IRP Poverty Dispatch » Economy

States’ October Jobless Rates

townsend — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:55:57 +0000

Cautious optimism as job losses slow, By Lisa Lambert, November 20, 2009, Washington Post: “The pace of job losses slowed in many U.S. states in October, and the unemployment rate slipped in hard-hit Michigan, the Labor Department said on Friday, hinting the recession may be easing in some areas. Michigan’s jobless rate fell to 15.1 percent in October from 15.3 percent in September, although it remains the highest in the United States. The rate in Nevada, the second-highest, dipped to 13 percent from 13.3 percent. Rhode Island was close behind at 12.9 percent, followed by California at 12.5 percent…”
Most states see higher jobless rates, By Jeff Bater, November 20, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Unemployment rose in 29 states in the U.S. during October, hinting the threat posed by weak labor markets to the economic recovery might be growing. Labor Department data Friday said 29 states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment-rate increases from the prior month, while 13 states had rate decreases, and eight states had no rate change. A month earlier, Labor had said 23 states and the District of Columbia reported over-the-month unemployment rate increases in September, while 19 had decreases and eight states had no rate change…”

Extension of Jobless Benefits

townsend — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:09:15 +0000

Jobless benefits set to expire unless Congress acts, By Erik Eckholm, November 18, 2009, New York Times: “About one million laid-off workers will see their unemployment benefits end in January unless Congress acts quickly to renew existing federally paid extensions, according to a new survey and legislators and state officials. The record-long extension of emergency benefits that was hastily signed into law on Nov. 6 was widely praised as an essential lifeline for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who had spent a year or more in fruitless searches for jobs. The new law provided up to 14 weeks of federally paid aid to unemployed people who had exhausted existing state and federal limits, benefits that already extended up to 79 weeks in many states. And for the majority of states with particularly high unemployment, it added an additional six weeks of payments, bringing the potential total to 99 weeks…”
Extension of jobless benefits won’t help many, By Jane M. Von Bergen, November 17, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “On the same day the U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had reached a landmark 10.2 percent, President Obama signed a law extending unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks in some states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. ‘I was so relieved,’ said Dawn Brown, 41, a mother of two from North Wales who lost her market-data research job in June. ‘It just took all the worry away.’ But the new law won’t help Brown at all - or anybody else who has been laid off since late June. Not only that, but, as written, no one in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or any of the nation’s other high-unemployment states will be eligible for the last six weeks of the 20-week extension. It’s all a matter of timing. And the timing is tricky…”
Jobless Tennesseans won’t get as many extra benefits, By Bonna Johnson, November 18, 2009, The Tennessean: “Additional unemployment benefits that Congress approved for the jobless earlier this month won’t be as sweet as most people expected due to fine print in the law. The upshot is that instead of 20 weeks of extra benefits at a maximum of $300 a week, many Tennesseans probably will draw only 14 more weeks - on top of 79 weeks previously received - before the aid runs out due to a Dec. 31 cutoff date. The mix-up is confusing and confounding to many jobless workers who have exhausted or are about to run out of their government aid. Approximately 35,500 Tennesseans getting unemployment checks could be affected. Still, some people said they’re just happy to be getting anything…”

State Spending on Programs for the Poor - South Dakota

townsend — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:32:59 +0000

State costs rise with poverty, By Jon Walker, November 15, 2009, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “A new reality in the shadow of today’s health care debate is that a growing number of South Dakotans live in poverty. Use of Medicaid to pay health care bills jumped the past five years across the state, as did use of food stamps to buy groceries. Both trends indicate that more South Dakotans are low-income, and both show the pain that the recession has caused for individuals and families. But those trends also show that South Dakotans, already below average for wages, are losing ground to what the government defines as a minimum basic income. ‘People making ends meet two years ago and four years ago are not really as able to do that now,’ said Matt Diersen, a South Dakota State University economist. The rise in poverty presents a budgeting headache for politicians and a hard choice for doctors who must decide whether to accept more Medicaid patients at discount rates. But it also pushes more state residents to public health services…”

Joblessness and Unemployment

townsend — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:43:55 +0000

Job woes exacting a toll on family life, By Michael Luo, November 11, 2009, New York Times: “Paul Bachmuth’s 9-year-old daughter, Rebecca, began pulling out strands of her hair over the summer. His older child, Hannah, 12, has become noticeably angrier, more prone to throwing tantrums. Initially, Mr. Bachmuth, 45, did not think his children were terribly affected when he lost his job nearly a year ago. But now he cannot ignore the mounting evidence. ‘I’m starting to think it’s all my fault,’ Mr. Bachmuth said. As the months have worn on, his job search travails have consumed the family, even though the Bachmuths were outwardly holding up on unemployment benefits, their savings and the income from the part-time job held by Mr. Bachmuth’s wife, Amanda. But beneath the surface, they have been a family on the brink. They have watched their children struggle with behavioral issues and a stress-induced disorder. He finally got a job offer last week, but not before the couple began seeing a therapist to save their marriage…”
Job losses both deep and enduring, especially for the young, By Floyd Norris, November 13, 2009, New York Times: “The rise in unemployment that has occurred in the current recession has been hardest on young workers, while having a smaller effect on older workers than previous downturns. Women have been more likely than men to hold on to their jobs. The overall unemployment rate, which reached 10.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last month, remains below the post-World War II peak of 10.8 percent, reached in late 1982. But the proportion of workers who have been out of work for a long time is higher now than it has ever been since the Great Depression. The persistence of joblessness for so many people - 5.6 million Americans have now been out of work for more than half a year even though they have continued to seek employment - may provide the greatest challenge for the Obama administration if it decides to seek a new economic stimulus program…”

Budget Cuts to Social Services - Indiana

townsend — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:35:50 +0000

Indiana trims Medicaid payments to hospitals, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 10, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Hospitals would get 5 percent less money from the state for caring for Medicaid patients under cuts announced today by the state. Gov. Mitch Daniels last week called for emergency budget cuts as the state’s revenue continues to fall short of projections. State tax collections already are a half-billion dollars short of what was collected at this time last year. To make the cuts, Daniels said state employees would not be getting pay raises, and asked agencies to come up with cuts, including the Family and Social Services Administration which administers Medicaid in Indiana…”
Pain of budget cuts is hitting home, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 11, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “State budget cuts will begin to take a tangible toll on Hoosiers, from the pay in prison guards’ pockets to possibly the level of service people receive at hospitals. Faced with withering revenues, Gov. Mitch Daniels last week ordered state agencies to slash their expenses by 10 percent this fiscal year, on top of 10 percent cuts made last year. On Tuesday, the Family and Social Services Administration announced that it will reach some of its goal by cutting the amount it pays hospitals for caring for Medicaid patients by 5 percent beginning Jan. 1, a move that will save the state $10.6 million in this fiscal year…”
Ind. budget cuts include $34 million in social services, By Ken Kusmer (AP), November 10, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Indiana’s human services agency said Tuesday it will slice $34 million from its budget by paying hospitals less to treat Medicaid patients, renegotiating contracts with most of its vendors, moving some offices and leaving about 400 jobs unfilled. However, the Family and Social Services administration will not reduce its Medicaid payments to doctors or cut ‘vital services’ to the young, elderly, disabled and needy Indiana residents who receive social safety-net benefits, agency officials said…”

