Where are the jobs? That question is on the minds of millions of Americans who have lost jobs during the Great Recession. During this historically lean jobs creation period, finding a new job often requires thinking outside the box. And you can’t think much further outside the job search box than “workamping” — also known as work-camping.

“The RV’s kitchen slide broke in Eutaw, Alabama, which is in the middle of the middle of nowhere. We managed. We were stuck in the mud in Clarksdale, Mississippi during a launch party for the anthology, Delta Blues. The tow truck driver who pulled our rig out of the mud jackknifed it and broke out the pickup’s rear window. Guess I can add my broken wrist to the list of oopsies.”

That’s how Suzann Ellingsworth described a couple of days in the workamping life she shares with her husband, Dave, as they drive their RV through the southern and plains states looking for work.

According to Workamper.com, a workamper is “an adventurous individual who has chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines ANY kind of part-time or full-time work with RV camping. If you work as an employee, operate a business, or donate your time as a volunteer, AND you sleep in an RV (or on-site housing), you are a Workamper. Workampers generally receive compensation in the form of a free campsite, usually with free utilities (electricity, water, and sewer hookups) and additional wages.”

Calling it a “wonderful lifestyle” seems a bit over the top for some workampers. After communicating with Suzann for more than six months and observing the Ellingsworth’s ups and frequent downs, it’s obvious that workamping is not all fun and games, at least for those who hit the road in need of a job to survive.

Most workamper jobs are of the minimum-wage variety. Workampers generally don’t receive unemployment insurance benefits, severance pay or any warning that a job is about to end. Workampers face many of the same job insecurity issues as the millions of Americans who have been downsized due to job outsourcing, financial mismanagement and slow consumer demand for products and services, except workampers are purposely more nimble and have been conditioned to pack up and move to where the jobs are. “We have to be mobile to land a job,” said Suzann. Those who become jobless and live in traditional stationary homes aren’t usually able to move to another city on a moment’s notice.

Since workamping is a nomadic lifestyle, it’s difficult to collect a headcount. Steve Anderson, president of Workamper.com, said the most recent workamper survey is from KOA, but it is dated: “Nearly 10 years ago the KOA Corporation gave an estimate that 750,000 were living the workamping lifestyle. Their data was questioned then and at best was an estimated guess. Over the years we have seen our membership remain in the 14,000 range with thousands of others in the dreaming stages of workamping. It is very transitional lifestyle, meaning folks begin and end the lifestyle every day.”

“More people are turning to workamping as a way to earn money,” said Jaimie Hall Bruzenak, RVlifestyleexperts.com founder and author of Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road. “I would say it is mixed, though. Some are the traditional retired couples who want to either earn a little money or get a free site while having the chance to travel and stay in beautiful places. There are also those who have been hit with the downturn — either they don’t have enough retirement income to live on or perhaps lost their jobs and look to workamping as an alternative way to make a living. There are people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who choose this lifestyle. My late husband and I were 47 when we started.”

For an increasing number of older workers, workamping may offer an opportunity to supplement retirement incomes. According to a 2011 study from the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, “More than three in five U.S. workers in their 50s and 60s plan on working past 65 — and 47% of that group say they’ll do so because they’ll need the money or health benefits.”

The Great Recession has cost millions of Americans their livelihoods as it did the Ellingsworths. Dave, according to Suzann, “was a marketing/advertising/IT professional–the first corporate division to fall in any economic downturn, counterproductive as that is.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported for August that 6.2 million workers have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. Over two million workers have been unemployed for 99 weeks or more – near record levels.

Suzann is uncomfortably familiar with her husband’s job search struggle. “Over the UI period, he sent hundreds of resumes. It netted three in-person interviews, no offers. Words can’t describe what it does to a man to be unable to find work–the grind-down process. Constantly ginning hope that ‘this will be the day’ meets no dice at mid-afternoon. Friends and family members eventually believe you aren’t trying hard enough, you’re too picky, you’re enjoying an extended, paid vacation of sorts.”

It’s certainly not a paid vacation for millions of job seekers. The BLS reported that there were 3.1 million job openings in the US, “well below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007.” When the unemployed, discouraged workers, and underemployed (those seeking full-time work, but currently working only part-time), are added together, there are roughly eight people available for each full-time job opening.

