cards we have just to get by from pay check to paycheck.  The time I was receiving unemployment we were getting by just fine, but since I have exhausted my benefits, we are struggling to make ends meet.

I have not given up on looking for a job, but it would be helpful if unemployment benefits could be extended.  I know there are many other families in the same or worse situation as me so I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my story and take my unemployment extension into consideration.

Thank you,

From AS in PA:

I signed for the last of my Tier IV yesterday, today I am filled with fear of what’s next?  I lost my job of twenty three years to Mexico on July 2nd,2008. I have worked all my life and this is very hard and depressing. Some days are harder than others, but I go on.

I am 63 and no one wants me. I was very good at my job and I felt very good about myself, now I feel like my life is over. No hope of any future. I can’t see how I can keep my house and how do I rent without an income enough to pay the bills there also.

People(Americans) are living in their cars and shelters. This shouldn’t be in America. We build other countries, feed them and give them free medical services. I have no insurance. I couldn’t afford the original Cobra payments, they were almost 600.00$ a month. I applied for medical and food stamps this week. I never in my life had to resort to a handout. If a TIER V would be passed I could continue to try to find work and pay off my bills and maybe stay in my home a little longer.

Thank you for listening

From AN in RI:

I am a 58 year old single college educated woman.  I have been unemployed since November 2007 due to a re-organization in the company I had worked at for 13 years.  I was making $60,000/year and had purchased my first home 3 years previously and had a perfect credit rating.  I have been sending out hundreds of resumes since being laid-off and have had approximately 2 interviews.  I’m sure you can understand that at my age companies are very reluctant to hire me.  I have worked over 40 years and never thought I would be in the situation I now find myself in.  I have lost everything!  I have no savings, have had to use my 401k to pay my mortgage and utilities and now can’t even collect unemployment.  I have nowhere to turn.  So, my “American Dream” along with millions of others has dissipated and will never return.  We will never be able to catch up on what we have lost.

Our government’s priority was to give billions to the big businesses, banks and Wall Street and we, the American people who are desperately suffering have been abandoned.  How sad is this?  Can the politicians making these decisions even remotely understand what they have done to the millions of Americans who have lost everything?  I think not, they will never be in our situation and will never know what it is like to be without a home, food or health care.  The politicians have too much power and money and they think its fun to play their political games with our lives.  The government seems to have plenty of money to help out other countries, but when it comes to helping their own people who are suffering on a daily basis they constantly let us down.

This country has never been in a recession as we have seen in the last 2 years and even though the news media claim the economy is getting better, that is just a hoax to make the American people believe the steps that have been taken are working.  If the real numbers for unemployment were revealed, this includes the people who have fallen off unemployment and still have no jobs and the over 400,000 temporary jobs that were filled for census taken were not counted, then it would show the true disaster of our economy.

Thank you,

From LB in MA:

I did everything I could find a job for the past 17 months but was unable to find one due to my hearing-impairment and employers’ unwillingness to accommodate my disability in job interview and hiring processes. When hiring managers made their hiring decisions, they decided to pass me over for somebody who could use the phone rather than finding ways to accommodate me at work.

Employers who were hiring somebody to fill a job that does not require phone told me they were looking for somebody who had more years of work experience, worked less than two years or had arbitrary standards to screen me out of a job.  In job interviews, hiring managers were too picky to hire me because of economy and asked me difficult situations question instead of looking at my work references and hire me! I had several job interviews two weeks ago and wrote a nice thank you notes to each hiring managers; however, they did not hire me as of today.

I am a client of a vocational rehabilitation program in my state and my vocational counselor placed me in a job placement program.  I also registered with three Career Centers, went to all relevant workshops on how to be a successful job seeker, and attended support group meetings for job seekers.

Although I heard of news that economy is picking up and people are being hired, these good news did not apply to me and I am not a lazy job seeker who used unemployment checks to lay around and be lazy as some misinformed people like to believe.

Oh yeah, I heard of a Congress person (Kathy Dahlkemper, D-PA)  who tried to hire people to work for her office and did not receive much responses. I would like to say one thing. If I live in her district and find a job in her office that does not require the use of phones, I would have applied for a job, and if she is willing to accommodate me when she contacts me for job interviews and is willing to give me a chance to work for him, I would be working for her today!  If she knows of a colleague in greater Boston, MA area who is looking for the same, please tell her to send me an email for a referral.  Please make sure this person is willing to accommodate me and is willing to hire a person with disability.

Please tell employers to start hiring job seekers with disability and change some standards a little so people with disability could get a job and meet their business needs!  And please tell Senators and Congress people to approve of benefit extensions for 99ers and all unemployed people who were unemployed through no faults of their own.  We were not lazy people who failed to find a job!  We were victims of bad economy and greedy people in Wall Street!

From AN in FL:

I live in Florida…I actually am subsisting in Florida.  I was laid off from job in Dec.07 and have spent 99.9% of my life trying to get back to work since then. I am willing to take ANY job but, they are simply none available here in the Venice/Sarasota/Bradenton area.

I have heard that our unemployment rate is 13.3% but the church that I volunteer at so I can obtain free bread and canned goods believe the correct number is about 18%.  We are in serious trouble those of us 99ers.  I have been homeless 3 times in the past several years and am about to become that way again very soon.  I was also “forced” to live in a domestic violence situation because I had no money and no place else to go.  I am a 46 year old female who has lost every possession I have spent the last 25 years working for.  I am down to 2 suitcases of clothes because the storage facility auctioned off my belongings when I fell behind on my unit payment last summer when it took the state of Florida so long to process our retroactive payments.  I have no children and I kind of wished I did because I would be eligible for more government help but since I am single, over the age of 40 and have no dependants, there is simply NO help for me. I am currently out of options and out of hope.

I have put out nearly a 1000 resumes and I have received little to no response and I have a good background and an excellent resume.  And the strange thing is, I worked for the past 17 years in a very desirable field…medical insurance billing and coding.  Why there are none of these jobs available in my area has me completely baffled.

I have tried so hard to remain positive but, I am out of patience, food, options and hope.  I feel like nobody is listening to people like me.  I have always worked hard, paid taxes and voted and now it is if I do not exist in the eyes of anyone, much less my beloved government.

I would love to organize a protest but, I haven’t the money to do so.  I have signed so many petitions, called and written members of the Congress and Senate and I have even e mailed the White House directly again today…What else can I or should I do.  I wish I could tell Congress and the Senate my story directly…perhaps, they would listen to me.  I just want a job so, I can get my own small apartment again, buy a little crummy used car and buy food without having to use food stamps. More than anything, I want my dignity back.

Sincerely,

From DP in FL:

Dear Chairman Jim McDermott and the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the Committee on Ways and Means:

I have been unemployed since June 8, 2008, and am now a “99er”*.  On that day we (the employees) discovered that the owner of the real estate title insurance company, where I had worked for 20 years, had emptied all the bank accounts (escrow included) and disappeared.  (Flagler Title Company, in West Palm Beach, FL.)  At the request of our underwriter (CTIC), the company was closed and put under receivership.  There were approximately 30 people still working there and none of us got paid for the last two weeks we had worked, as there was no money left to pay us.  Because of a selfish, greedy boss, I lost my job and now because of selfish, greedy, unscrupulous people on Wall Street, I have been unable to find another job.

I had very little in my 401K, at the time my company was closed, as the option of getting one had only been offered to us about three years earlier.  Had to use these funds to move as the house I was living in was going into foreclosure.  Thank goodness I don’t have any credit cards, but do still have student loans from the late 1990s, which I currently cannot pay.  Can’t even pay the $338.00 income tax due on my unemployment from last year (2009).  I wonder how many others can’t pay either, leaving the government with LESS income to solve the deficit problem?

I received my last unemployment insurance check (99 weeks) on April, 1, 2010, for the weeks of March 14-27, 2010, leaving me with no income at all after that.  Up until then unemployment was paying for my rent, utilities, a few groceries and a little gas for my car (my car, thank God, is paid off, but I can’t afford car insurance) and to buy stamps, envelopes, paper and ink to print resumes and mail them.  My youngest daughter lives in St. Lucie County, FL, with her fiancé and daughter, but they can’t afford to support me while I look for work and they only have a 2-bedroom place so there is no room for me.  My oldest lives in Colorado Springs with her husband.  I can’t afford to move there, let alone buy the whole new wardrobe I would need for the colder climate.  As far as that goes, they have been there since Sept. 2007 and she was just able to find a job herself a couple of weeks ago (she was not collecting unemployment).  Thank goodness her husband had a decent job before they moved there!  Now it wouldn’t make much sense for me to move from someplace where it is hard to find a job to another place where it is also hard to find a job, would it?

I have close to 40 years of clerical/secretarial experience and have applied for hundreds of jobs (gave up counting applications a long time ago) and not just clerical, but retail jobs, and even jobs I knew I didn’t have all the “qualifications” for.  Hoping that one of them would give me a chance to prove myself.  Usually don’t even get a “thank you for your interest” reply.  Sometimes I’ve wondered if they even received my application/resume. A few times I have gotten “thank you but we picked someone with more experience”.  What?  More experience – you mean you picked someone older than me?  I doubt that!

Since I am not there to see and hear what is said and done, while the prospective employer is looking through resumes/applications, I cannot swear that my age (58 next month) or the fact that I am unemployed, is the reason why I’m not getting interviews or replies.  But I am making an educated assumption that those are the reasons, as I know several of the younger people I used to work with have gotten jobs since Flagler was closed, been laid off from them and were still able to find another job.