Low-wage Work, Unemployment, and Household Debt

townsend — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Unemployment tops 10 percent again _ and it’s tougher off the job than a generation ago, By Jeannine Aversa (AP), November 7, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “It hurts more to be unemployed now than the last time the jobless rate hit 10 percent. Americans have more than triple the debt they had in 1982, and less than half the savings. They spend 10 weeks longer off the job. And a bigger share of them have no health insurance, leaving them one medical emergency away from financial ruin. For these reasons, the unemployed are more vulnerable today to foreclosure and bankruptcy than they were a generation ago…”
Debt levels leave low paid at risk of homelessness, By Nick Mathiason, November 11, 2009, The Guardian: “Britain’s 14.3 million low earners are in danger of being sucked into a whirlpool of poverty as official figures are expected to show today that the number of unemployed has passed through 2.5 million for the first time in 15 years. Research by the insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery’s thinktank, Resolution Foundation, shows low-income households - with an average of £15,800 at their disposal - are walking an increasingly precarious financial tightrope. It has found that 24% of low-wage households spend more than a quarter of their monthly income on debt - twice the number from three years ago. The study shows nearly a third of low-income households have high loan-to-value mortgages and are in negative equity, making them vulnerable to homelessness if they lose their job…”

Unemployment Rate and Jobless Benefits

townsend — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:14:58 +0000

Unemployment rate rises above 10%; Obama signs jobless benefit extension, By Don Lee, November 6, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “As the nation’s unemployment rate surged to 10.2% in October, reaching double digits for the first time in 26 years, President Obama signed a measure today providing additional aid for the jobless as well as expanding and extending a home buyer tax credit to help spur economic growth. ‘The need for such a measure was made clear by the jobs report we just received this morning,’ Obama said at the White House. He called the Labor Department figure released today ‘a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead.’ The unexpectedly sharp increase in the unemployment rate, from 9.8% in September, came as employers dropped 190,000 workers from their payrolls last month. That was larger than the 175,000 job losses that most forecasters were expecting for the month, and it underscored just how dire the labor market remains despite the recent upturn in the nation’s economic output…”
U.S. unemployment rate hits 10.2%, highest in 26 years, By Peter S. Goodman, November 6, 2009, New York Times: “The American unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent in October, its highest level in 26 years, as the economy lost another 190,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. The jump into the realm of double-digit joblessness - from 9.8 percent in September - provided a sobering reminder that, despite the apparent end of the Great Recession, economic expansion has yet to translate into jobs, leaving tens of millions of people still struggling…”

EITC and Tax Refund Anticipation Loans - Arkansas

townsend — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:53:14 +0000

Tax refund loans cost Arkansans millions, By John Lyon, November 3, 2009, Fort Smith Times Record: “Arkansans spend about $100 million a year obtaining loans against anticipated tax refunds, according to a report released Monday by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. The report also estimated that Arkansans miss out on as much as $110 million a year by failing to claim the federal earned income tax credit. ‘Low-income tax filers are paying tax preparation fees, in many cases exorbitant tax preparation fees to have their taxes done, when in fact most low-income families could receive free tax assistance through an existing VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site,’ Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates, said at a news conference to announce the report…”

States and Unemployment Benefits

townsend — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Adjusted state unemployment rate hits 17.2%, By Howard Fischer, October 27, 2009, East Valley Tribune: “Arizonans have been told for months now that the state jobless rate is hovering in the low 9 percent range. But it turns out that’s pretty much only half the story - literally. New federal figures show Arizona’s real unemployment situation is already in double digits - 17.2 percent - when also accounting for people who are “underemployed” because they can’t find full-time work and discouraged Arizonans who have given up their job search…”
State snafu stiffs unemployed, By Edward Mason, October 30, 2009, Boston Herald: “Thousands of desperate jobless Bay Staters - at the end of their ropes and unemployment benefits - thought the state had tossed them a lifeline when new checks arrived in the mail, only to learn it was all a big mistake and now they have to give the money back. The state Division of Unemployment Assistance mistakenly sent checks totaling $3.4 million to 4,159 out-of-work residents who’d exhausted their benefits, thanks to a glitch in the office’s archaic computer system, the Herald has learned…”
Poor Unemployment Insurance planning adds extra burden to Conn., South Dakota employers, By Olga Pierce, October 26, 2009, ProPublica: “Employers in Connecticut and South Dakota face hefty tax increases in the midst of a recession because their states’ unemployment insurance trust funds ran dry last week. The two states, like many others, have solvency taxes — a special tax increase that kicks in when their trust fund balance goes below a set amount…”
Benefit checks are on the way, By Yvonne Wenger, October 29, 2009, Charleston Post and Courier: “It’s official: the state Legislature fixed an oversight Wednesday that will send tens of millions of dollars to unemployed workers. Gov. Mark Sanford will sign the bill today and residents could receive a check within a week. The Legislature returned in special session this week to change wording in a law that will allow federal stimulus funds to provide an additional five months of unemployment benefits to out-of-work residents…”

Food Stamp Program and Large Retailers

townsend — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:15:48 +0000

More and more warehouse clubs accept food stamps, By Sarah Skidmore and Dan Sewell (AP), October 28, 2009, Idado Statesman: “With many families suddenly struggling to feed themselves, the big warehouse clubs known for king-size packages of steak and jumbo boxes of Cheerios are increasingly competing with grocery stores for the 36 million Americans now on food stamps. Costco Wholesale Corp. said Wednesday that it would start accepting food stamps at its warehouse clubs nationwide after testing them at stores in New York. That is a big about-face for a chain that has catered to the bargain-hunting affluent with its gourmet foods, and a reflection of the fact food-stamp use has hit new highs. Costco joins warehouse-club competitor BJ’s Wholesale Corp., which started taking food stamps last April, and Sam’s Club, which began accepting them in the fall of 2008. Up until recently, some wholesale clubs were skeptical poor people would be willing to pay the $50-a-year membership fee or would be interested in buying food in the bulk quantities for which the stores are famous…”

Unemployment and Underemployment - California

townsend — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:36:30 +0000

Underemployed compound state’s jobless troubles, By Tom Abate, October 26, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “San Francisco resident Elena Duran represents an unfortunate job trend that isn’t reflected in the unemployment rate. For years, Duran has been a full-time server at a downtown hotel. But the recession has cut so deeply into business that her hours were cut to half time in July. ‘It’s better than a layoff, but it still requires a lot of sacrifices,’ said Duran, who, along with her working husband, supports three sons. Because she works, Duran doesn’t count in California’s 12.2 percent unemployment rate. But her situation is captured by a broader measure, the underemployment rate, which, in addition to the jobless, includes people who could get only part-time work as well as those who want jobs but were too discouraged to look…”

September 2009 Unemployment Rate

townsend — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:33:42 +0000

23 states report higher unemployment in September, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), October 21, 2009, Washington Post: “Unemployment rose in 23 states last month as the economy struggled to create jobs in the early stages of the recovery. While layoffs have slowed, companies remain reluctant to hire. Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while only seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Wednesday’s report underscores the uneven nature of the recovery. The unemployment rate dropped in some Midwestern states as the manufacturing sector improved. But Florida and Nevada, two of the states hit hardest by the housing slump, reported record-high jobless rates. Some of the states that lost jobs still saw their unemployment rates improve, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but no longer looking for jobs aren’t counted as officially unemployed…”