Both natives of Missouri, Suzann, 58, and Dave, 56, are the parents of three grown children and grandparents of three. A freelance writer, Suzann was apprehensive about the dramatic change in lifestyle once she and her husband decided to take on the workamper lifestyle, “I’ll admit a serious case of intimidation at the prospect of a so-called real job, having womanned a keyboard in a home office for a couple of decades. Small businesses don’t come any smaller than a self-employed writer.”

The Ellingsworths were forced to sell their home in the fall of 2009. After thoroughly researching what they would need to become workamper road warriors, they purchased a 2002 pickup and a 34-foot-long, six-year-old RV, or as it was dubbed “a Pringles can with tires.”

On January 21, 2010, they packed their remaining possessions and their two rescued greyhounds into the pickup and RV. They had hoped to gradually learn the ropes of operating the large rig, but unseasonable weather, “kiboshed all plans to practice hitching the RV to the pickup, practice driving them on empty parking lots. The first time Dave hitched the two was the day we left. The first time he drove the two hitched was when we pulled out. Even we can’t believe we did that, let alone made it through Memphis early afternoon traffic alive.”

When asked what they miss most about the non-RV life, Suzann replied, “Of course, family and friends the most. The sense we’re abdicating our responsibilities to Dave’s elderly parents, our three grown children, and three grandchildren gets to us. Life does go on–ours now separate from those we love most.”

The jobs available for workampers are generally lower paying and without benefits – often minimum wage, or less if you are supplied with a dedicated campsite, which can include electricity and water. If you pay for a campsite, it can cost anywhere from $350 to $500 a month. Workampers who have a secondary form of income can obtain a free campsite at a national, state, or private RV park by “volunteering” 20-30 hours of work.

William Smith of Happyvagabonds.com, an RV camping and jobs search site, said, “The people who most successful at workamping will generally not rely on workamping as a sole source of income. Compensation is typically on the low end of the scale for workampers. It is not unusual to see campgrounds offer arrangements where the workamper will actually earn less than minimum wage in exchange for their campsite.”

Work-camping.com notes “Many work-camping jobs are seasonal, running from about May to October, though some positions in warm-weather states like Florida or Arizona may be year-round.”

While most jobs are of the minimum-wage variety, Jaimie Hall Bruzenak added, “There are many other opportunities, some of which do pay more. There are sales jobs such as working for Air Photo, where workampers I’ve interviewed say they make $40,000 a year or more. My late husband and I worked as seasonal workers for the National Park Service and made $12-$18 an hour. In a six-month season, we could live on one paycheck and then bank the other.”

During the 2010 winter holiday season, Dave was fortunate to secure 40-hour-a-week employment at an Amazon distribution center — a workamper’s dream job. Amazon is a company that caters to the workamper, according to Jaimie Hall Bruzenak: “Amazon hires as many workampers as they can for work in their warehouses and pay very well for seasonal work, as well as provide an RV site. They have found the more mature workers to be more productive than the younger ones, in spite of the fact that they aren’t as physically able as the young ones.”

Living the workamper life can be expensive. There’s the matter of food (growing food in Styrofoam ice chests offers fresh vegetables), fuel (gas, diesel and propane), vehicle insurance and repairs, communications, campsite fees, and satellite TV. Why satellite TV? “It’s all but mandatory, as [broadcast television] is not available in myriad areas surprisingly not far beyond municipal limits.” Beyond the standard TV fare, “The Weather Channel is the most important channel because we need to keep track of tornados and flash floods.”

Besides the weather, another enemy of the workamper is weight, since each pound of cargo increases the cost of fuel to travel. “We continually jettison items we thought we needed and learned we didn’t, including the sofa-bed that came with the RV. Before anything is purchased, thought must be given to whether it’s truly needed and how much it weighs — weight being a concept unconsidered in a sticks-and-bricks house, but critical to a house that must be towed everywhere.”

The Ellingsworths have met scores of full-time workampers, “Including families with children either home-schooled or enrolled in a respective school system for the duration of the temp job, then moving on to the next. The average age of full-timers is 45-54, which counters the mental image of doddering senior citizens on wheels.”