I did get a call for a State of Florida job in a different county (Sumter), but when I called back, found out they wanted someone who could start immediately, because they had spent almost a

month going through 100+ applications for that one job.  Since I would have had to take the time to relocate, my name was taken off the interview list.  Would have been a great job if I had gotten it, but didn’t even get the chance to try!

Had one other interview at Wal-Mart but was never called back for the second interview (they say they do two, before deciding who to hire).  When I called them back, I was advised they were not doing any hiring at that time.  Those are the only two job offers I have received in almost two years.  Finally around the middle of this May, after re-applying 4-5 times, I got a call from Publix Super Markets and was hired for a part-time cashier job (no more than 20 hours a week, but 20 hours NOT guaranteed).  However, at this particular store their clientele is mostly “seasonal”.  The “season”, in Florida, ends around Mother’s Day.  So now I am lucky if I get 11-15 hours a week.  This most certainly does not pay my rent nor pay for much else.

Recently I’ve found out that employers are not even considering the unemployed for hires.  Their excuses range from:

“If they (the unemployed job applicant) were that good, they would not have been let go”, to the unbelievable “we are tired of getting too many unemployed applicants so we wish to concentrate on stealing good help away from our competitors”.

Also: “Recruitment experts say many companies believe it could take longer to get ‘passive applicants’ up to speed in professions that require constant training. They also say people who have not been laid off are believed to be the best and most valuable in the fields, reports ClickOrlando.com”.

Very shocking!  I say, “If the company is closed down, which a lot were, it doesn’t matter how “good or valuable” you were – you’re gone – along with everybody else!  Also some companies get rid of the highest paid employee’s first cause it saves them more money, and they don’t have to lay off as many of the lower income people so can keep the “production” lines going.  After all production is what makes the company money.

While receiving unemployment I was unable to get food stamps, because, according to them, I made too much money on unemployment, to qualify for food stamps.  Since I stopped receiving unemployment I was able to get an “emergency issue” of food stamps for only five months and will have to reapply for them in Sept.  However, can’t pay my rent with food stamps

I was served with a 3-day notice, by my landlord, at the end of April, prior to starting eviction proceedings because I couldn’t pay them for the last two weeks in April.  If evicted I will have to live out of my little Hyundai Accent and would have lost all my possessions because I don’t have money for a storage room.  Luckily I was able to find a program (HUD HRE) which “helps the homeless or those threatened to become homeless soon”, to help me with my rent.  However, they only do it for three months and you have to be approved for the first month then re-evaluated for the second and third months.  I have already “used up” two of the months and only have one left.  If I can’t find another job in the next couple of weeks I will still be facing eviction.  My landlords are really nice people, but they have a mortgage on this duplex and need the rent to pay that.  So I can’t blame them.  I am really scared of the possibility of having to live out of my car, because I am a female and the car windows would need to be open, at night, since it is very hot in Florida during the summer.  Don’t even know where I would be able to park my car where it would be safe, can’t afford a camp ground site!  And without a refrigerator I would not be able to purchase “perishables”, with or without food stamps!  I do have a small charcoal grill I could cook on but charcoal, coolers and ice costs money.

I don’t know about other states, but in Florida, there is very little help for you, financially or otherwise, if you don’t have dependent children living home (18 or younger or 19 if still in secondary school), you aren’t disabled or you aren’t at least 62 years old.  You can’t even get Medicaid.  So right now I don’t have health insurance. I wasn’t able to get COBRA, because the group policy, where I used to work, was canceled June 1, 2008.  You have to have an active policy in order to get COBRA.  Section 8 housing, in Martin County is full, they aren’t even taking applications right now, and the low income housing apartments they offer have a five year waiting list.

I honestly would rather be working and supporting myself, this is something that I have done since I graduated from high school and moved into my own apartment and also after I was divorced in 1985, with two children to take care of as well.  I am NOT lazy as many unknowledgeable people claim the long term unemployed are!  I would even rather be able to collect my Social Security, instead of having to depend upon unemployment!  At least that would be a “definite” income instead of a “maybe”, even though it would be a lower amount than I was getting through unemployment.  However, I can’t even consider that for a little over four more years.  This “not knowing” whether or not I’m going to have money for rent and food, or if I will be able to find a job in time to keep from being evicted is very frustrating and very stressful.

Frankly I am very disappointed and disgusted with everyone in Congress right now, I don’t give a darn what “party” you are a member of, I don’t intend to vote for any incumbent in November!   I am sick and tired of the bickering just to “show who’s the boss” and the needy of AMERICA being ignored while the needy of other countries are getting billions in hand outs, even though the money goes to their corrupt governments and will never be seen by those, in their countries, who need it the most!

Economists are telling you that you need to get people back to work and the economy “flowing” before you can even consider balancing the budget and getting rid of the deficit, since working people spend money and pay taxes, non-working people cannot.  When there are more people working and paying taxes you will have much more money to whittle away at the deficit!  They will be buying so businesses will hire more, more purchases mean more sales taxes which will help the states as well, so they don’t have to borrow from the federal government.  Sometimes you have to go into debt to “get the ball rolling” and start making profits.  Just look at Bill Gates (Microsoft),  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (founders of Apple) and other entrepreneurs who have made it.  They all went way into debt, spending their savings, borrowing money from others and maxing out their credit cards, before finally getting their corporations up and running, for profit.  (After all, America is a large “for profit” corporation, just like their companies are.)

Also economists, the CBO and the BLS all say that unemployment insurance payments help the

economy.  For every $1.00 of unemployment paid, anywhere from $1.63 to $1.90 is returned to the economy in the form of purchases or payments to companies. (groceries, electric, water, etc.)  So how can that possibly be bad or wrong?  The economy is getting more “bang for the buck” with unemployment payments than they are from the moneyless long term unemployed, the health care bill AND the bailouts to Wall Street! I thought that was the government’s goal, to get the economy rolling again.

All of you know, as well as I do, that there just aren’t enough available jobs for everyone who is unemployed and needs one, nor are enough “new” jobs being created fast enough to fill that void, and it is reported that it will be quite a few more years before there will be enough.  So please tell me, exactly what, the long term unemployed are supposed to do, in the meantime, to take care of themselves and their families with NO income at all until enough jobs are again available in three, four, five or more years?

Long term unemployed Americans and the American economy need a Tier V or more weeks added to Tier IV, at least through the end of the year, since the projected estimates say that things are not going to be that much better by the end of this year.

As we get nearer to the end of the year and see how things are progressing, then another decision can be made and hopefully BEFORE things get to the point where unemployment has run out again and people end up, once more, with nothing at all left to live on for months at a time and still no job prospects!

In the meantime lenders need to be pushed to loan money to businesses and individuals, to help jump start the economy, as they are not doing this now.  Instead they are lending and trading to each other, holding the profits in their coffers in order to make it look like their companies are doing better and enabling them to keep their ridiculously large salaries and bonuses.

Frankly I am very upset with, and feel cheated by, the wealthy bankers and hedge fund types who have abused the taxpayers by paying ungodly bonuses and THEN accepting billions in bailouts from the taxpayers just to use that money for still MORE ungodly bonuses and making their businesses look good, instead of making loans to individuals and businesses to help jump start the economy!

And we need JOBS!  Companies are not going to start hiring if there is no business to create profits, no matter how many tax incentives they are offered! Why should they hire someone and pay them a salary, pay into unemployment and match Social Security (even a portion of it) and whatever else companies have to pay per employee, just to have them sitting around staring at the walls, which is what the new employee would be doing with no business to create work for them to do.  Personally, I wouldn’t want a job where there is nothing to do all day but sit around feeling useless!  I prefer to work for my salary!

Production and manufacturing need to be supported and encouraged.  Companies also need to be discouraged, in some way, from sending jobs overseas.  American workers may also have to come to the realization that they will have to take less pay then they used to make, but it should still be a living wage (not minimum, which I don’t see how anybody can live on that), i.e. instead of $75,000.00 per year, they may have to take $60,000.00 or $65,000.00.  Actually I think a majority of the long term unemployed have already come to this realization!

Education also needs to be supported.  Too many teachers are being laid off and schools closed down causing severe crowding in already over crowded classes!  This situation and homelessness is seriously hurting the current generation of American children!  We need to take care of the “here and now”, so that there will be more people better able to take care of the future generations!

Human resources and prospective employers need to be re-educated about the benefits of hiring the older worker.  Older workers are more dedicated, honest, responsible, dependable, loyal, focused, organized and mature.  (You may check out this link, if you’d like to see the 12 benefits of hiring older workers:  http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/hiring/article167500.html).

But most of all, the long term unemployed, who have none or only partial income,  need to be helped and NOW, until more jobs come back.  They have nothing left, even their hope is disappearing.

For myself and all the other long term unemployed in America (99ers*), I pray that you do something quickly to help us until we can find new jobs.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

*“99er” – a person who has reached the end of whatever Tier of federal unemployment was offered in their state and no longer have any unemployment to claim and have still been unable to find a job.  Most now have no income whatsoever.  Some have been able to find part-time or piecemeal work, that does not pay their bills.  Many are now living in tents, in their cars or on the street searching in dumpsters and garbage cans for food.