Youth Poverty and Unemployment - Detroit, MI

townsend — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:38:31 +0000

Youth face uphill struggle amid Detroit’s troubles, By Corey Williams (AP), October 17, 2009, Washington Post: “Like the rundown houses and shuttered storefronts in his Detroit neighborhood, bleakness abounds in LeRoy Taylor’s future. He is among tens of thousands reaching adulthood in a city where the American Dream appears just outside their reach. Taylor, 20, spends empty hours on basketball courts, zoned out in front of a television or aimlessly pedaling through streets he desperately wants to leave, but doesn’t have the work skills, education or money to do so. ‘I fill out applications. No one will call me back,’ said Taylor, stopping his bike long enough to hustle change for cigarettes near a west side bus stop. ‘It’s useless. It’s real scary.’ Too few jobs are only part of the problems facing youths in this troubled city. Its public high schools are considered among the nation’s worst. Planned budget cuts to the recreation department will reduce hours and slash into staffing. Then there’s crime…”

Extension of Unemployment Benefits - South Carolina

townsend — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:35:10 +0000

State botched chance for aid, By Katy Stech, October 16, 2009, Charleston Post and Courier: “Thousands of out-of-work South Carolinians will miss out on five months of unemployment checks because state officials failed to tweak a rule enabling them to tap into federal stimulus money. The state’s high jobless rate, one of the worst in the country at 11.5 percent, means some unemployed residents could be receiving an additional 20 weeks of checks when they run out of their current state and federal benefits. More than 113,000 South Carolina unemployed residents already have exhausted their benefits. To get access to the additional money, state lawmakers needed to pass temporary changes to the economic index they use to trigger additional emergency benefits in times of unprecedented financial hardship. No bill was ever proposed. South Carolina is one of two states eligible for the most generous benefits but is not receiving them. The other is Mississippi…”
Leaders aim to fix benefits, By Katy Stech, October 17, 2009, Charleston Post and Courier: “State lawmakers scrambled Friday to figure out if they could fix an oversight that has cost thousands of out-of-work South Carolinians extended unemployment benefits. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell said they support fixing the problem, which could involve calling a special session of the General Assembly, and deployed their staffs to determine the cheapest, easiest way to make the necessary changes to the law. ‘It’s an open-ended question at this point,’ said McConnell, who expects his staff will come up with an answer early next week. Calling a special session, by McConnell’s estimate, would cost about $17,000 but could bring the state tens of millions of dollars in federal money for unemployed residents. Meanwhile, federal policy experts indicated that, if the proper changes are made, some residents who missed out on earlier benefits could start receiving weekly paychecks again…”

Home Foreclosures and Homelessness

townsend — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:21:27 +0000

Foreclosures force ex-homeowners to turn to shelters, By Peter S. Goodman, October 18, 2009, New York Times: “The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom. The second night, she stayed with a friend, and so it continued for more than a year: Ms. West - mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one - passed months on the couches of friends and relatives, and in the front seat of her car. But this fall, she exhausted all options. She had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people. Now, she succumbed to that status herself, checking in to a shelter…”

Joblessness and Unemployment Insurance - Massachusetts

townsend — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:49:19 +0000

Unemployment at 33-year high; insurance fund running dry, By Kay Lazar and Robert Gavin, October 16, 2009, Boston Globe: “Unemployment in Massachusetts has reached its highest level since the 1970s, officials said yesterday as they also disclosed that the state will exhaust a fund that helps laid-off workers pay for health insurance by the end of next month. State officials said they are considering a number of emergency measures, including imposing higher costs on the unemployed and raising fees on employers, to close a gap that could exceed $50 million by April. ‘Every option is on the table,’ Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Suzanne Bump said in an interview after her staff briefed an advisory board of labor and business leaders yesterday. ‘Nothing stays the same.’ The unrelenting rise in unem ployment will also trigger an automatic 40 percent increase in the tax businesses are required to contribute for unemployment benefits. In January, the tax will increase from an average of $594 per employee to $832…”

States and Budget Cuts

townsend — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:46:37 +0000

Report: Lawmakers to cut state budgets even deeper, By Glen Johnson (AP), October 15, 2009, Washington Post: “In Massachusetts, freefalling tax revenue will mean no more dental and hospice care for legal immigrants. Maryland is closing a mental health center. And Illinois has $2.9 billion in unpaid bills. As bad as state budget-cutting was during the past year, a report issued Thursday showed it’s bound to be even worse in the coming months. Despite signs of improvement in the national economy, many states’ finances are still dismal…”

Exhaustion of Jobless Benefits - New York

townsend — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:17:26 +0000

For long-term unemployed, payments near end, By Patrick McGeehan, October 11, 2009, New York Times: “Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have had the unfortunate distinction of collecting unemployment benefits longer than anyone in the state’s history. But last week, state officials began warning the long-term unemployed that Congress has not approved another extension of unemployment insurance payments. That lapse will leave about 37,000 residents of the state, like Robert C. Brannigan, without benefits this week, and will force others to contemplate applying for food stamps or other forms of welfare that they had never considered. Mr. Brannigan, a 26-year-old construction worker from Mastic, received his final weekly payment of $430 last week, but he still is No. 20 on a waiting list for jobs assigned by his union in Manhattan. When he checked the State Labor Department’s Facebook page for news about a pending extension, he found a video explaining how to apply for food stamps and other assistance from the state…”

Stimulus Spending on Broadband in Rural Areas

townsend — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:13:31 +0000

Tough choices for feds giving out broadband money, By Joelle Tessler (AP), October 11, 2009, Washington Post: “The federal government will soon start handing out the first $4 billion from a pot of stimulus funds intended to spread high-speed Internet connections to more rural communities, poor neighborhoods and other pockets of the country clamoring for better access. The challenge is that the government has received $28 billion in requests. So the reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments who will award the broadband money must make hard choices. The 2,200 applications each envision something different - more fiber-optic lines, for example, or computer labs or municipal wireless networks. But they all promise that their proposals will create jobs and bring new economic opportunities…”

Incarceration Rates of High School Dropouts

townsend — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:45:01 +0000

Study finds high rate of imprisonment among dropouts, By Sam Dillon, October 8, 2009, New York Times: “On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging. The picture is even bleaker for African-Americans, with nearly one in four young black male dropouts incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized on an average day, the study said. That compares with about one in 14 young, male, white, Asian or Hispanic dropouts. Researchers at Northeastern University used census and other government data to carry out the study, which tracks the employment, workplace, parenting and criminal justice experiences of young high school dropouts…”

