from In These Times:
Job Growth Picks Up, But Unemployment Insurance Crisis LoomsSaturday
May 8
10:00 am
By David Moberg
It seems as if every monthly employment report is a mixture of good and bad news. Friday was no exception. Job growth picked up steam last month, with the economy generating 290,000 new jobs in sectors such as manufacturing, federal census taking, business services and healthcare, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But raised hopes of finding a job encouraged even more workers who had given up hope to renew their search, and as a result, the unemployment rate inched up two-tenths of a point to 9.9 percent. Indeed, prospects are better for those 195,000 re-entrants to the workforce–but still very bad: there are 5.5 workers unemployed for every job opening, down from a peak of 6.25, but still nearly double the worst point of the 2001 downturn.
And Economic Policy Institute president Larry Mishel calculates that there are another 1.9 million people still in the wings waiting to enter the job search just to get back to the level before the recession. Ironically, workers with less than a college education–who as always were hit hardest and first–were gaining some jobs, while better educated workers were still losing jobs.
The economy—and therefore jobs—just hasn’t grown fast enough, despite the beneficial effects of the stimulus.
But as that tapers off later this year and as state and local governments slash jobs in their new fiscal year, the unemployment rate is likely to remain high, and the percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work six months or more–already at a record high of 45.9 percent–will likely continue to grow.
That makes the news from Thursday’s hearings before the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support even more grim. The nation’s unemployment insurance safety net, already full of holes and inadequate, faces a financial crisis that could lead to drastic cutbacks at a time when workers need help and the economy needs the powerful stimulus of unemployment insurance. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5951/job_growth_picks_up_but_unemployment_insurance_crisis_looms/