From PL in TX:

To Congress:

My position was eliminated in September of 2008.  I have worked since I was 15 years old, paid for my own college education, got a full time job immediately upon graduation even though the pay was only $12,000 a year.  That was 33 years ago.  Through hard work and persistence I was able to move forward with a successful career that allowed me to buy a home, pay taxes, get married and have 3 children.

I am not extravagant in my spending, nor have I ever been.  I do not own a home or a car any longer.  I now live day to day looking for jobs that do not exist.  In the past 22 month I have applied for over 505 jobs from something in my field to grocery clerk.  My former associates are working longer hours and scared to death they will lose their own positions.  These are good people that work for fortune 500 companies that do not care about quality, they care about Wall Street and their golden parachutes, just like Congress.

Companies have flown me to Tampa, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Minneapolis, Memphis, yet the positions remain unfilled.   Two weeks ago I had a telephone interview where the HR recruiter actually told me that while they were interviewing, they were not hiring as they were in a hiring freeze.  It is common knowledge that the majority of jobs advertised are only there because the company will lose the requisition if they don’t leave it open, but they have no intention of filling these positions.  Lest you believe that I am above working for Target,  Lowe’s, Safeway, etc…check your attitude, I’ve applied at all of them.

Through my heavy networking, I have also discovered that employers now do not want to hire the long term unemployed.  They are hiring current workers who have big rolodexes, if they can persuade them to leave there current employer.  So now, the long term unemployed are labeled as undesirable.  Congress has abandoned us as well.

I have2 weeks of unemployment left, which was never enough to cover rent and utilities and I am 2 months from being homeless.  I am maintaining a positive attitude and persevering despite the fact that Congress and Nancy Pelosi have turned their backs on those of us who need help the most.  I have LIVED physcal responsibility all my life, not just recently.  Taxpayer’s money was spent on ramming healthcare reform through and now approved $150mm on trying to sell it to us again, money is being sent overseas to help foreign governments,  $60 billion being sent to fund the military.  I am too old for the military to even consider me.  There is no such thing as a “jobless recovery”.  We are not in recovery, and it will only get worse for those of us that have paid taxes for years and are now left to twist in the wind.  Please explain to my children why they will have no place to sleep and nothing to eat.  We don’t need a war on US soil, Congress has instigated warzone, all the while making sure that they get a raise every year.

From CM in CA:

I have been unemployed since June 26, 2008.  I am 61 years old with 31 years of working at the same company before I was let go.  I was terminated involuntarily after returning to work from three days in the hospital (TIA as a result of working conditions) and two weeks on disability.  Three days after I returned to work, I received a phone call from my manager who lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa saying I was terminated.  On the day I was to return to work from a vacation day, I was admitted to the hospital.  I had requested a vacation and had received an e-mail telling that I would be the only person packing books, binders and files for a departmental move to another floor and I complained.  After all this time I still I am still in shock and wondering why I was terminated because I never got a satisfactory answer from management or Human Resources.  The Human Resource Manager in Los Angeles mysteriously took early retirement about three months later and the firing manager was demoted out of management four months after I left.

The stress from thinking about not having the answers to why I lost my job, hoping I don’t end up back in the hospital (blood pressure being high because since going to hospital I’m on blood pressure medication), thinking about having money to pay the basic necessities of life, being unemployed for this long and not being able to find a job keeps me up all night.  During this time of not sleeping, I am on the computer checking my messages with the different job sites that I have registered, posted and sent my resume to and checking the unemployment job site that I had to register on (caljobs.ca.gov).  I have seen the sun rise a lot lately.  It’s not healthy but what can you do when you have so much on your mind.  And when I do get to sleep I wake up every two to three hours.

I started out in 1977 in the Word Processing Department and after two years promoted to an Executive Secretary with having working knowledge of word processing skills.  I was also a senior transcriber (dictation from cassette) and with the title change in corporate America became an Administrative Assistant.  In those days on the job training was the best training you could get from the older or more experienced workers in that particular department.  In my recent experience in looking for employment today in the workforce seems like you don’t need older workers with knowledge but younger workers with BA degrees or you have to be bi-lingual which I have neither.  These jobs are not technical jobs but the same jobs I did when I started as Executive Secretary in Actuarial, Information Technology, Auditing and Contract Development.  I didn’t need a Bachelors Degree or speak another language except English (which was a must) but with working knowledge of the administrative skills and the opportunity, I was able to work in each of these different areas of one company.

On August 18, 2008 I attended the EDD Initial Assistance Workshop (IAW) which was supposed to provide me with reemployment services information.  The service was supposed to help me plan my job search and shorten my time I remained out of work.  Through this workshop I ended up attending Inglewood Community Adult School (WIA Program) for math skill building starting on September 29, 2008 to November 20, 2008.  My math skills were a little low after being tested and if I wanted to attend school through the WIA program and pass any entrance exam test I would have to upgrade my math skills.

At South Bay One Stop Business & Resource Center on September 2, 2008 I inquired about the SER’s Senior Community Service Program (SER-JOBS FOR PROGRESS NATIONAL, INC), funded by the U.S. Department of labor on June 2, 2008.  They focused on the needs of mature workers 55 years or more for unsubsidized jobs in the private sector through training in community based organizations.  I met the age qualifications, the income qualifications and the resident of the county qualification but was told that I was overqualified according to my resume.  They told me to leave my resume in case other opportunities came but have heard nothing.

I took advantage of the Workforce Incentive Act (WIA) training program being offered at the Resource Center and went to school for Medical Record Coder.  It was a nine month course including a two week internship that ended up lasting a year (January 26, 2009 to January 31, 2010).  During this time I used all my UI benefits and extensions.  I was not advised upon signing up for this training program that it would be taking away from my regular UI benefits.  My benefits were stopped and started four different times for a month at a time for phone interviews to verify going to school even though you could only go to an approved government WIA training programs.  Now that I have finished the training and completed two weeks of internship, I found out that no one will hire you unless you have two years of prior experience and a certification (CCA or CCS) that cost around $350.00 to even be considered for a job in that field.  Money for school is advertised all over the media, e-mails and advertisements to change your career into a new growing profession which was supposed to be the Health jobs.  But with no prior experience I can’t apply for those jobs and I have wasted a year and half of UI benefits which includes the Workshop that I had to attend that led to the WIA training.  After finding out about not being able to be considered for hire as a medical record coder, I started applying for jobs at my old profession as Administrative Assistant.  I had one phone interview in response to an Admin job but never heard back from them.

I would have been out on the streets by now with my car repossed and wouldn’t be able to get to a job if it wasn’t for the 4th Tier.  The 4th Tier has saved my life thus far and a 5th Tier would help keep me from going from unemployed to homeless.  When I signed up to go to school I didn’t know I would be using up all my UI benefits.  I am able, qualified and willing to work now.  If jobs are coming back like they say they are, then why not have Tier 5 to give people the opportunity to continue to look for work.  I have been crying, praying and sending out resumes.  I don’t sleep at night and when I do I wake up every two hours worrying about my situation that I was put in through no fault of my own.  I am living on the bare necessities of life and soon I won’t be able to afford them.

I AM SCARED.  PLEASE HELP US.

From SE in CA:

Dear Senator McDermott,

This is my first time ever writing to a Senator, but I feel that is very important that you and other politicians really need to hear the voice of the people.  I am a 43 year old single mother of three children, and have worked since the age of 16.  I worked as an Administrative Assistant and was laid off in December 2008, due to lack of funding and budget cuts.  I have DELIGENTLY looked for employment, and although I have had several interviews nothing has prevailed for me. I am willing to work for less money, as a matter of fact most of the jobs I have applied to are paying less.

I have moved into a less expensive house, and have had to cut back in every possible way imaginable.  I have just received my last unemployment check, and do not know what I am going to do, where I am going to live, or how I am going to be able to provide for my three children, at no fault of my own. I exhausted my 401k before even applying for unemployment hoping that I would be able to find a job.   I wrote Congressman Buck McKeon, and explained to him the importance of extending unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks, he wrote me back and basically told me there are jobs and get one!

I have been reading several articles stating that both Republicans and Democrats seem to believe that 99 weeks is long enough to be unemployed, but there are no jobs created  for the millions of Americans who are unemployed and still out of work.  I don’t understand how you can take a recess or a vacation and not make sure the Americans that are unemployed will be able to receive a check to provide basic necessities for their family.  I  have read many horror stories about Americans who have exhausted all benefits and do not have any source of income.  They have medications that they cannot purchase, and no way of going to their doctor’s appointment due to not having money for transportation.  What about the Americans who are 50 or older that are having trouble getting employment because employers are able to hire college graduates or younger people and pay them less?

Americans that have worked like myself for 20, 30 or 40 plus years and at no fault of their own they lost their jobs.  Our elected officials  tell them that after working all of those years 99 weeks of unemployment is enough. How dare them, and shame on them!  I really hope and pray that you make a stand for the American people by extending unemployment not just for 99 weeks, but until Congress can create the jobs that were taken from us. Please consider adding Tier V, and thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

From LS from MN:

Title of Hearing:  Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment

This is my story being unemployed for the past two years.  I have always been an independent woman working since the age of 16 being responsible and raising a son on my own who will be 19 years old coming up in August 2010.