Job Seekers and Internet Access

townsend — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:36:24 +0000

Some job seekers work without Net, By Steve Giegerich, October 9, 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Two job-hunters, two stories. Laid-off marketing executive Michael Clutts fires up his computer and begins his online search for a new job at 8 each morning, a routine that continues - with interruptions to attend to meals and family matters - well into the night. It’s a process Gail Spencer knows well, ever since losing her job as a concierge at a downtown hotel last year after 21 years in the hospitality industry. But in order to avail herself of the online functions Clutts accesses countless times a day from the comfort of his home in Ballwin, Spencer must travel from her residence in Hanley Hills to libraries and career development centers that provide computers and Internet hook-ups…”

Jobless Benefits Exhaustion and Extension

townsend — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:12:30 +0000

Many Minnesotans at end of jobless benefits, By Dee DePass, October 5, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Former University of Minnesota plumber Keith Ferguson got his last unemployment check last week. Now the Maple Grove father of four, unemployed for 20 months, is wondering how he’ll pay child support and feed himself. It is a dilemma facing millions of unemployed Americans who have counted on as many as 79 weeks of government checks to help them make ends meet through the worst recession in decades. Almost 5.5 million workers have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, a record. In Minnesota, an estimated 1,000 people currently exhaust unemployment benefits each week, said Dan McElroy, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). When the last federal extension expires the day after Christmas, the number will grow given that new job growth is expected to remain slow…”
Senate Dems reach deal on extending jobless benefits, By Jim Abrams (AP), October 8, 2009, Seattle Times: “Senate Democrats said Thursday they have reached a deal to extend unemployment insurance benefits to the nearly 2 million jobless workers across the country who are in danger of running out of assistance by the end of the year. The agreement would give an additional 14 weeks of benefits to jobless workers in all 50 states. Workers in states with an unemployment rate at 8.5 percent or above would receive six weeks on top of that. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried to bring the measure to a quick vote on the Senate floor, but Republicans objected, saying they needed more time to study the proposal and its costs and possibly offer amendments. The House last month approved legislation that gives 13 weeks of extended benefits, but only in those 27 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that have unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent…”

Pennsylvania State Budget Impasse and Social Services

townsend — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:21:05 +0000

State budget impasse threatens government-funded social services, By Brad Bumsted, October 2, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “A two-week-old state budget deal among legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell fell apart Thursday as Pennsylvania reaches the 94th day of an impasse that threatens government-funded social services. ‘It is unconscionable that both sides cannot seem to find middle ground in order to pass a new budget,’ Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation, said yesterday. ‘Increasing numbers of families and individuals depend on social- and human-services support for their very survival, and I am deeply worried that it is going to take a tragedy to bring our state leaders to a compromise.’ The Pittsburgh Foundation yesterday granted more money to a fund established to help people hurt by the recession - raising the emergency grants to more than $1 million…”

September 2009 Unemployment Rate

townsend — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:58:48 +0000

Jobs report highlights uncertainty of U.S. recovery, By Peter S. Goodman, October 2, 2009, New York Times: “The American economy lost 263,000 jobs in September - far more than expected - and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, the government reported on Friday, dimming prospects of any meaningful job growth by the end of the year. The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of unemployment suggested that the economy was plodding through a faltering recovery that could pose big challenges to lawmakers worried about a growing public outcry over both big government deficits and high unemployment. The numbers could intensify pressure on Congress to provide additional unemployment benefits and extend some programs that are set to expire toward the end of the year, such as tax credit for first-time homebuyers and health-insurance subsidies for people who lose their jobs…”

2008 ACS: Poverty Status, Family Income and Food Stamp Data

townsend — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:51:42 +0000

Census data show falling income, By Kate Linthicum and DeeDee Correll, September 30, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Reporting from Los Angeles and Denver - In 2008, the median household income in the United States plummeted 3.6% from the year before, and the percentage of people living in poverty soared to an 11-year high, recently released U.S. Census data reveal. Economists say the bleak news — which they blame on the slew of layoffs that have accompanied the economic downturn — is significant, if not entirely surprising…”
Poverty in Ohio spreading and getting worse, By Catherine Candisky and Alan Johnson, September 30, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “Crushing job losses and rising unemployment pushed nearly one in five Marion County residents into poverty last year, the highest rate among the state’s larger counties, according to new U.S. Census statistics. Marion County’s 2008 poverty rate of 19.4 percent represents a jump of more than half in only two years for the county of 66,396 people about an hour north of Columbus…”
Child poverty in Baltimore declines, By Brent Jones, September 30, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Despite a decrease in poverty among city children, nearly one in five Baltimore residents were living below federal poverty levels in 2008, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. Census Bureau data showed that 19 percent of Baltimore’s population lived in poverty last year, putting Maryland’s most populous city well above the national rate of 13 percent…”
Experts say LI rate underestimates level of poverty, By Olivia Winslow, September 30, 2009, Newsday: “Long Island’s poverty rates remained largely unchanged in 2008 from the previous year, continuing to fall well below national and state levels, according to new census data out Tuesday. But experts say the figures likely underestimate the level of poverty here, since the region’s high cost of living is not factored into the federal poverty formula…”
Public aid need grows in Oklahoma, census finds, By Vallery Brown and Paul Monies, September 29, 2009, The Oklahoman: “Nearly one in four Oklahoma families with children younger than 18 were on some type of public assistance in 2008, according to newly released census estimates. Public assistance includes food stamps and supplemental Social Security income…”
Requests for help contradict statistics, By Kevin Duggan, September 30, 2009, Fort Collins Coloradoan: “Poverty rates in Larimer County appeared to level off in 2008 after rising sharply in the early part of the decade, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. But information in the bureau’s American Community Survey does not reflect the current level of poverty around the county brought on by the economic downturn and the loss of jobs, say local agencies that work with low-income residents…”
County hit with sharp rise in level of poverty, By Lori Weisberg, October 1, 2009, San Diego Union-Tribune: “Poverty in San Diego County rose last year to its highest level this decade, fresh evidence of the financial toll the county’s prolonged recession and heavy job losses are taking on the region’s neediest households. In all, nearly 367,000 individuals were living in poverty - almost 46,000 more than a year earlier, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau…”

