The Pennsylvania Unemployment Rate for April 2010 is due to be announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 21st and PA unemployment levels are nearing double digits. But how does this affect the recovery within the state from the economic recession?
High unemployment remains the most difficult obstacle to economic recovery. And the surge in unemployment caused by the Great Recession also has exposed two parts of Pennsylvania unemployment compensation law that need to updated.
A new law would create a voluntary work-sharing program, by which some employers would be able to reduce hours for all employees rather than lay off some employees. The workers would be able to receive unemployment compensation for their lost hours. For example, a company pondering a 20 percent layoff instead could reduce total hours by 20 percent.
The company’s severance costs would be mitigated and it would not lose valuable skills or worry about having to retrain workers later. Workers would lose less money than through a layoff.
Sandi Vito, secretary of Labor and Industry, said the program has been successful in 18 other states. Pennsylvania should join them.
The second initiative would modernize the formula to calculate a laid-off worker’s eligibility for benefits. Now the state uses wage data from the first three of the last four quarters, excluding the current quarter. That system, a hold-over from the days of pre-computerized payrolls, renders about 30,000 Pennsylvanians ineligible for benefits, Ms. Vito said.
Adoption of the program also would make the state eligible for as much as $273 million in additional federal funding. So the program would not adversely affect the unemployment compensation fund.
Source: http://thedailyreview.com/opinion/unemployment-rates-remain-economic-recovery-obstacle-1.791928
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- Pennsylvania (PA) Unemployment: Still a Lot of Work to Do
- The Computer That Delayed Unemployment Benefits For Thousands
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I think this is misguided. There are hundreds of thousands of jobless workers in PA whose unemployment benefits expired in March. These people are in dire need. Until help is directed to those who have been hardest hit by the recession,why are you making scarce funds available to people with jobs? Let them take a pay cut and be done with it, this is an outrage to those of us who are sliding into poverty due to the inaction of our Federal and State leaders. Many in this group are over 50 and have been searching tirelessly for work for 2 years. These people are too young to retire, too old to be hired. And instead of doing something to help those who exhausted benefits, you are going to allow people with jobs to collect unemployment? It is an insult to the people who through no fault of their own lost jobs early on. Are you just going to let them get kicked under the bus? Particularly those over 55. I guess they just want us to disappear under a bridge somewhere. Doesn’t the state realize that the social service agencies are going to be it hard since so many have been cut off since March? I just don’t see the logic. Perhaps early on in the recession, this measure may have been a good move but I can’t see the logic.
You need to listen up and help those who are in dire need. I am pasting a story posted on a website. Open up your heart and get benefits to those whose have been exhausted before you started handing out more to people who had jobs and have been earning a living this entire time. It’s not fair that you ignore the true victims of the recession, such as this woman.
She wrote:
I’m 50 years of age, a single mom, and a domestic violence survivor of 20 years.
I had my last unemployment check in March as well. Ten years of savings is gone. If it weren’t for food stamps, we’d all be starving.
I recently went through a bankruptcy – I had no other alternative.
My family home was just sold in foreclosure… the mortgage company tacked a nice big foreclosure notice on my front door, right next to my Son in Service banner.
God bless America.
PA needs to extend benefits to those who have exhausted theirs. People can’t continue to live without any help and the jobs aren’t there yet. Until that time, take care of these people FIRST.