I was let go from my company on May 27, 2008 and still no job in sight.  I no longer have been eligible for any unemployment benefits since February 16, 2010.  I have had no income since that time.  It is June 11, 2010 now and still no job insight and no income.  The last 4 months depleted my savings because of zero income.  Being unemployed has created a tremendous hardship financially and emotionally.

I no longer was able to make my house payment of approximately $500/month.  I have had the mortgage for 17 years with never a late payment.  Doesn’t sound like much, but when you run totally out of money you cannot even pay the smallest payment.  This is the first time I have been harassed by my mortgage company and it isn’t any fun when you tell them over and over again that you are unable to make the payment.  Your self-esteem is shot down while bills keep piling up.

I have searched for a job extensively.  In the interview process, being an administrative assistant, they first call to give you a telephone interview, if you pass that, you receive a first physical interview, if you pass that, you receive a second physical interview and then you wait to see if you landed the job, while consistently applying for new open job postings.  I have been told they receive 200 – 400 or more resumes for each single job that has been posted.  I have tried for many jobs outside of my field as well, but because I have had no experience in that particular area I was not considered as they had more than enough candidates who have experience looking for a job.

I am an older woman who lost her job at the age of 49 and I am now 51.  I have applied for at least a minimum of 3000 jobs in two years time.  I feel fortunate to have received interviews, but it doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t been given a job offer.

So, not only being reduced to poverty, this situation has caused me to develop high stress and anxiety wondering whether I will ever land a job.  Also, you really find out who your friends are as so many people abandon you because you are not successful and refuse to believe that you haven’t been able to get hired.  People that are not in the situation have no idea or concept as to how bad it is to land a job in today’s economic situation.

Being from Minnesota, Minnesota did not qualify for Tier IV either.  I am no longer in the count for unemployment statistics either.  So, the answer to the question, should there be a Tier V for all long-term unemployment individuals.  The answer is definitely “YES”.

From RT in RI:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to tell you how the people of this country are struggling this is my story.  I am one of the 99ers that unemployment has ended for.  I have 5 kids one of them is an adult child.  The next one is due to graduate this year from high school.  Not only can I not afford to send them to college.  I am facing eviction soon since I cannot pay my rent since unemployment has ended for me.

I have always worked and never been on unemployment at 41 this was a first for me.  I have a college education and many skills to bring to a company.  I still have been unable to find a job.  When I went on unemployment I had to move my family into a small apartment where we could pay rent since the rent for my other home was too high to afford.  I have spent money and time everyday looking for employment including but not limited to working for Mcdonalds or Burger King.  Having an older woman is not their ideal employee.

Age seems to be working against me when they can hire the younger people for a lower rate.  I have not been picky about applying for jobs that are much lower paying than what I had and yet still have not found employment.  I have never in my life experienced not being able to find a position to be able to support my family or even myself.  I paid into unemployment for years without ever using it and now when I need it most I am unable to get the help I need.

We will be homeless soon since I don’t have the money to pay for the rent on my home which is as cheap as I can get.  My  phone will be turned off soon since I cannot afford to pay that either which means finding a job will be even harder.  Help my family before we loose it all.  A homeless shelter is not someplace I want to bring my children but we will be in one if there is even room before July.

I am greatful to see that the job openings have gone from 1 column to at least a page of openings now it is a sign that things are changing.  But, just because I happened to be one of the people who was unemployed first doesn’t mean I will be the one to get hired first.  WE NEED HELP.  Personally we spend more money on helping other countries that we do for our own.  I think we need to help our own before we don’t have the capabilities to even help ourselves.  Please look at the real stories we are hurting and broke and have gone without even on unemployment.  We would have been on it if there was jobs out there to work for.  Ask us to donate out time while we are on it work for the government while we on it create something productive from this.  But help us none the less.

From TF in MN:

My company Ferrania Technologies closed up shop in February, 2008. I applied for unemployment in March, 2008 in the dislocated worker program. No big deal worked 19 years at Control Data/Ceridian/General Dynamics aerospace divisions from 1980 to 1999. In/out of manufacturing jobs from 1999, located a job shortly after 9/11, found jobs, applied, interviewed with a hundred people and was hired. No problem! College degree, 25 plus years in manufacturing, college & a strong interviewer!!

Then the nightmare’s began lost my job, foreclosed my house, our losing tanning business closed up in February, 2010. Sent resumes out weekly, hundreds, for any type of job from minimum wage on up. Few phone interview’s, even fewer interviews Why?? No jobs, poor economy, now aged to 56, under qualified for few new manufacturing jobs requiring Apics certificate orCPIM. Living on food stamps, wife’s reduced weekly hours & from $60,000 yearly to $920 per month before taxs!!!!

PLEASE HELP WITH TIER V, FEDERAL JOBS BEFORE I LOSE ALL HOPE OF WORKING/LIVING. ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME GOING IS MY FAMILY & FAITH IN GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From CM in PA:

Please provide the long term unemployed who have exhausted their benefits additional weeks or a Tier V.  We are in dire need.

I will turn 57 years old this month. I am in that most vulnerable group of unemployed who are “too young to retire, too old to hire.”  Many of us have had to use any retirement savings to make ends meet and we will never be able to recover financially from long unemployment – that is if we are able to at least keep what we haven’t get lost.  I have not had any income since March when I exhausted my benefits in PA.  My unemployment was the only income that I had and with that help I was able to pay my bills – it was a lifeline.  Since March, I missed two loan (home mortgage) payments and this month will be the third.   I have no other means of income, no job prospects and am a single woman, 56 yrs old and no one to go to for help.

July 1999, I moved back to my childhood home in PA from NYC where I had been living and working.  Just after my dad passed away in November 1997, my mom had two serious falls, one she fractured her wrist & had to have surgery and was in a cast for several months and the second she suffered compressed fractures of the spine & again was hospitalized and in a back brace.  I moved home because it was getting more and more difficult for her to manage alone.  Although she suffers from osteoarthritis her mind is sharp and I did not want to see her living in a nursing home where I believe the quality of the last years of her life would be diminished. With no wealth and a fixed income, the option of me moving home was the best. I was able to find a good job relatively easily and was employed full time with benefits beginning September of 1999.  For 5 and ½ years I commuted 90 mi RT to Pittsburgh. I was able to make contributions to a 401K and buy a used car.  I was employed as a Departmental Administrative Assistant for a high technology firm in a Research Facility supporting PhDs from all over the world.  During my time with this company, my mother continued to have falls, broke a hip, broke her pelvis, had several surgeries and was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and underwent Chemotherapy.  We have no immediate family so the burden falls upon me.  I spent 15 hrs a week commuting, working a full time job, taking care of the home (inside and out), cooking, shopping etc. and was my mother’s caretaker.  I mention this to show that I am a responsible, hard working person and not a bum like some would like to paint the unemployed to be.  When the position ended there was no extended unemployment, just the regular 6 months UI benefits and the recession had started kicking in.  I was not able to find work for 14 months.  I send hundreds of resumes and applied for as many jobs, I was signed up with every temporary employment agency in the area and made it a full time job to look for employment in and out of PA.   I had good references and excellent skills and experience yet I received no offers of work not even for a week temp job!  I couldn’t even get part time work doing anything. All of the interviews that I went on I was either overqualified for or was interviewed by someone who was at least 15 years younger than myself – as were most of the employees.  I finally secured a temporary administrative assistant position with a major employer in the area at one of their locations to replace someone on sick leave.  I was there for about 5 weeks & luckily during that time I found a permanent job in Pittsburgh beginning July 6.  I was the Education Coordinator for the firm and I enjoyed the job very much. I worked at this position for 1 ½ years. The company was sold and my position was eliminated.  I have not had any luck finding a job since. I believe that in addition to the economic downturn, I have experience a great deal of ageism.  I have send hundreds of resumes, applied to hundreds of companies as well as being registered with temp agencies. I have not been able to find work or earn any income.

During my first long unemployment I had to cash in my 401K to make ends meet (remember I had not unemployment benefits after 6 months).  Over the past 2 years, I have had periods of no income and have had no work or income since March 2010.  I managed to keep a good credit rating but now that is not the case having missed 2 home loan payments with another coming due in 14 days.  My mother and I are living off of her fixed income which consists of Social Security and a very small pension that my dad provided of under $300/month.  We were not able to pay our spring property taxes.  I have no health insurance and my car is 10 years old (I bought it second hand) and over 128,000 miles.  I need new brakes and tires for the next inspection.  My mother is house bound now and severely crippled by arthritis. She also had a heart attack the summer of 2008 and at 90 years old, she is very frail and fragile but still has a good mind. I will not put her in a nursing home while she is so lucid especially since we have no money we wouldn’t have much input on a facility.  As I mentioned, I maintain the home, inside and out, do all cooking, shopping, etc.  Living 45 miles SE of Pittsburgh, the commute to the city is long and expensive and many employers use this as a reason for not hiring me. In addition to where I live (once a prosperous manufacturing and steel town now depressed and a shadow of its former self) I have several strikes against me – age and long period of unemployment.  I also have no health insurance and that is scary.  My dad died of colon cancer and I am unable to afford a colonoscopy.  In a way, it doesn’t matter because without health insurance I couldn’t afford treatment anyway.