2008 ACS: Poverty Status, Family Income and Food Stamp Data

townsend — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:28:28 +0000

US income gap widens as poor take hit in recession, By Hope Yen (AP), September 29, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets…”
Downturn weighs on poor, By Conor Dougherty, September 29, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Poverty rose in the West and Midwest last year, as slowdowns in housing and manufacturing sent more families below the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday. The report, part of the agency’s annual American Community Survey, was the latest to measure the recession’s toll on low-income families, after a boom in which low-skilled workers relied on plentiful jobs and overtime — often in construction and retail — to raise their incomes and prospects…”
D.C. data on poverty grim but unchanged, By Carol Morello and Dan Keating, September 29, 2009, Washington Post: “More than one in four District children were living in poverty last year, even as the region was weathering the recession’s onset better than most metropolitan areas, according to census data released Tuesday. The poverty rates for District children diverged widely by race and ethnicity. The rate was 36 percent for black children; 17 percent for Hispanic children; and 3 percent for non-Hispanic white children. Virginia and Maryland also had large racial and ethnic gaps in childhood poverty, but none as great as in the District. The data was virtually unchanged from 2007…”
N.Y. poverty data paint mixed picture, By Sam Roberts, September 29, 2009, New York Times: “In a departure from the national picture, family income rose slightly in New York City in 2008 from 2007, and the proportion of poor people was virtually unchanged, according to census figures released Tuesday. Still, the city and surrounding region had its share of grim news: The Bronx remained the country’s poorest urban county; the income gap in Manhattan was still higher than in any other county; and the poverty rate in Connecticut rose faster than in any other state…”
Poverty hits harder across Front Range, By Burt Hubbard, September 29, 2009, Denver Post: “The poverty rate has escalated this decade among major cities and counties along the Front Range, led by Greeley, where more than one in five residents are poor, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released today. A Denver Post analysis of the census figures also found that child poverty rose at a faster pace than the overall rate, and the economic gap between races widened between 2000 and 2008…”
Food-stamp use, poverty up in the region, By Alfred Lubrano, September 29, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The percentage of households receiving food stamps in Philadelphia increased by nearly 3 percentage points between 2007 and 2008 - the period of time marking the start of the recession - according to figures released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau…”
Recession’s impact reflected in Census data, By Tim Nelson, September 29, 2009, Minnesota Public Radio: “New data from the U.S. Census show more effects of the recession last year. The new numbers from the ongoing American Community Survey indicate Minnesota’s poverty rate inched up slightly last year, from 9.5 to 9.6 percent, although that’s well within the survey’s margin of error. Minnesota is one of nine states with a poverty rate of less than 10 percent…”
Poverty was dropping before meltdown, By Curtis Killman, September 29, 2009, Tulsa World: “With the exception of the elderly, the percentage of people living in poverty in Tulsa County and across the state declined in 2008, just before the nationwide economic downturn. Tulsa County residents whose income in 2008 was below the poverty level declined from 16.2 percent of the population in 2006 to 13.8 percent in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Statewide, an estimated 15.9 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2008, compared to a 17 percent poverty rate in 2006…”
One in 8 Ohioans is in poverty, By David Knox and Katie Byard, September 29, 2009, Akron Beacon Journal: “More than one in eight Ohioans fell below the poverty line last year, pushing the state’s rate to 13.4 percent - the highest recorded in a decade, according to the latest Census figures…”
Report shows poverty decline, By Sarah Chacko, September 29, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Louisiana’s poverty rate dropped by a little more than 1 percentage point from 2007 to 2008, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the state still ranks among the worst in the nation with 17.3 percent of the population living below the poverty line…”
More in Miss. living in poverty, By Natalie Chandler, September 29, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “More Mississippians are living in poverty or receiving food stamps as the effects of a national recession persist, according to new census numbers released today and information provided by the state.’We’re almost serving 1 out of every 5 Mississippians right now,’ Cheryl Starkman, director of the Division of Economic Assistance at the Department of Human Services, said of the food stamp program. Census figures show Mississippi was one of a half-dozen states in 2008 with 16 percent or more of its residents living below the poverty level. Mississippi had the highest poverty rate, at 21.2 percent…”
Recession hammers California’s low-wage workers, By Pete Carey and Mike Swift, September 29, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Many of California’s lowest-paid workers appear to have tumbled into the ranks of the poor last year, as the recession hammered people already straining to live in a high-cost state, U.S. census data released today indicates. The nation’s most populous state had a bigger increase in the number of people living below the poverty line than any other state during the first year of the recession. About 160,000 more Californians fell below the poverty line in 2008 than during the three years preceding the start of the recession. But nine states showed a bigger jump in their overall poverty rates…”

Increasing Need for Assistance - Nevada

townsend — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:12:40 +0000

More Nevadans will need help as economic storm worsens, By J. Patrick Coolican and David McGrath Schwartz, September 27, 2009, Las Vegas Sun: “The parking lot at Catholic Charities, which shares space with a state welfare office, is packed these days. That’s a new thing. In the past, clients were the type to take the bus or walk to the service center on Las Vegas Boulevard in North Las Vegas. Now it’s the middle and working classes driving here, desperate for help. Same at the Women, Infants, and Children program offices at Flamingo Road and Torrey Pines Drive, its waiting room teeming with young, weary mothers who need nutrition assistance for their toddlers. Nevada’s spiking unemployment rate, which officially hit 13.2 percent recently, is forcing the newly destitute to seek help from the state as unemployment checks stop coming, savings accounts run dry and there are no jobs to be had. This spreading pain is measured in the ballooning number of Nevadans receiving government help - food, medical care, cash assistance. In June, for example, the number of residents on food stamps rose 45 percent compared with a year earlier. That was the second-fastest rise in the nation, behind Utah’s, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation…”

States and Stimulus Spending - Texas

townsend — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:03:41 +0000

Texas got less stimulus money per resident than almost every other state, By Dave Michaels, September 28, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Texas has received less funding per resident from the stimulus package so far than almost any other state, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of federal grants and contracts. Texas lawmakers have long complained about one reason for the disparity: Federal funding formulas, often written by small-state lawmakers, disadvantage big states like Texas. But Texas is also a victim of its own thrift: With fewer research universities, less subsidized housing, and a smaller contribution to programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance, it stands to receive less emergency funds than if it spent more of its own money on the programs…”

Teenage Job Program

townsend — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:36:33 +0000

Teens lack jobs despite job effort, By Garance Burke (AP), September 23, 2009, Washington Post: “The Obama administration’s economic stimulus program to find jobs for thousands of teenagers this summer couldn’t overcome one of the bleakest job markets in more than 60 years that had desperate adults competing for the same kind of work. Almost one-quarter of the 297,169 youths in the $1.2 billion jobs program didn’t get jobs, as more adults flooded the labor market seeking similar low-wage positions at hamburger stands and community pools, according to an Associated Press review of government data and reports from states. Congressional auditors warned Wednesday that the government’s plans to measure the success of the federal program are so haphazard that they ‘may reveal little about what the program achieved.’ The new report from the Government Accountability Office also said many government officials, employers and participants believe the program was successful…”

Jobless Claims and Benefits

townsend — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:32:26 +0000

Unemployment claims slide continues, By Hibah Yousuf, September 24, 2009, CNNMoney.com: “New filings for unemployment insurance fell for a third straight week, the government said Thursday, surprising economists. There were 530,000 initial claims filed in the week ended Sept. 19, down 21,000 from a revised 551,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report…”
Initial jobless claims decline for third straight week, By David Grant, September 24, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped last week to 530,000, down 21,000 from the previous week. The 530,000 mark - the third lowest number of claims in 2009 and the lowest since the week ending July 11 - surprised many analysts, who had expected the number of claims to remain the same or even tick up slightly. There was also a decline of 123,000 in the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits, bringing that total down to 6.1 million for the week ending Sept 12, the last week for which information is available…”
State Labor leaders want jobless benefits extended, By Denise Jewell Gee, September 24, 2009, Buffalo News: “The state labor commissioner warned today that the cost of supporting unemployed workers could fall to state and local governments if federal lawmakers do not extend unemployment benefits. M. Patricia Smith joined labor leaders from 17 other states to call on Congress to extend unemployment insurance benefits an additional 13 weeks…”