Prior to Dave’s job at Amazon, the Ellingsworths worked at a seasonal amusement park in Altoona, IA for six months, Dave as a rides assistant and Suzann as a cashier. Then they found what seemed like the perfect workamper opportunity near the Gulf Coast of TX. The site location was perfect; two Wal-Marts within an easy drive, a bookstore, a library, a Dairy Queen and the Texas coastline were alluring close-by retreats. The job was guaranteed until October 2011, with the distinct possibility of renewal. Dave was a park handyman and Suzann was an office assistant. All was going well until they saw an ad for the jobs they were holding listed on a workamper website. While fulfilling their job duties, the Ellingsworths had observed park mismanagement and other irregularities that made them uncomfortable. They decided to leave their positions before the situation deteriorated further. With that job’s sudden end, they headed back to Springfield, MO in May 2011, to regroup. On their way home, one of their beloved greyhounds died unexpectedly and the second one died recently.

Workamping is another option in the pursuit of employment during a relatively stagnant US jobs market. The American workforce is being forced to change dramatically in ways that were not demanded of recent generations. The days of working for a single company all your working life and earning a pension that will support you adequately in retirement are ending. Employers now demand less overhead and more productivity in order to increase profits. Full-time workers who receive higher pay and benefits are being replaced by as-needed, contract, freelance and part-time workers who are offered lower pay and fewer, if any, benefits. Large corporations are shifting profit centers offshore and taking with them the most valuable employees who are willing to relocate, while downsizing those who are less skilled and less mobile.

The Ellingsworths are resigned to living their current lifestyle for as long as necessary. Suzann says, “I can’t anticipate retiring, since there’s no retirement income. The RV is home until it isn’t. We would never buy another house, since we wouldn’t want to lose it. But we’re managing. It is a true day-at-a-time lifestyle.” There are 25 million unemployed and underemployed deciding what they will do next to find a job. Workamping is not the road chosen by most jobless, but for the Ellingsworths and thousands of others it is, for now, the only available road.

Labor Day 2011. Mike Luckovich - GoComics.com

ATV Winches

Many workampers and outdoor enthusiasts use ATVs to get where they have to go especially when they are in areas with difficult terrain. But even ATVs can get stuck and at that time they need the best and most reliable ATV Winches.

ATV winches are an ATV fans best friend when they are in a jam, but these good friends can take a beating and need to be serviced. Warn Winch Replacement Parts are the choice for the discriminating ATV rider who needs winch replacement parts.

Be sure to select the best replacement parts, including Winch Bumpers because the best parts will keep you from breaking down at the worst time.

Rep. Lee opened the press conference with the following statement:

“As we stand here today, millions of workers are experiencing a true state of emergency. Too many people at every level of experience and skills are out of work for longer than they ever imagined. These individuals are the backbone of our nation, our key to our economic recovery, but most importantly they deserve to live the American Dream also. But many of them today stand on the brink of financial ruin.”

Many long-term unemployed can certainly relate to that statement. Rep. Scott then made a statement which contained the following:

This legislation “would add 14 additional weeks of unemployment. Make that benefit available to all unemployed persons regardless of unemployment conditions in their state.

It is our hope that this bill will receive some necessary support to help those unemployed Americans most in need.

The overwhelming majority of those unemployed want a hand up, not a handout. They want a job.

The introduction of this legislation is no guarantee that it will actually pass, but we need to make sure we work as hard as we can to help those who are most in need.”

Standing in the background was Gregg Rosen of the American 99ers Union as well as a number of 99ers who made the trip to D.C. I don’t have any video of their interviews or statements at this time, but I’ll make those available as soon as they are released.

There was not a discussion about how the legislation would be funded, but that will have to be addressed in order for it to have any chance of moving forward.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) followed with an impassioned plea to help the long-term unemployed. She referred to the government not leaving behind the bankster class that robbed the US taxpayer of trillions of dollars and still received large compensation packages.

As mentioned yesterday, Rep. Lee’s office was asked what would be most helpful in moving this legislation forward, they said that the primary issue is making certain the legislation is brought to the House floor. As a result, it’s important that those supporting this legislative effort email representatives, especially Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor http://cantor.house.gov/, http://republicanleader.house.gov/Contact/, and ask them to bring the legislation to the floor. House Republicans control legislative procedures, so it’s vital that they be encouraged to move this legislation forward.

Many thanks to Lauren Victoria Burke of Crew of 42 for all of her efforts with covering this important topic.

Watch Gregg Rosen’s CNN interview:

The office of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. sent me the following statement from the congressman:

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., Floor Remarks, February 9, 2011

Mr. Speaker, the unemployment rate last month dropped from 9.4% to 9%.  But only 36,000 jobs were created.  Wow! 36,000 = .4%.

How did the rate drop so much with only 36,000 new jobs?