My hope is that my mother can live out most of her natural life in the home she lived in since 1953 when I was 2 months old.  She is surrounded by her things, her cats and a quiet environment and feels safe and secure here.  She would not do well in a nursing home environment as she is a very private and solitary sole.  In the beginning I did apply for jobs in other states thinking I could somehow manage commuting on weekends. That is now out of the question for many reasons and besides, I don’t have the resources to relocate and keep mom at home.  I have researched work at home jobs but haven’t been able to find anything that matches my skills & their needs.  I have applied to all the employers including colleges in the area but being a small town, I believe it’s who you know that gets you a job and beside there is little to no opportunity here.  I am beyond hopeless and discouraged and now totally stressed and depressed.  I don’t know what will happen when I default on the home loan – I guess I will lose the equity in my home – the only thing I have left.  I don’t know what I will do when my car finally dies as I live in an area that is car dependent. We have no family to go to for help.  It’s just the two of us.

My parents both lived during the Great Depression.  Actually my mom’s family lived next door to the late Congressman John Murtha’s family and they became friends.  My dad was one of 11 children and one of the older boys born to Italian immigrants. He was one of the first in our town to enlist during World War II.  He served for 5 years and came back and worked at a local manufacturing plant, Latrobe Die Casting. until he retired. During the time my dad was in the service, his father died. He didn’t marry immediately so when he returned from the war, he immediately went to work and his salary went to provide for his mother & younger siblings.

My mother went to work when I was in second grade so I could attend a private school and get a good education. She worked for a local dentist.  So as you see, I came from a family who knew hard times and the value of work.  I get so offended when people refer to the unemployed as lazy.  I physically outwork every woman I know and am a jack of all trades.  I do it all except electrical.

I need help to get by until the job situation improves.  I realize that the odds of me finding a job this year remain bleak.  I will never be able to recover from the hole I am in but at least while receiving unemployment I was able to pay my bills and some of the stress was eliminated.  I dare not think too much about the dire straits I am in.  I am a victim and there isn’t much I can do to change my circumstance. My future is bleak.  I have written so many letters to my Senators, other Congressional members, the President, media and advocated for unemployment through social media. I am burnt out from all of this which basically amounts to a lot of wasted time and energy. It is emotionally draining and to not have a voice is beyond frustrating. I can sometimes feel the stress hormones raging through my body and I know my health is suffering.  I can’t afford to visit my dentist or eye doctor for regular check-ups.  Everything gets compiled, late fees are incurred, health deteriorates, etc.  Why my government chooses to ignore me and others who are in dire need of help is beyond reason, it is morally wrong.  We are made to beg for help yet two wars were financed with my tax money.  The vast sums of money spend on defense and the wars, support for other countries, tax cuts to the wealthy and money paid to subcontractors in Iraq, and wasteful spending yet Congress bickers about helping their own people who are jobless through no fault of their own?  Actually, some of the fault is with the same folks opposed to benefits for the unemployed are the same ones who supported the last administrations failed policies that put us here. It is reprehensible. It’s our country too yet we seem to have little impact on anything anymore.  Congress doesn’t listen to us.  They live in a bubble that is Washington and there is too much influence from special interests and too many decisions made to get reelected.  The word hardship only applies to others as most will never know the concept. This is wrong.  You take care of your own first!  How can this country ever recover if people aren’t working and contributing?  Now isn’t the time to be overly concerned with deficit. Now is the time to get people back to work & in the meantime help those who through no fault of their own are jobless.  Don’t let us slide into poverty.  I am sure there are some deadbeats but I believe you won’t find that among those of us who are over 50.  At the very least, I think Congress needs to take a look at that segment of the long term unemployed.  We are a group within a group.  The younger workers will survive and have plenty of time to recoup but not the over 50 worker.  And people like me who are single – can you imagine? And take into account many of us are caregivers for our elderly parents.  It would cost the gov’t a lot more if I put my mom in a nursing home.  Too much time has passed with nothing being done to alleviate the pain of being unemployed, too little has been done to create jobs, and it is wrong to be ignored and tossed aside by our lawmakers.  Why Congress seems to think this is not a priority is beyond rational thinking.  Seed money for start-ups can go a long way in creating jobs.  Getting people back to work and until there are plans in motion, we need help. I have never asked anyone for help and I find myself pleading with Congress now. The older worker needs some protections. As it is now, we have nothing. Even job retraining is sort of a moot point for many of us because we are highly skilled experienced workers.  Where are the tax cuts to hire the older unemployed worker?  Many employers don’t even want the unemployed to apply.  And this is a big country and we all can’t live in the same place so telling people to relocate is kind of irrational as well.  What are we supposed to do if we own a home and can’t sell it?  Where do we get the money to move? What do we do with our elderly parents if we are caretakers? And what guarantees do we have is we would relocate? We could be out of a job in 6 months and then what?

If Congress doesn’t act soon to add additional time or another Tier for those who have exhausted all benefits, many of us will be done for good.   I am positive there are ways to fund this extension.  Not one penny should be spent on any programs until we get help that we need in the form of additional unemployment benefits. Where is the unemployment money the IRS mismanaged and put into general funds?  Why aren’t the responsible for paying us back?  And to the Republicans who are screaming about the deficit, I am repulsed. Many voted to fund two wars that are costing our country a fortune.  How dare they be so arrogant! And to those in Congress who voted for tax cuts for the wealthy – you owe the jobless an apology for your failed policies and that of the last administration that led to this mess.

Any benefits the unemployed receive are used immediately and grow the economy.  We use it to pay for goods and services. Every economist agrees that unemployment is a form of economic stimulus.  It is mere greed and misguided thinking to deny us help citing deficit reduction.

I also would like to add that you need to do the right thing and do it fast.  We need jobs, we need tax incentives for hiring the unemployed over 50, tax cuts for the wealthy need to end now and special incentives must be put into place to hire the unemployed! We spend an ungodly amount on defense in this country to protect the citizens yet you fail to protect the citizens by not helping the unemployed. We can’t have a country of have and have not’s – it will cease to be America.  Furthermore, there will be more jobs lost due to the lost of unemployment benefits. By not putting those funds back into the economy, the local grocery store and other service providers will earn less and more jobs lost. The countries will lose our property taxes and state’s social programs will be stressed as well.  It doesn’t make any sense to use the unemployed as a pawn.  We need help now.

Thank you for much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Please visit Rochester Unemployment Examiner to review unemployment information, data and details that you don’t find in the main stream media. You can also add comments about your current situation and what you think needs ot be done to improve the job market and unemployment benefits system. I hope to see you there.

*Due to issues such as software compatibility, the letters posted here may contain some minor formatting edits to improve readability.

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The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support is held a hearing on June 10 titled: Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment. I asked readers of Rochester Unemployment Examiner to send me letters they wrote to the Committee that they also wanted to have published here.* Below are some of those letters. I’ll be posting other letters as I receive permission.

There is still time to write; you can submit letters to House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support is holding a hearing until the close of business on June 24.

I want to thank all of you for including me in your letters to the Hearing. I will do my best to reply to each and everyone of you in a timely fashion.

From D.W. in NY:

Dear Senator McDermott:

Hello, my name is DW, a life-long resident of New York State.

In April of 2007 I was involuntarily separated from Eastman Kodak Company due to down-sizing in Rochester, New York.

My husband retired from A.T.& T. in 2002 and is now on a fixed income. I needed to be employed as my income from Eastman Kodak immensely contributed to our household expenses.

Since becoming unemployed we now rely on my husband’s pension check from A.T.& T., which we receive once a month. We have many obligations, including our mortgage payment, all utilities, heating oil, car payment, plus gasoline and maintenance. Not too long ago we had two vehicles, but had to take one off the road because the cost of having two vehicles was too great.

Grocery shopping has become a joke. We try to keep basic staples in the house. Once a month we do a shop that hopefully will hold us over for another two to three weeks. Not to leave out the fact that my husband has a chronic heart condition, and his prescription costs are outrageous! He is on long-term disability and not able to work. I sometimes wonder how we manage to squeak by each month.

When I initially was “let go” from Kodak I was sure I would be able to secure a job easily. I soon found out that this would not be the case. I sent out so many resumes that I eventually lost count, at the least maybe over 250 or more. I used every avenue I had available to me.

I eventually managed to snag three interviews through this nerve-wracking process. Nice “little chats”, “short tours” of their work areas and always the promise that they would get back to me one way or the other. I always sent a follow-up letter thanking them for the interview, and “touched base” two to three times after that. I waited and hoped with my fingers crossed. I NEVER RECEIVED ONE RESPONSE! I sent e-mails to some of these would be employers and was blatantly ignored! Would be employers do credit checks now and I am sure this put a hold on any chance of me being hired. I could go on and on! This has been one of the worst periods in my life. Very, very disheartening.

I received my last unemployment check week ending April 4, 2010. I definitely appreciated the extra boost that my unemployment benefits provided to keep our household afloat.

I continue to search for work but I am not getting very far. I sometimes wonder if I am being discriminated against because of my small stature (not very strong) age and a low credit score. It certainly is starting to feel that way! I know that jobs are few and far between. If there are jobs out there, none are coming my way!

Something needs to be done, I need help, like so many others who are out there struggling to keep their heads above water. The most appropriate word for all us “99’ers is DESPERATE! I can only hope that someone out there will hear us this time!

If I am lucky enough to receive further unemployment benefits until the end of this year I may be able to secure a retail position during the holiday season.

Thank you so very much Senator McDermott for letting me pour my heart out. I am praying my hopes will not be dashed again!

