According to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) report released on December 3, 2003, unless Congress acts soon, 500,000 unemployed workers will not be eligible for extended unemployment insurance by January 20, 2004, the date on which Congress will reconvene. The extension of unemployment benefits is important, particularly now. Since the end of the recent recession in November 2001, there has been very little job growth; far too little to even keep up with growth in the labor force. Concurrently with this 'jobless recovery', the number of long-term unemployed, those unemployed more than six months, has increased to between one quarter and one third of all unemployed workers. More than other unemployed workers, this category of the unemployed need continued benefits as they are likely to have seen a depreciation in their skills. This need is enhanced by the inter-sectoral reallocation of labor that has occurred since the end of the recession, and is probably indicative of long-term structural changes in the economy: the industries which lost most of the jobs during and since the 2001 recession are not the same industries in which job growth has been most vibrant since. Given the fiscal state of the states, the Federal government must step in to help the long-term unemployed, by further extending the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program. This will help both those long-term unemployed workers facing benefit losses (500,000 by the time Congress reconvenes on January 20, 2004), but will also provide workers some resources for retraining, which will speed up the structural change in the economy, which will ensure future economic growth.
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©2003 Richard B. Goud, Jr.
Updated on 10 December 2003 at 22:15 PST