It’s an illusion.  If you’re chronically unemployed, and are considered to be not looking for a job, you don’t count as “unemployed.”  You fall out of the statistics.  So as more and more people are out of work for longer periods of time, they are literally left out of the system.  Houdini couldn’t have performed an illusion as clever as the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But shouldn’t a government of, by and for the people care about its most vulnerable in this economic climate?

I want to remind the government of the urgency of our economic situation.  Send me your resume and story at resumesforamerica@mail.house.gov.  I want to have your story entered into the Congressional record to remind Congress of the fierce urgency of now.

Mr. Speaker, stop the illusions.  The American people need jobs and they want to go to work.  We have too many Americans who are chronically unemployed, and we don’t count them anymore.  We need to do something about it now.

Rep. Jackson Jr. is continuing to highlight the plight of the long-term unemployed.

99ers. How many?

Yesterday I referred to the number of 99ers being tracked by the BLS and I reported that there were 1.4 million 99ers, or 10.7% of all unemployed. I contacted a BLS representative to find out the latest 99er figure and I was told that in January it increased more than 330,000 to 1,796,000:

The January 2011 showed 1,796,000 persons at 99 weeks or more, or 12.0 percent of the unemployed.  This figure is not seasonally adjusted.  As we discussed, January 2011 was the first month where we were able to get duration estimates beyond 99 weeks or 2 years.  (This did not affect the measurement of unemployment.)

Individuals provide answers to the following question:

“At the end of last week, how long had you been looking for work?”  If someone lost a job, and took a part-time job, they would be classified as “employed” during the time they held the part time job.  If they later left the part time job, and searched for a full time job, the answer for the duration of time spent looking for work would be the time since the last job.

Persons who answer that they are not currently looking for work would not be classified as unemployed, and they would not be asked the unemployment duration questions.  If they began to look for work again in subsequent months, they could very well respond that their duration of unemployment was longer than just the preceding month.

Put another way, in December 2010, (in a display of duration by single weeks) we found 55,000 persons with unemployment durations between 90 to 98 weeks, and 1,467,000 with durations of 99 weeks or more.  In January 2011, there were 1,796,000 persons reporting 99 weeks or more, a number that greatly exceeds the prior month’s 99 or more PLUS those near that level at 90 to 98 weeks.

The graph at Calculated Risk shows the potential upcoming boom in the 99er population during 2011. http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/12/here-come-99ers.html

This graph shows the change in payroll jobs each month. The peak job losses were in early 2009 – and 99 weeks is just under two years – so many of those people will be exhausting their benefits over the next few months.

The Daily List

Congress.org has a great media contact list:http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/ as does http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

You can find your representatives contact information at: http://conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm, or at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

Please consider subscribing to Rochester Unemployment Examiner articles. This is a simple task of clicking on the Subscribe button above, which is located directly below the title of my post, and then entering your email address. When I add a new post, you will be notified at the email address you enter. You won’t receive any spam, just my posts. Thanks.

I’m looking for stories from people who have been rejected during the hiring process for being unemployed. Have you been the victim of a temp agency that won’t give you an interview because you are unemployed? Have you seen jobs ads for “employed only” or “unemployed need not apply”? Have you lost a chance at a job due to a poor credit score? Send your job rejection experiences to mike@layofflist.org.

You can also view my updates and new posts at Twitter: http://twitter.com/layofflist and Facebook

Huffington Post

Huffington Post is kind enough to give me a chance to post my work at their site. I hope to be able to spread the 99er word using their larger audience. You can see my efforts at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-thornton.

Advertisement

The Steam Team offers a wide variety of cleaning services for both residential and commercial clients in the Austin and Dallas, TX areas. After a winter’s worth of snow, rain and dirt have tracked across your carpets and floor, isn’t time to consider a professional and affordable carpet cleaning, Austin?

The Stream Team http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-cleaning-services/ pays attention to details and makes sure you are completely satisfied with their cleaning services. The Steam Team uses only the safest, most effective technology to clean your carpets. They do not use any harsh chemicals, just pure, high-pressure steam! From start to finish, the Steam Team’s attention to detail is impressive:

• Spot testing is performed to be certain that their cleaning processes are appropriate for your needs.
• Safe, effective and affordable stain remover is offered for those deep-down and difficult to remove stains.
• The optional Odor Neutralization will safely and effectively neutralize tobacco, cooking and pet orders.
• Carpet protector may be recommended for your high traffic areas to keep your carpets fresher, longer.