*PLEASE HELP*

*WE NEED A TIER V*

*THANK YOU*

Sincerely,

From T.E. in OH:

My name is T.E. and I have been unemployed since January 25, 2008. Since then, I could count how many responses to my applications/resumes on both hands, much less an interview.

I am a single mom, who has all but depleted my 401k and my pension that I had to rollover to where I could withdraw funds to keep food on the table and a roof over my daughter’s head. Exhausting my unemployment insurance of 99 weeks has been devastating. Hearing members of my elected government state that 99 weeks should be sufficient, that people like me are “deadbeats” and “lazy” are horrid people. Not all unemployed people choose to be. FYI … The “deadbeats” didn’t just mysteriously appear the past couple of years! We’ve been supporting them for years. We are the one who put you in office. We are the ones who pay your salaries. We are the ones whose backs this country rests upon.

It’s humiliating to go to family services to ask for help when you are used to providing for yourself, and then to have those of you who are not in touch with reality say that I just don’t want to work. It wasn’t my fault you allowed the banks to go hog wild lending or that jobs were allowed to go overseas so we could help the economy in other countries.

You worry about the deficit. You say we should worry about our children “tomorrow.” That’s hard to do when you are barely surviving today. The loss of our retirement, savings, and 401k should be sufficient evidence that worrying about tomorrow is a crap shoot. Tomorrow may never come. If an earthquake happened in Chile, India or China, I bet millions would be sent immediately…no vote…no question. We would not only provide for rescue, but for rebuilding. How about helping US? You remember US? YOUR CITIZENS…THE ONES WHO HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE????? You kick us to the curb like a stray dog.

When you go to dinner tonight, think of those at the free store. When you pull in your drive, think of those whose home has a foreclosure notice on the door. When you go to bed, think of those who sleep in a shelter. THEN, AND ONLY THEN SAY WE ARE MILKING THE SYSTEM.

Sincerely,

From L.A. in CA:

Dear Committee on the Ways and Means,

I am a 99er and have been out of work since August of 2007. I lost my job from Countrywide Home Loans after going home to Texas to attend to my Father’s final illness and death at age 92. With Father’s day coming up he would be honored to know I am standing up for my rights to work and live the wonderful American Dream that we all want to achieve. As a Veteran of WWII my Father was in the service for our Country and the survival of our way of life, that all of you in Washington enjoy today. People knew how to serve one another and pull together as a nation in those days. No wonder they are called the Greatest Generation. Don’t let our Generation fall into the cracks and that becomes our legacy.

My benefits ended beginning of April 2010. I have applied for countless numbers of jobs. Hundreds and hundreds times, I have sent my resume and had very few responses. I have been on only 4 or 5 interviews and have no luck getting hired. I am as single female and have no one else to fall back on for support. My Mother is age 88 thank God she’s still alive, and fighting cancer, and crippling scoliosis. So I am involved with taking care of her as well as searching for work. So it stresses her everyday that I am earnestly looking for work. And having 30 yrs of work experience seems to be more of a hindrance than helpful. I spent approx. 25yrs in the Film Industry in So. California, Los Angeles. And have had no luck returning. It is very frustrating and I have knots in my stomach wondering how I will pay my bills. We all have a heartbreaking story to tell, which are increasing in severity and numbers each and every day that goes by with no extended benefits passed to help us survive.

Older workers (myself) are passed over for younger less experienced and cheaper priced workers. Also passed over for jobs are workers who have been out of work the longest amount of time. I have signed up with numerous temp agencies, but have found me nothing and say they are getting very few calls for work per week. But are continually bombarded by job seekers. I don’t know how I will continue to pay for my rent if I don’t have a TIER 5 or EXTENDED BENEFITS. I will become homeless once my Retirement savings is all gone. Remember that for every $1.00 of UI benefits received, we put back $1.90 into the economy. So with No JOBS & NO BENEFITS Millions of Americans are suffering.

I don’t think my Father would understand this new America that he cherished and served so bravely to protect. This new America where you work hard all your life and do the right thing only to see your made redundant on the job, suddenly your out of work and everything you worked for disappear and crumble away before your eyes. Yet where Bankers and Wall-Streeters can be bailed out with our tax money and rewarded with high salaries and obscenely huge bonuses. As for the Long-Term Unemployed workers, we are left in the abyss to climb out for ourselves.

We call on you Chairman McDermott and the Subcommittee to help end our suffering and see the plight of the Unemployed today! We need you to call for a new Stimulus package to prevent a Double Dip Recession from occurring as your economists are telling you. Please as well, add weeks of EU benefits until June 2011 for THE LONG TERM UNEMPLOYED WORKERS. Our prayers are always with you. God bless and keep each of you.

Sincerely,

From G.M. in AZ:

To Whom It May Concern:

Just a little over two years ago I was felt my world was moving happily along. I was achieving some of my long term dreams and had hopeful plans for my future. I was in a new career after having been a homemaker and part time teacher. I was in my second year of what I thought was a secure job with Wells Fargo in their boarding services mortgage department. I had just been given a promotion and was on track to becoming a loan processor on my way to working as an underwriter. My 23 year old son had a stable job with Discover Card and was in college part time. My 29 year old daughter had a solid, well paying job as an executive administrative assistant and had moved back home to save money for a house of her own.

Then the bottom fell out. Instead of saving for her own home my daughter is now paying for mine, she is helping me to keep it and not become homeless. This happened through no fault of my own but all because of the bad decisions of the people in charge. I lost my “secure” job along with 60 other co-workers on December 13, 2007 and even though I have gone back to school to reeducate myself in administrative assistant work, I still cannot find even temp work. After my 3 month severance ran out I signed up for unemployment. A year later I signed up for food stamps. I have no health coverage.

On March 30th, I received my last unemployment check. All I have now is food stamps. You can’t live on food stamps. Now I am told to magically make a job appear out of nowhere. Why did the unemployment money stop? Has the unemployment rate gone down? Nope. Have jobs become more available? Nope. Then why isn’t my government willing to help me the way it has helped the big banks, big car manufactures and other countries for crying out loud? I don’t know.

I do know this. Once I was thriving, now I am sinking deep. I got hit with a big blow, losing both my job and career choice, and now while I am down and barely making ends meet with my $240 a week, I get kicked again. The ending of Tier 4 unemployment payments is the last straw for me and my family. Now in order to keep me afloat my daughter is going into debt. I have had to ask my son for help and he is barely making ends meet with work and college. Where once we were getting by we are now sinking, and it’s not one who is sinking but three. Think about this Congress. If you don’t come forward and do the right thing by us “99′ers” and keep unemployment coming until there are jobs to be had, you take down others and create more of the poverty and debt for America you say you don’t want.

Help us!! Please!! Keep unemployment going until the rate goes down and there are jobs to be had. I look for work every day. I network. I am even trying to make money doing hobbies. I need a real income and hope for my future and the future of my children. Help us please!!

Sincerely,

From B.M in WA:

I have been unemployed since December 31, 2008. I received notice on November 21, 2008 that my job would be going away. Since that date, I have been working full time just looking for work. Prior to my last day on the job, I knew I would no longer be able to afford my home on little to no income. I fought for my home. I was able to get a loan modification through my mortgage company at that time in February 2009. I signed my final modification documents in April 2010, only to learn that 2 days later my loan was sold to another mortgage company. This NEW company is now requiring me to start the entire modification process over again. Biggest problem (besides not having a job with steady income) is that my current benefits will be exhausted on July 10, 2010. This means when the new mortgage company does their income verification, I will not have any and the year and a half I fought to KEEP my home will be for nothing – only to lose my home and scramble while STILL looking for work and raising my two kids on my own.

I called my unemployment office in Olympia, WA less than 2 weeks ago and I was told that my benefits will expire on July 10 because I still have a balance as of May 22. I asked what happens after that and I was told I would be done. No more extensions, no more help. Sorry. But come July 10, I’m screwed!

I work harder than ANYONE I know to find full time work. Washington State requires me to make three (3) job contacts a week. THREE! If you’re only doing 3, you’re not trying! I average 6-10 applications/submissions a week for employment. I also belong to 2 networking groups in my area. One meets bi-monthly and the other meets monthly. Both groups have helped me get to know people in my community and connect me to people who know people. When I apply for a job, I send out a notice to both my networking groups asking if anyone knows anyone there and some basic information. In addition to that, I use social networking online to try to get myself in the door of my next employer. LinkedIn.com and Facebook are my most common sites I use. For example, I will find someone in the company I just applied for, find them on LinkedIn and introduce myself.

I was appalled to read the quote by a Senator that said, “99 weeks is sufficient enough.” WOW!! This coming from a man with a job, doesn’t have to pay the household bills, buy food, buy gas for transportation, pay for clothes for the kids, etc. like “real world” people out here.

If I don’t get help with Tier 5, I will once again fight not to lose my home and lose this time. My kids will starve, we’ll be homeless, I’ll lose my vehicle, and all my possessions. I don’t have family to fall back on, no savings, no other money accounts as I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck for most of my life. My mother is unemployed and trying to get disability for her medical conditions that prevent her from working. She’s living on her savings and has been for the last year.

If we can afford to pay for everything else this country has going on, why don’t the unemployed who work their asses off looking for work get the help we need?

I work TOO hard to find a job to be told that I don’t NEED anymore help. WHAT??????!!?!?!?!?!