American Community Survey 2008

townsend — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:37:50 +0000

Census data show recession-driven changes, By Sam Roberts, September 21, 2009, New York Times: “A smaller share of Americans married, drove to work alone, owned their own home or moved to a new residence last year than the year before. More lived in overcrowded housing. Property values declined. And fewer immigrants arrived, which meant that for the first time since the beginning of the decade, the total number of foreign-born people in the country did not grow. Those were among the findings released Monday in the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, a wealth of data comparing the nation’s profile in 2008 with that of 2007…”
Census: Recession had sweeping impact on US life, By Hope Yen (AP), September 22, 2009, Washington Post: “A broad survey of Americans has provided striking measures of the recession’s effect on life at home and at work: People are now stuck in traffic longer, less apt to move away and more inclined to put off marriage and buying a house. The U.S. census data, released Monday, also show a dip in the number of foreign-born last year, to under 38 million after it reached an all-time high in 2007. This was due to declines in low-skilled workers from Mexico searching for jobs in Arizona, Florida and California…”
2008 Census data: Housing is getting even less affordable, By Stephanie Armour and Barbara Hansen, September 21, 2009, USA Today: “More Americans found housing unaffordable last year, even though home prices across the U.S. have taken a major fall. More than 40 million spent 30% or more of their household income on housing costs, 600,000 more than in 2007, according to 2008 Census data released Monday. That includes homeowners with and without mortgages, as well as renters. The number of renters increased, while the number of homeowners declined…”
NE Ohio residents are poorer today than decade ago, census data shows, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2009, Cleveland Plain Dealer: ” If you feel poorer than yesteryear, well, you probably are. The typical family in Ohio saw its income drop sharply this decade, and Northeast Ohio families lost more than most. Even before the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, household incomes were in steady decline across the state and region, a Plain Dealer review of census data reveals. By the summer of 2008, the median household income in Ohio had plunged by 9 percent in the new millennium, more than double the national rate of decline…”
Census report shows recession hammers Michigan, By John Flesher (AP), September 21, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Michigan’s already dire economic plight only worsened as the recession kicked in, with incomes and home values plunging while fewer people had health insurance coverage, according to new U.S. census data. The report, for release on Tuesday, offers little hope for a quick turnaround in the state, even if the nationwide situation improves over the next year as some economists predict, demographic experts said…”

Extension of Unemployment Benefits

townsend — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:36:25 +0000

House moves to extend unemployment benefits, By Jim Abrams (AP), September 21, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries. A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September…”

Job Losses and Homelessness

townsend — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:17:28 +0000

Suddenly shocked by life in a shelter, By Alfred Lubrano, September 18, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Frank Marshall remembers the moment he transformed from unemployed security guard to homeless man. ‘The walk toward my room at the shelter was surreal,’ he said. ‘I pinched myself to believe it was happening.’ Shoehorning himself into a 14-by-10-foot room with three other bewildered men in the Salvation Army’s Railton House in West Chester, Marshall, 48, lay on a narrow bed that looked like a boy’s and stared at the ceiling. On it, he projected images of the life he’d lost: job, apartment, girlfriend. Marshall, who always thought the homeless were drug addicts or schizophrenics, was dumbfounded. ‘There are days when my faith is lacking,’ said Marshall, a Roman Catholic from Phoenixville who is unmarried with no children. ‘This is unbelievable.’ Though the economy is improving, hard times grind on, and many people who lost jobs near the beginning of the downturn are facing the ultimate consequence of unemployment: homelessness. Tomorrow, the maximum of 79 weeks of unemployment benefits and extensions will end for 20,000 in Pennsylvania and 45,000 in New Jersey, officials said. An additional 14,000 Pennsylvanians will exhaust all benefits by next Saturday…”

Increasing Need for Legal Aid - Nevada

townsend — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:14:33 +0000

Economy boosts demand for free legal aid, By Brian Wargo, September 18, 2009, Las Vegas Sun: “The slumping Las Vegas economy has increased demand for free legal services and stretched the resources of agencies trying to provide those services. Nevada Legal Services, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and Senior Citizens Law Project have reported many more requests and say it’s hard to meet the demand. ‘It is overwhelming,’ said Lynn Etkins, development director of Legal Aid Center. ‘Our lobby is filled with clients ranging from victims of domestic violence to people losing their homes and jobs. With the economy and layoffs, we have a lot more people in the community (who need) our services.’ This year has seen a 25 percent increase in placements with pro bono attorneys. A consumer hotline has received 14 percent more calls than a year ago, she said. Demand has increased for help with divorce, consumer credit, bankruptcy and other issues, Etkins said…”

State Unemployment Rates

townsend — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:10:07 +0000

Jobless rate tops 12% in 5 states, By Julianne Pepitone, September 18, 2009, CNNMoney.com: “Five states posted jobless rates above 12% in August, according to federal data released Friday. California, Nevada and Rhode Island each hit record-high rates, the Labor Department said. Michigan led the nation in unemployment, with a rate of 15.2%, while Nevada was next at 13.2% and Rhode Island was third at 12.8%. California and Oregon were tied for the fourth spot, each with unemployment at 12.2%…”
California’s unemployment rate rises to 12.2%, By Alana Semuels, September 18, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Despite signs that an economic recovery has begun in the state, California’s unemployment rate set a new postwar high of 12.2% in August, up from 11.9% in July. California has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation; only Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island, at 15.2%, 13.2% and 12.8%, respectively, have higher rates than California. Still, there was some positive news in the figures released today by the California Economic Development Department. California lost only 12,300 jobs last month, compared with 38,900 jobs in July…”
At 12.2 percent, unemployment in Calif. highest since 1940, By Jennifer Steinhauer, September 18, 2009, New York Times: “California’s unemployment rate in August hit its highest point in nearly 70 years, starkly underscoring how the nation’s incipient economic recovery continues to elude millions of Americans looking for work. While job losses continue to fall, the new unemployment rate - 12.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics - is far above the national average of 9.7 percent and places the country’s largest state fourth behind Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island. Statistics kept by the state show California’s unemployment rate was 14.7 percent in 1940, according to Kevin Callori, a spokesman for the California Employment Development Department…”
R.I. jobless rate inches higher, By Alex Kuffner, September 18, 2009, Providence Journal: “Although economists say the worst of the recession may be over, the number of jobless workers in Rhode Island continues to grow. The state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 12.8 percent in August from what was a record high of 12.7 percent in July, according to a report issued Friday. The latest number is now the highest in Rhode Island since the federal government began keeping track of unemployed workers in 1976. Rhode Island’s jobless rate, the second-highest in the country in July, has been steadily climbing for 2½ years and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down…”
Nevada unemployment soars to record 13.2 percent, By Sandra Chereb, September 18, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Nevada’s unemployment rate broke another record in August, soaring to 13.2 percent as the recession continues to hammer the state’s tourism-dominated economy, officials said Friday. ‘Signs of stabilization in the national economy are beginning to emerge,’ said William Anderson, chief economist with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. ‘Some analysts even argue that the recession is likely over, or will be over in the near-term. However, such positive conclusions cannot be drawn in Nevada, based upon a current assessment of labor market and economic activity in the state,’ Anderson said in a written statement…”