The Steam Team also offers drapery cleaning, air duct cleaning, dust-free hardwood floor refinishing, 24-hour water extraction as well as many other services.  Their Green Service uses the most environmentally responsible chemicals available. And best of all their services are unconditionally GUARANTEED!

Visit The Steam Team and read the customer testimonials, cleaning tips and special discounts. They are looking forward to hearing from you.

Lee and Scott to Stand with Economic Policy Institute and American 99ers Union; Unemployment Benefits More Stimulative to U.S. Economy than Millionaire Tax Giveaways

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congressman Bobby Scott will join Gregg Rosen of the American 99ers Union and Dr. Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) to introduce The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Expansion Act, legislation to extend emergency benefits to long-term unemployed workers.  Many of these long-term unemployed workers, known as 99ers, have exhausted their benefits and need this assistance to support their families, make ends meet and contribute to our economy. The bill would provide 14 weeks of emergency unemployment benefits to people who have exhausted all their benefits and are still unemployed.

Not only is providing these benefits the right thing to do, but it is sound economic policy that will support our economic recovery.  Economic experts, like Dr. Shierolz from EPI, believe that extending these benefits will have a greater stimulative impact on our economy than handing unpaid-for tax giveaways to multi-millionaires.

WHO:             Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-09)
Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03)
Gregg Rosen, Co-Founder, American 99ers Union
Dr. Heidi Shierholz, Economist, Economic Policy Institute

WHAT:            Press Conference

WHEN:           Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 9:45 a.m.
Any media with cameras are asked to pre-set at 9:15 a.m.

WHERE:        Capitol Visitors Center, HVC Room 200

Besides Gregg Rosen, co-founder of the American 99ers Union, a number of 99ers plan to attend the event and they may be interviewed by the main stream media following the introduction of the legislation. CNN and other media have been invited to the press conference.

When Rep. Lee’s office was asked what would be most helpful in moving this legislation forward, they said that the primary issue is making certain the legislation is brought to the House floor. As a result, it’s important that those supporting this legislative effort email representatives, especially Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor http://cantor.house.gov/, http://republicanleader.house.gov/Contact/, and ask them to bring the legislation to the floor. House Republicans control legislative procedures, so it’s vital that they be encouraged to move this legislation forward. Rep. Lee will further define these issues at tomorrow’s press conference.

Additional information about this legislative effort is also being provided by Crewof42.

American workers are enduring the worst jobs situation since the Great Depression and Lee + Scott will be challenging their colleagues as well as the prevailing “budget cutting” political winds to pass their bill.

Arthur Delaney of Huffington Post wrote about the proposed legislation:  House Dems To Reintroduce Longshot Bill For Long-Term Unemployed

Given Republican hostility to additional deficit spending — Lee’s office said the cost of the extra benefits would not be offset — the effort will likely amount to little more than a reminder that long-term unemployment persists even though much of the nation’s political discourse is focused on signs of economic recovery.

After speaking to Rep. Lee’s office they reaffirmed that there are no offsets currently, but Rep. Lee will discuss this further at the press conference. It’s obvious that if offsets are not proposed, House Republicans are not likely to consider the legislation seriously.

In the same article:

Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the progressive Economic Policy Institute who supports the legislation and will attend Wednesday’s press conference, said there’s no economic reason for benefits to stop at 99 weeks.

“There is no magic number of how long extensions should last,” she said. “There’s just nothing in the economic literature that says 99 weeks is the limit. It’s not like if we break the 100 barrier things are going to fall apart.”

99ers, how many?

There has been discussion about the actual number of 99ers that are in the unemployed population. Some have said that the number of 99ers is well below the 4-5 million often attributed to 99er advocates, including myself at times. The latest “official” estimates for Q4 2010 show that 10.7% of all unemployed, or 1.4 million have been unemployed for 99 weeks or longer. These official estimates are somewhat puzzling. Back in June 2010, the Washington Post estimated that there were 1.5 million 99ers. How that population has decreased over the past seven month sis somewhat odd, especially when looking at the increase of those unemployed by percentage since 2006:

The columns below are as follows:

Year and quarter, Total unemployed, Unemployed 99 weeks or longer, Percent of total unemployed

2006   7,001  233     3.3

2007   7,078  228     3.2

2008   8,924  271     3.0

2009   14,265632     4.4

2010 Q1 15,939        1,035  6.5

2010 Q2 14,621        1,391  9.5

2010 Q3 14,679        1,406  9.6

2010 Q4 14,061        1,504  10.7

As you can see, the number of workers unemployed for 99 weeks or longer is at a record 10.7%. These estimates don’t include those 99ers who have found some part-time work to try and get by, and I have been in contact with a few of those who are no longer considered 99ers. There are also those that have given up looking for work for more than a year who are no longer counted as unemployed. The “official” tabulation of 1.4 million 99ers is less than some have reported, but it’s also a best case scenario that ignores many other factors that would increase the 99er population substantially.