Maybe something should be done like, checking job logs of the unemployed and see who’s actually EARNING their benefits. Like me! I know some who only do the bare minimum and they piss me off. I need a job! I want a job! I just need more time to make ends meet and GET that job!

Not passing Tier 5 will be a HUGE MISTAKE! Millions of Americans will suffer, find themselves at the end of their rope, starve to death, lose even MORE homes and who’s going to be to blame? Washington! We take better care of aliens coming to this country than we do our own born and raised “family” of Americans.

Please do something….

Respectfully and scared for the near future,

From K.H. in PA:

Title of Hearing: Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment

Dear Congressional Committee:

My story is a long one. I am 42 years old and have worked since I graduated from high school in the year of 1985. When I graduated I would have liked to go on to further my education, but because of family financial problems I could not. I started working at TRACO at the age of 17 in 1985 and continued to work there until the year of 1999. I left because I found a better job that paid more and was less physically demanding on my body.

I worked for Asten Johonson, which is a forming fabric manufacturer. In 2006 the company told us that they were closing our plant and moving operations to China. I was devastated, as was my family too. I was making a good income for manufacturing, $40,000 + a year. It was great, we had 3 of our 4 children heading to college and we thought we were doing financially well. My husband works at TRACO as a glass manager and also makes a good salary of $50,000 + a year. We THOUGHT we were doing financially well. My last day at Asten Johnson was the day before Thanksgiving in 2006.

I was lost and I didn’t know what to do. I had NEVER in my whole life of working collected unemployment. I signed up. A good friend of mine that was laid off before me took advantage of the TRA to get a good education and with her help I decided that this too was what I wanted to do. At 40 years of age I graduated with an associate degree in Computer Information. Throughout the entire 2 years that I was going to college I maintained a 4.0 and was on the President’s list ALL 4 semesters! After I graduated I would have liked to have gone on to get my bachelor’s degree but I was reluctant to put my family that much in debt. So in May of 2009, I set out to find a job.

It is now June of 2010 and I have yet to find a job. My husband took a 25% pay cut in November of 2009 and my unemployment ran out in April. I am one of the 99ers. In the last few years I have watched both of our 401 k accounts diminish to almost nothing because of this economy so even if we do pull out of this recession, we will have no retirement money left. We have practically drained our savings accounts and are barely getting by on what he makes. Our youngest daughter graduated from high school this past week and I’m wondering how we are going to help her with college. I’m wondering if we’ll make our mortgage payments, I’m wondering how our government can abandon us like this.

How did my family go from a $100, 000 + (gross) a year to under $40, 000???? Who is going to take responsibility for this? People are losing their homes, their cars, their lives…..It’s a very depressing situation. Every day I send out resumes and applications. Sometimes I get calls, sometimes I get interviews, but never a job. I don’t know if it is because of my age, or maybe because I worked in manufacturing all of my life and now I’m trying to get a job in computers.

Our money is running out. Little by little our lives are being destroyed. Our jobs have been lost because of no fault of our own. Our government out sourced our jobs to other countries…..but what they didn’t realize was they weren’t just out sourcing our jobs, they were out sourcing our lives, our families, and our financial futures. Please do whatever you can to help us get another tier of unemployment so that we may continue to keep our homes, and maybe part of our lives until this economy gets better and there are more jobs available to us. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

From J.A. in MD:

Re : Hearing to respond to long term unemployment

I was laid off as a Security Manager as part of The Hertz Corps’ corporate downsizing in Feb 2007.

I then lost my apartment after I went through the unemployment benefits and my 401K. I moved into my vehicle, which was impounded due to no insurance or registration, both of which I obviously couldn’t afford. This resulted in my setting up a tent near an old landfill site in Baltimore County. It should be noted that all through this horrendous ordeal, I have walked to the County Library to search the internet for employment on a daily basis however I suspect that my age (52) may be playing a factor in my job search.

Aside from the fact that I do not have proper facilities, in which to bathe and launder my clothes, for any possible interviews, which are non-existent.  The current count for resumes that I have submitted is somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 plus. I strongly urge favorable consideration be given to a TIER 5 Extension. Thank you for this opportunity to relay this.

From G.B. in KY:

Regarding: Hearing on Responding to Long-Term Unemployment

Congressman McDermott,

I wish to submit a written statement for inclusion in the Subcommittee hearing record.

I live in Northern Kentucky, adjacent to Cincinnati, Ohio. I am single and currently unemployed.

In June, 2006, I completed and was awarded a Doctorate of Education in Instructional Design and Instructional Technology from the College of Education and Human Services at the University of Cincinnati.

Through my doctorate, I had trained to teach college teachers how to incorporate technology into their teaching, to provide support for their efforts and to myself teach instructional design and technology classes at the university level.

I lost my job in August of 2008, through no fault of my own. At that time, I was working as a technology coordinator for the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, KY.

Though the current economic crisis did not have a direct bearing on losing my job, it has had a very direct bearing on my subsequent attempts to find employment in my field of Instructional Design and Instructional Technology in Higher Education.

In October of 2008, an instructional designer position was advertised at a nearby private college. I was told that the position had been unfilled since late 2007, due to budget difficulties that the private college experienced. The college subsequently made a decision to delay filling the position until the summer of 2009. In the spring of 2009, I interviewed for the position, but was not hired for it.

In January of 2009, I applied for an instructional designer position at the University of Cincinnati. In February, I had a screening interview for the position. The hiring manager told me that I was exactly what they were looking for, given my unique doctoral work and background. However around that same time, the State of Ohio underwent a severe budget crisis. The budget crisis was passed down to many agencies, including public universities. The University of Cincinnati made a decision to not fill any open positions. I wondered whether that applied to the position that I had applied for. Finally in August of 2009, I received official notification that the position had been cancelled.

In January of 2010, I was contacted by a friend who worked at the Clermont College Campus of the University of Cincinnati. She told me that the college was looking for an instructional designer and would I be interested. I stayed in touch with her, but she eventually informed me that a new dean at the college had postponed the position, apparently due to budgetary considerations.

These were the types positions for which I had specifically trained, but they weren’t the only ones I had applied for. Among other positions, the local Kentucky community college advertised training positions for electronic medical records (in support of the President’s electronic medical records initiatives), but I did not qualify for those

I should also note that the State of Kentucky has gone through recent budget shortfalls; those have also resulted in budget cuts at Kentucky public (state supported) universities.

I worry about my future employment prospects. I try to keep up with current trends in the field. But after awhile, potential employers are going to look at me and say “he’s been out of work and out of the field for too long. He’ll never be able to catch up. Let’s hire someone who hasn’t been out of work as long for as he has.”

I currently keep busy with unpaid volunteer work for the Cincinnati Museum Center, conducting research into local history, and providing consulting on evaluating their educational programs. I dare say that I would be interested in doing this for the Museum on a paid basis. But they have also been hit by their own budget crisis, resulting in job cuts and increased reliance on volunteer help.

A number of circumstances relevant to the economic crisis have had a direct bearing on my subsequent attempts to find employment.

In May of 2008, I refinanced my house in order to address some of the debt that I had acquired while working on my doctorate. This had the effect of “resetting” my mortgage and transferring equity to pay off the aforementioned debt. At the time that I did this, I assumed that I would remain employed. My mortgage is a conventional mortgage, so at least I don’t face any severe mortgage provisions, as long as I make my monthly payments. That’s at least one bright spot.

Another bright spot was that in October, 2008, I began receiving unemployment compensation. Thanks in large part to the various extensions, I continued to receive unemployment compensation until mid-April, 2010, when those payments ceased.

I also had some savings, now depleted; credit cards, and an IRA retirement account. I have used the credit cards to pay for necessities such as food and gas for the car. I suddenly find myself in debt again, similar to that which I had before I refinanced my house. I have also been forced to make withdrawals from my IRA account. In case you aren’t aware, the federal government charges me a ten percent (10%) penalty for any amount that I withdraw.

I also have no health insurance. In spite of the COBRA subsidy that was passed, it did not help with my health insurance. The type of policy that I had in place prior to losing my job was a bare-bones policy. I ended up finding that I gave a lot of money to the insurance company and received little adequate coverage in return.

My primary physician has been very helpful and supportive, giving me sample medications as needed, keeping my office visit rates manageable, and supplying documentation so that I can get certain higher priced medications from pharmaceutical assistance foundations.

On the other hand, I require a colonoscopy every two years to check the status of my Crohn’s disease and to screen for colon cancer. As I have no insurance, I cannot afford to pay for the colonoscopy. I am one year overdue for a colonoscopy.

I am home most of the time. I continue to find things to do around the house to keep me occupied. However, I don’t relish continuing doing this. I hate not being productive and not contributing to the educational needs of my community. Sitting around has a definite negative impact on my well-being. I have tended to avoid my neighbors, since their question upon seeing me is invariably “have you found a job yet?” Nearly two years of continually hearing that question is enough to drive me up the wall.

For the past year or more, I have been faced with a quandary. Do I try to stay put and ride this crisis out? Or do I give up the house and try to find a job somewhere in another state?