Unemployment Rates in OECD Countries

townsend — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:17:08 +0000

High jobless rates could last years, O.E.C.D. warns, By Matthew Saltmarsh, September 16, 2009, New York Times: “Unless government programs for the unemployed are refined, there is a danger that high jobless rates will persist beyond 2010 in advanced economies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Wednesday. ‘A recovery may be in sight,’ the group said in its annual employment outlook, referring to economic output. ‘But the short-term employment outlook is grim.’ The international organization said that unemployment among its 30 member nations would rise to nearly 10 percent by the end of 2010, above its previous post-1970 peak of 7.5 percent during the second quarter of 1993. Disadvantaged groups, like youths and immigrants as well as low-skilled and temporary workers, will bear the brunt of the increase…”

ERS Report: Rural America at a Glance

townsend — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:13:13 +0000

Recession in rural America by the numbers, September 13, 2009, Daily Yonder: “Once a year the folks at the Economic Research Service publish a report on rural America. It’s called Rural America at a Glance and this year’s edition focuses on the recession. No surprise there. Friday we learned that the recession has ‘plunged 2.6 million more Americans into poverty, wiped out the household income gains of an entire decade and pushed the number of people without health insurance up to 46.3 million,’ according to the Washington Post. These latest Census Bureau figures don’t tell us whether the recession is better or worse in rural America. That’s what the ERS tries to do. Here are some excerpts from the full report…”

Funding for Low-income Housing

townsend — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:40:56 +0000

Recession dries up funds for low-income housing, By J.W. Elphinstone (AP), September 13, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “For thousands of low-income renters nationwide - but especially in rural towns and small cities - the recession is hitting home in an unexpected way. Nationwide, funding to build low-cost apartments has dropped by more than half in two years to $4 billion. Hundreds of projects can’t get off the ground because the federal tax credits that help offset development costs are currently worthless to traditional investors. Georgia, for example, typically funds about 30 projects a year using up to $20 million in federal tax credits. So far, just nine deals have closed for 2008 and none this year. In Savannah, one project was halted mid-development because of a financing gap…”

State Reimbursement of Funeral Expenses - Wisconsin

townsend — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:43:05 +0000

In dour economy, more indigent burials get public funds, By Laurel Walker, September 8, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Recent elaborate funeral services for the likes of Sen. Edward Kennedy or Michael Jackson may grab the public’s attention. But among the ranks of the impoverished, the number of indigents who need publicly financed burials has been quietly growing. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has recorded a nearly 15% increase in indigent burials qualifying for public subsidy between 2006 and 2008, when the number jumped from 3,169 to 3,629. Department spokeswoman Stephanie Smiley said the state spent just over $6.1 million in general purpose funds in 2006 to reimburse funeral homes and cemeteries for those services. The figure grew to $7.4 million last year. Through August of this year, the total is $6.1 million. Anecdotal evidence from news stories around the country, from California to West Virginia, suggests a common theme - that more people are needing government help to bury their loved ones…”

Unemployment Benefits and Job Programs - Georgia, New Jersey

townsend — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:29:42 +0000

Ga. work program grows, attracts followers, By Christine Vestal, September 10, 2009, Stateline.org: “As states struggle to help legions of jobless workers find employment, some are seeking advice from Georgia, where a growing number of people are landing jobs as a result of free tryouts sponsored by the state unemployment system. The program, dubbed Georgia Works, is so simple that experts say other states should have no problem replicating it…”
As unemployment benefits run out, Jersey’s jobless wait for extension, By Trish G. Graber, September 11, 2009, Star-Ledger: “Unemployment insurance benefits will dry up for an estimated 33,000 New Jerseyans today, and the state estimates another 3,500 to 4,000 will receive final checks each week through the end of the year as residents exhaust their benefits. Help for the unemployed now rests with Congress, where pending legislation would extend benefits, probably for another 13 weeks. In the Garden State, and many other states, out-of-work residents can collect unemployment for 79 weeks. In New Jersey, the maximum weekly benefit is $584, and the federal stimulus law allows for an additional $25…”

Report: Cost of High School Dropouts

townsend — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:25:12 +0000

State disputes dropout count, By Loren Moreno, September 8, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state Department of Education has disputed the number of Hawai’i high school dropouts recently reported by a national policy and advocacy organization. The Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education said last week more than 6,202 students from the class of 2009 in Hawai’i dropped out of school before graduation…”
Tough times for Hawaii dropouts, By Michael Tsai, September 7, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “If she didn’t have so much riding on it, Ginger Rivera never would have even opened the door to room H-103. There she was: a 31-year-old high school dropout getting ready to take a General Education Diploma preparatory class with what she figured would be a roomful of teenagers…”
Report shows negative effects of dropouts on economy, By Lisa Singleton-Rickman, September 7, 2009, Florence Times Daily: “A study by the Alliance for Excellent Education indicates the sobering impact high school dropouts have on the national and state economy. On a national scale, if high school students who dropped out in 2009 had graduated, the economy would have benefited from nearly $335 billion in additional income during the course of their lifetimes, according to the study. If the dropouts in Alabama’s class of 2009 had graduated, it is estimated that the state’s economy would have had another $6.5 billion in additional income during the course of the students’ lifetimes…”
The cost of not getting a high-school diploma is exorbitant for dropouts, governments and the economy, Editorial, Birmingham News: “Here’s a sobering thought for Labor Day in the midst of a recession. What you don’t know really can hurt you, especially in your pocketbook. Not only do high school dropouts earn less when they do have jobs, they are much more likely to get a pink slip during the current economic downturn. Talk about a double whammy. In July, the national jobless rate was 9.4 percent. For high school dropouts, it was 15.4 percent. High school graduates had a rate of 9.4 percent, while people with some college credits or an associate’s degree had a jobless rate of 7.9 percent. Only 4.7 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were out of work…”

Unemployment and Disabled Workers

townsend — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:06:45 +0000

Unemployed pushing out disabled residents for jobs, By Jessica Heffner, August 30, 2009, Oxford Press: “When Cheryl Callsen watches her 21-year-old son sit idle, she can see his frustration. ‘Andrew’s got a lot to offer and, like anyone else does, he gets bored sitting around all the time,’ she said of her son who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. ‘He wants a job.’ But with so many people out of work, even entry-level jobs such as bagging groceries are hard to find. While nationally the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent, U.S. Census data puts that figure at more than 62 percent for those with disabilities…”
Too many students ‘graduate to the living room’, By Barbara Shelly, September 5, 2009, Kansas City Star: “Emily Thomas was born profoundly disabled. Doctors told her parents that if she lived, she might never so much as smile. ‘I wasted a lot of tears over that,’ says her mother, Cynthia Thomas. Emily, now 25, grins when presented with a hefty sandwich at an Overland Park café. She beams while riding the lift on her family’s new van. She exults when I hand her a business card. With a single encounter, I see what she means. Emily’s delight in life’s small moments is contagious. Cynthia and Ted Thomas always envisioned a full life for their daughter. They sought out schools with good special education programs. Despite hearing and vision impairments and cognitive and physical disabilities that require her to use a wheelchair, Emily gained skills and thrived in the daily routine of classes…”