From an historical perspective, the number of people who have been unemployed for 99 weeks or longer is at record.

#99er Aid

I received the following note from Jason Tabrys of Examiner.com, who has been working on issues related to unemployment.

Forsaken by the United States Government and vilified by some, America’s long term unemployed, the 99ers, have strained to let their voices be heard.

On Tuesday February 15, 2011 at 8PM EST join us for #99erAID, a twitter chat designed to bring 99ers, 99er advocates, and journalists together to discuss the latest 99er news and strategy ideas for the growing, peaceful movement.

Once again that’s #99erAID on Tuesday February 15, 2011 at 8PM EST moderated by @99erAID (Examiner.com’s Jason Tabrys)

You can read more about that event at: 99ers Aid Twitter Event Announced for February 15, 2011 at 8PM EST

99er advocates working behind the scenes

Kim Doyle Willie is one of those unselfish people who are working diligently for social justice, including 99ers. Kelly Wiedemer wrote an article on Kim’s efforts at Advocate thanks CNN, raises awareness about hunger, homelessness & 99er issues

Get free resume advice and job search guidance

Phil Rosenberg hosts a number of online efforts that help the unemployed find new careers. Join him to discuss various employment related topics including:

Job Seekers – Get Job Search Questions Answered Live, tomorrow at Resume Revolution! Join us Tuesday, 2/8/11 at 7:00PM CST http://resumewebinar.com/

Resume Revolution! w/Live Q&A on Friday 2/11/11 at Noon CST http://resumewebinar.com/
Please meet me Friday 2/11/11 at Noon CST at my Resume Revolution! webinar. Registration for Friday’s class begins Wednesday 2/9/11 – enroll at http://ResumeWebinar.com at no charge.

You’ll Learn All This At Resume Revolution:
* How to empower yourself in job search
* How to optimize your job search and resume to 2011′s market realities
* How to increase your resume response rate and get more interviews
* Why strategies that worked in your last job search aren’t working today

Phil’s free services and educational offerings may be what you need to get that next job.

Ted Rall offers the real job picture

The Daily List

Congress.org has a great media contact list:http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/ as does http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

You can find your representatives contact information at: http://conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm, or at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

Please consider subscribing to Rochester Unemployment Examiner articles. This is a simple task of clicking on the Subscribe button above, which is located directly below the title of my post, and then entering your email address. When I add a new post, you will be notified at the email address you enter. You won’t receive any spam, just my posts. Thanks.

I’m looking for stories from people who have been rejected during the hiring process for being unemployed. Have you been the victim of a temp agency that won’t give you an interview because you are unemployed? Have you seen jobs ads for “employed only” or “unemployed need not apply”? Have you lost a chance at a job due to a poor credit score? Send your job rejection experiences to mike@layofflist.org.

You can also view my updates and new posts at Twitter: http://twitter.com/layofflist and Facebook

Huffington Post

Huffington Post is kind enough to give me a chance to post my work at their site. I hope to be able to spread the 99er word using their larger audience. You can see my efforts at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-thornton.

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement:

Are you looking for a job? Have you submitted your resume to the large job sites or resume blasters but you’re tired of the impersonal nature of those sites? Then Canvas Resources will be your next stop.

At Canvas Resources you are able to upload your resume and application information and then apply directly to the companies and locations you choose. Instead of hoping companies find you at the large job sites, you are in control of the process of where you want to work. The application experts at Canvas Resources manually double-check your resume and application for errors BEFORE it is sent out to the companies you select. This hands-on process gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your application has been reviewed by a resume expert. You can track your submission history and if a company selects you for an interview, they will contact you directly.

Take the time to review the Canvas Resources program to see what they can offer you. Why waste time going to every site and completing application after application. Let Canvas Resources do the job for you, so you have more time to find the companies where you want to work.