states cutting jobless benefits

[Hannah Bell]

The Florida move is the latest and most sweeping in a series of attacks on unemployment benefits by state governments. The legislation will cut the maximum length of eligibility for state benefits from 26 to 23 weeks. It also imposes a sliding scale for benefits, which will drop to as low as 12 weeks if the official jobless rate declines to 5 percent or lower. Florida’s official unemployment rates currently stands at 11.5 percent.

In March, Michigan—which has suffered more than 28 months of double-digit unemployment—became the first state to shorten jobless benefits, cutting the period from 26 to 20 weeks, effective January 2012. The Arkansas state legislature recently cut jobless benefits from 26 to 25 weeks. It hopes to save $60 million to $75 million with this change as well as through new eligibility requirements for workers seeking unemployment.

This growing assault on the jobless comes as the latest jobs report saw the national unemployment rate rise from 8.8 percent in March to 9.0 percent in April. If “discouraged” workers are taken into account, the rate rises to 15.9 percent. More than 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. In April, the US government slashed an estimated 24,000 jobs, and local governments cut 14,000 workers from their payrolls...As unemployment tax rates for businesses are mainly tied to the number of former workers collecting compensation, corporate taxes will fall along with the jobless benefits....

Last December, Obama cut a deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, while keeping the federally extended unemployment benefits in place until the end of 2011. But states are required to authorize acceptance of the federal funds for the 13 or 20 weeks of extended benefits. By failure to act, a number of states, including North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Missouri and Utah, have forfeited this money, purposefully depriving jobless workers of the extended benefits...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/flor-m10.shtml

[DainBramaged]

1. They are working to create a third-world economy, and to also force the unemployed to move elsewhere

and the number one target, minorities (IMHO).

[sasha031]

2. for every $1 spent on unemployed $1.61 goes back into the economy

while tax breaks are invested offshore.

[Romulox]

3. Michigan won't be done until our standard of living = Alabammy.

That's the end game: a cheap labor race to the bottom with the poorest southern states.

[undeterred]

4. Just another "fuck you" to average people from Scott Walker

I couldn't believe it.

[xchrom]

5. Recommend