Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

unemployed

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Tax Dollars Used to Pay for Unemployed Workers’ Health Insurance

The U.S. Labor Department has rustled up more taxpayer money to help “jobless workers” pay their health insurance premiums.

“It is difficult enough to find new employment, let alone do so without health insurance for you or your family,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a news release dated Dec. 26. “This funding will help eligible workers avoid that prospect by helping them pay for health insurance while they seek new jobs.”

The money — in the form of a $1,058,254 National Emergency Grant supplement — will go to several thousand unemployed people in Alabama, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia.

National Emergency Grants are part of the Labor Secretary’s discretionary fund. These grants provide assistance “in response to large, unexpected economic events which cause significant job losses.” Usually the grants are used to re-train laid-off workers.

Read more.

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Retirement Savings Being Raided by Laid Off Workers

he number of displaced workers has risen dramatically since the start of the Great Recession, and this year a third of them had to raid retirement savings to make ends meet.

Making matters worse, many who have lost their jobs have defaulted on 401(k) loans, causing taxes and penalties to further deplete their retirement savings.

“Of greatest concern are those who are in their 40s and 50s,” says Catherine Collinson, president of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which released a study today on the retirement outlook of the unemployed and underemployed.

Long-term unemployment for older workers has risen substantially, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says. Last year, 55% of unemployed workers age 55 and older had been seeking a job for more than six months.

Older Americans are hit hard two ways. “It is more difficult for them to find employment,” Collinson says. “And they have less time to build or rebuild their retirement savings.”

Displaced workers in their 40s and 50s have median household retirement savings of only $2,300, the Transamerica study says.

Read more.

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America At A Crossroads

America is at a crossroads. Today’s jobs report shows that two years into recovery the U.S. economy is still woefully underperforming, adding only 120,000 new jobs in March, about half the rate of job growth of the previous three months which were, themselves, somewhat disappointing for this stage of recovery.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the jobs report is the extent to which the labor market was “little changed,” an impression the report returns to repeatedly. For example, the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, still two full percentage points higher than the peak during the 2001 recession, was “little changed.” Other examples, with italics added:

  • The number of unemployed persons (12.7 million) was “little changed in March.”
  • “Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (25.0 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (14.0 percent), and Hispanics (10.3 percent) showed little or no change.”
  • “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million in March.”
  • “The civilian labor force participation rate (63.8 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were little changed in March.”
  • “In March, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier.”
  • “Among the marginally attached, there were 865,000 discouraged workers in March, about the same as a year earlier.”

Read more.