Tax Credits for the Working Poor

townsend — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:28:24 +0000

Obama would keep $85 billion in tax breaks for working poor, By Lori Montgomery, September 3, 2009, Washington Post: “President Obama is proposing to add more than $85 billion to the nation’s budget deficits over the next decade to extend two tax breaks for the working poor, a move critics on Wednesday blasted as a violation of Obama’s pledge to pay for new policies. The tax breaks were included in the economic stimulus package Obama signed soon after taking office in January, and are scheduled to expire in 2011. But last week, in its midyear update of the federal budget, the White House said it plans to extend the tax cuts through 2019 without covering the cost by cutting spending or raising taxes elsewhere. The reason? Technically, the stimulus amended a series of sweeping tax cuts enacted in 2001 during the Bush administration. Obama has repeatedly said he does not expect Congress to cover the enormous cost of maintaining the Bush tax cuts past their 2010 expiration date. And because the stimulus provisions are now part of the Bush tax cuts, Congress shouldn’t have to pay for them, either, White House budget documents say…”

States and the Stimulus Emergency Fund for Needy Families

townsend — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:19:52 +0000

States: We can’t afford costs tied to $5B emergency fund, By Michael Grabell and Chris Flavelle, September 7, 2009, USA Today: “Many states are walking away from a $5 billion federal fund that some economists say is a swift and effective way to help people hurt by the recession and stimulate the economy. The states say they can’t collect their share of the emergency fund for needy families because they can’t afford to put up the 20% of costs required by the federal government. Six months after the money was made available under the $787 billion federal stimulus program, only 27 states have applied for funds, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Most have tapped only a small fraction of the money they’re entitled to - less than 15% in most cases. As a result, as much as $1 billion could be left on the table when the program ends in September 2010, estimates Jack Tweedie of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The fund can be used to help states cope with growing welfare caseloads, create temporary jobs for the unemployed, pay rent for families facing eviction and immediately put cash in people’s pockets…”

Unemployment Rates and Exhaustion of Jobless Benefits

townsend — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:36:36 +0000

In unemployment report, signs of a jobless recovery, By Peter S. Goodman and Jack Healy, September 4, 2009, New York Times: “The American economy lost another 216,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent, amplifying worries that millions of households are likely to endure financial anxiety and lean times for months to come. As a technical matter, most economists believe that the United States has escaped the grip of recession, the longest since the Great Depression. The Labor Department’s latest employment report, released Friday, added weight to the view that economic expansion has resumed, marking a continued albeit modest improvement to the rate of lost jobs. Yet the report also lent credence to a growing consensus that the recovery is likely to be weak and fragile, prompting most companies to hold back from hiring aggressively…”
Jobless picture soon to worsen, By Tamara Lush (AP), September 4, 2009, Modesto Bee: “More than 1.3 million Americans’ unemployment insurance benefits will run out by the end of the year, placing extra strain on an economy that is just starting to recover from the worst downturn in a generation. Of the nation’s 14.5 million jobless, those whose benefits are drying up - in some cases after a record 18 months of government support - are the most unfortunate. In California, the state Economic Development Department said as many as 170,000 of the unemployed it serves are at risk of losing their benefits…”

State Worker Furloughs and Cuts to Services

townsend — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:28:04 +0000

States shut down to save cash, By Leslie Eaton, Ryan Knutson, and Philip Shishkin, September 4, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “California drivers can’t line up to renew their licenses Friday. Wisconsin natives can’t order copies of their birth certificates. Georgia consumers will have to postpone registering complaints with state watchdogs. And stranded motorists in Maryland may have to wait a little longer for highway-department help. Across the country, cash-strapped state governments are shutting down business for a day at a time to save money. State offices are shuttered Friday in California, Maine, Maryland and Michigan. Rhode Island had planned to join them until a judge on Thursday blocked its closure plan. Some state agencies are closed in Georgia and Wisconsin, and most Colorado state offices will be shuttered on Tuesday. Other states, such as Arizona, have been trying to keep their operations open while furloughing thousands of workers. So far the effect of furloughs appears to have been muted, with most people able to take care of state business in advance of closures or by filing forms online. But at the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, which helps low-income families avoid sending children to foster care, furloughs have already slowed assistance efforts, said managing attorney Tracy Green…”

Post-Katrina Recovery - New Orleans, LA

townsend — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:14:12 +0000

Hope, reality collide in post-Katrina New Orleans, By Becky Bohrer and Peter Prengaman (AP), August 26, 2009, Washington Post: “Shelia Phillips doesn’t see the New Orleans that Mayor Ray Nagin talks about, the one on its way to having just as many people and a more diverse economy than it did before Hurricane Katrina. How could she? From the front porch of her house in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, it’s hard to see past the vegetation slowly swallowing the property across the way. Nearby homes are boarded up or still bear the fading tattoos left by search and rescue teams nearly four years ago. The fence around a playground a few blocks down is padlocked. ‘I just want to see people again,’ she said recently, swatting bugs in the muggy heat. On paper, the city’s economy appears to be thriving, with relatively low unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. But in post-Katrina New Orleans, residents’ perceptions of their city’s recovery tends to depend on where they live, their vantage point of it. Swaths of some neighborhoods are sparsely populated, even desolate, and federal rebuilding dollars have provided much of the economic resilience…”

Financing for Social Service Agencies

townsend — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:35:30 +0000

With donations and grants down, social service agencies feel the pinch, By Diane Cardwell, August 21, 2009, New York Times: “At a social service agency on Staten Island where budget cuts forced the layoff of a driver, the staff scrambles to arrange transportation to Brooklyn for an elderly homeless woman whose family has agreed to take her in. In Midtown Manhattan, a woman who has lost her job worries that she will not be able to send her granddaughter to an after-school program at the settlement house that helped the girl’s father and two uncles. And in Washington Heights, an agency is hard-pressed to prevent evictions after laying off half of its legal services team…”

Measurement of the U.S. Unemployment Rate

townsend — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:40:22 +0000

Jobless rate captures only part of pain, By Mark Niquette, August 21, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “Considering the number of people she knows personally who are out of work, Amy Drake had suspected that the unemployment rate reported in recent months was too low. “It seemed like, statistically, it should be higher than what we hear in the news,” said Drake, 44, whose Columbus job in information-technology communications was eliminated in March. That’s why it was both illuminating and disturbing for Drake to learn that the unemployment rate, widely used as a key economic indicator and political weapon, wouldn’t include her if she hadn’t looked for a job for a month. Although it’s often assumed that the jobless rate includes all unemployed workers or is based on official claims for unemployment benefits, it actually comes from a monthly survey of about 60,000 households nationwide — and it counts only those who have actively looked for work during the past four weeks…”

State Minimum Wages Tied to Inflation

townsend — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:22:53 +0000

Colo. could be 1st state to lower minimum wage, By Kristen Wyatt (AP), August 19, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado’s lowest-paid workers could make even less money next year. That’s because the state has an adjustable minimum wage that may become the first in the nation to drop slightly along with the cost of living. Colorado is one of 10 states where the minimum wage is tied to inflation. The indexing is thought to protect low-wage workers from having flat wages as the cost of living goes up. But because Colorado’s provision allows wage declines, the minimum wage could actually drop 3 cents an hour next year. If the wage is reduced by state labor officials in September as expected, it would be the first minimum wage decrease in any state since the federal minimum wage law was passed in 1938…”