Here are the concerns that impact that decision:

1. Other houses in the neighborhood have been on the market unsold for eight to twelve months.
2. When those houses finally sold, they sold for below their original value (I can verify this through the local online county property valuation office).
3. If I move to another state, and cannot sell my house, I face foreclosure, personal financial crisis and potential bankruptcy.
4. If I more to another state, and can sell my house, but at below its current value, I still face personal financial crisis and potential bankruptcy.
5. What happens if I move to anther state to take a job, and six months later, that state faces a budget crisis, resulting in me losing that job?
6. I stay unemployed for now, and continue to stay in my house, paying for it with money from my retirement account. This only postpones the inevitable. At the very least, it means that I will have to work longer until retirement, and after retirement face a reduced income and circumstances because I depleted my retirement early.
7. Or do I say put and try to ride this out.

It seems like each of these options creates chaos for me; the only choice seems to be that I can choose the degree of chaos that I prefer. At least any chaos only impacts me, and not any family members.

Unemployment benefits have been instrumental in continuing to support myself through this period of time. It has helped pay my mortgage, college loan debt, utilities, and minimum payments on my credit card. I would have lost everything if it had not been for the continued unemployment and its extensions. But I will also remind you that these payments ceased in mind-April.

However, certain voices in the country seem to say that I would prefer to not work, sit at home and collect unemployment insurance. That can’t be farther from the truth, at least for me. I suppose that I could go find a temporary job, or some low wage job. But I’ll remind you that I possess a Doctorate in Education. Why would I want to waste that either sitting at home or performing some low paying job? I also found that I did receive more money (though still not enough to get by) from unemployment than I would from performing a low paying job.

I have worked in educational and related settings for most of my life. My dream has been to find ways to improve teaching through instructional technology. Fulfilling this dream has the impact of improving teaching by teachers and learning by students. Why would I want to let this dream lie fallow, all so that I could collect unemployment that doesn’t even meet all of my financial needs?

I do not live an extravagant lifestyle. My house is a simple house, by no means expensive or extravagant. Neither is my car.

I would challenge those who would accuse me of being lazy and taking the unemployment money. I would also take out my ire on the people in the financial industry who created this economic crisis in the first place through their avarice. They are the ones who are being lazy by taking government money and leaving none for the average citizen.

I am disappointed that Congress is not doing a better job of dealing with the needs of the average citizens. When those certain voices claim that they are worried more about the deficit than they are about people who are out of work, I am appalled that they actually exhibit an indifference to people who are really struggling. I can’t help but suspect that this so-called “concern” for the deficit actually masks an agenda that they won’t publicly discuss. Thirty years of tax cuts for the rich have only continued to strip our country to the bone in terms of taking care of all citizens – not just the rich ones. I also sense a certain hypocrisy in Congress for continually pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into two wars without worrying a budget deficit – but now worrying that extending unemployment will break the country.

A number of prominent columnists, including Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert of the New York Times have called for government programs, similar to those of the 1930’s to rebuild our nations crumbling infrastructure. Pennsylvania’s governor has advocated the same. I would add to that programs to rebuild public schools, provide newer and expanded funding for colleges and universities, and funding for improved teacher training at the primary, secondary and post-secondary levels. Finally, I would add money for every student who wants to get a college education.

Yes, we have been faced with a crisis that only someone of my father’s age has experienced before. Yet, we have the opportunity, as the country did then to make something better out of it. We can either let our county slide deeper into chaos, or we can use this opportunity to make ourselves something better.

I read a book this past year that offered some important insight into the economic issues that this country faces:

Wilkenson, Richard; Pickett, Kate. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. New York, Bloomsbury Press, 2009. (ISBN: 9781608190362)

Through a massive analysis of statistical evidence, they have shown that economic inequality in developed (first world) countries has a highly negative impact upon the lives of its citizens. Their statistical analysis shows that the United States is at the highest level of economic inequality, and thus has the most serious impact upon our quality of life. They relate this to quality of health, crime, drug abuse, obesity, mental illness, teenage pregnancy, high school dropouts, life span, and so on. What is also interesting is that economic inequality equally negatively impacts the well-off as well as the poor.

I thank you for the opportunity to enter my experience as well as my thoughts into the record. I hope and pray that we will find our best way out of this, and not just some way that benefits the few who have the power and the means to influence decisions in this country.

Respectfully,

From R.S. in PA:

Good Afternoon;

I am writing to you in good faith with an extreme sense of urgency requesting you to please add a Tier V to the UCEB extensions.

I am a displaced (former) newspaper executive that was in the newspaper publishing business for over 33 years. I lost my job, through no fault of my own, on 09/28/2008 as a result of budget cuts/expense savings. In short, my position was eliminated.

I am currently 60 years old and have been unemployed since my displacement. I was informed that I may receive two more UCEB checks (I was on the Pa. UCEB mail-in program), but have not received them, as of yet.

I have very proactively conducted a nationwide search for employment, but to no avail. I fear that I am too old to be hired and too young to retire.

I have managed to pay my mortgage for June but without either gainful employment or further UCEB extensions; I fear that I will face foreclosure to my home. I have no savings, exhausted my retirement funds, sold my car and am selling personal possessions to stay current with my mortgage. I negotiated for over 15 months with my mortgage provider (Wells Fargo) in hopes of qualifying for HAMP, but was informed just recently that I did not qualify because I was unemployed. If they had acted more expediently; I would have had well over 9 months of unemployment compensation available as a guideline established by the Treasury Department last September.

I have not seen a Dr. or Dentist in almost two years and cannot afford to pay for COBRA.

I shall continue to work hard to find employment but am respectfully urging you to please make provisions to make available to all of us long term (older) unemployed Americans additional UCEB extensions, most specifically in the form of a Tier V. If our government can afford to spend money on wars and corporate (corrupt) bank bailout, then why can’t unemployed (formerly hard working tax paying) Americans be helped? We feel abandoned…PLEASE HELP US!!!

From D.A. in CA:

Chairman McDermott

I am responding to problem with unemployment. I have

Been unemployed since June 13, 2008. I worked in the Car Dealerships for 20 years. I loved my job. When I took vacations with some of my family, it was not a vacation. When I got back to work I felt I was on vacation. I loved my job in the Car Dealerships so much that when I worked it built energy in me, so that when I got home after 8 hours of work at the Car Dealership I still had energy to work at home.

I first became unemployed in Oct. 2006 when Ojai Ford in Ojai, Ca. was shut down by Ford Motor Company because it was a small Ford Dealer. I then went to work for Mel Clayton Ford in Santa Barbara, Ca. in Nov.2006 and was I let go buy Mel Clayton Ford in April 2007 because again Ford Motor Company shut Mel Clayton Ford down because it was not selling enough new Vehicles.

Then in July 2007 I went to work for Cars 101 in Oxnard Ca. I worked for them for a couple of weeks just to find out they were shutting down. Then in Oct. 2007 I went to work for Todey Chevrolet in Oxnard, Ca. I was let go there in June 2008 because Vehicle sales had slowed way down.

The Senators say we are lazy so they are removing our unemployment. We are not lazy as you can see from my jobs as Dealers closed their doors. The banks, Car companies, and other finance houses received bail out money from our tax money that we did not Ok. Wall Street and these companies are the reason we are out of jobs and we get called lazy. I went back to school taking classes on line while looking for work June 2009 and finished the class in Medical Billing in April 2010, because I knew I had to get into a line of work that I would not be losing because of shut downs, and now I am told I need to know Spanish to get in the Medical Office’s. This is not right our language is English, and people coming here should learn English not us being told I am sorry but you do not speak Spanish so we cannot use you. We do not enjoy not having jobs. We want to work; unemployment is not going to prepare us for retirement. The ones of us in our 50’s may not be able to retire thanks to Wall Street and the banks.

From T.M. in CA:

To Whom it May Concern:

I am a 99r, I never wanted to belong to this club, but here I am after 99 weeks and still unemployed. I am in the transportation industry and although we are “suppose to be” coming out of the recession, I find that there are no jobs yet in my field (I have also tried other fields) and in my area.

So you say, if there are jobs in other areas, why don’t you move, well let’s think about that for a moment. If I am lucky enough to find a position in another state, I can’t go work in that state, because that takes money. There are fees for re-licensing, there are cost to move, there are expenses in finding a new place to live, such as first, last and deposits. Without having an unemployment check, I am limited on where I can look to find employment and that goes back to there just not being any jobs in my area. Without my check, I don’t even have the money to put gas in my car to attend interviews. So tell me how do you really expect for people to find employment without the means to get to apply and interview.

I was not getting rich on my bi-monthly check, every cent is returned back to the economy in the means of paying bills, and purchasing bare necessities and when I say “bare” I mean “bare”. The ironic part about all of this is that the benefits we receive are taxable, so the federal government does see part of the funds back in the form of taxes.

I also have a concern, because they say that “Oh unemployment numbers have gone down” no they haven’t, where is the accounting for all of the people that have dropped off of the system, they haven’t all found jobs, they have just ran out of checks. How is the federal government accounting for all of us? We no longer receive any claim forms, and therefore we have been forgotten. I say that eventho we may not be eligible for benefits, you should still send out a modified form, simply asking are you still unemployed, let’s find out how many people have really found jobs and what the true unemployment numbers.. LET US BE COUNTED.. and Help the American People with a Tier 5 or further weeks added to Tier 4, people are dying out here.

Please visit Rochester Unemployment Examiner to review unemployment information, data and details that you don’t find in the main stream media. You can also add comments about your current situation and what you think needs ot be done to improve the job market and unemployment benefits system. I hope to see you there.

*Due to issues such as software compatibility, the letters posted here may contain some minor formatting edits to improve readability.