Myself and 45,000+ Other Pennsylvanians No Longer Unemployed As Of June 11, 2011

Federally Funded Extended Benefits Payments
to End on June 11, 2011

Federal guidelines determine eligibility for extended unemployment benefits and, as a result of a drop in Pennsylvania's unemployment rate for the three-month period ending in April 2011, the state no longer qualifies for the extended benefits program.

Under these federal rules, maximum duration for benefits for unemployed Pennsylvanians will drop to 73 weeks.

If you are among those with a remaining balance in their extended benefits, those benefits cannot be paid after June 11, 2011.

While state governments are required to function under federal rules, we want to assure you that Pennsylvania maintains several programs to help unemployed citizens return to the workforce. We will do everything in our power to help you and others during the transition back to employment.

If further extensions become available, the department will notify you and all individuals who may qualify for them.

If you have questions about your claim, visit www.uc.pa.gov online or call the Unemployment Compensation Service Center at 1-888-313-7284. The Service Center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

PROGRAMS TO ASSIST YOU

From meeting basic needs for food and shelter to upgrading professional skills to find a new job in a high-demand industry, the commonwealth has a variety of programs to help people get through tough times. Please take advantage of these free programs.

HereToHelp

Through HereToHelp, you can get information about finding a new job, health insurance options, food and utility assistance, housing assistance, personal finance information, family support and more. To learn more, go online to www.HereToHelp.pa.gov.

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That's the letter I received today from the Pa. Department of Labor and Industry.

What it means is that I am no longer eligible for unemployment benefits. Not because I have expired my full 99 weeks -- I haven't -- but because the Pa. unemployment rate has fallen below whatever the state and federally proscribed amount is (8.5%). Myself and tens of thousands (45k to 90k estimated) of other Pennsylvanians have very suddenly lost what lifeline they had left. And it will start to happen to other states as their unemployment rates go down.

Well whoopie! you say. The jobs picture is improving!

Not quite and you know it. Reference last week's pile of bad news. Then consider this.

According to this chart it really started falling apart for jobs in April of 2009. That's when we first crossed the 8.5 % mark (and haven't been back there since).

Now, count 99 weeks from then and you wind up back in April, 2011. When the unemployed who reached their 99 weeks began running out of their benefits and, although they had not found jobs, were no longer counted as unemployed.

I have no doubt some people are back to work, but not enough to account for this, certainly not with so few jobs created lately.

But the government now gets to report a lower unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted, of course) in Pennsylvania. And can stop paying the extended benefits.

Know what that does?

It removes a whole bunch of other people from the unemployment rolls, although they have not found jobs. And Pa. in particular and the federal government as a whole can report a drop in unemployment.

Woo hoo! I'm no longer considered unemployed. Wish I had a job to go to in my spare time.

The reality, of course, is that many families suddenly find themselves with far more trouble and hardship than they woke up with. How are they going to pay the mortgage this month? Buy the groceries? Pay the electric and the gas and the water?

Many of them, for one reason or another, may not be relocatable to look for jobs far afield. So what happens as they begin to default on their mortgages, are turned out of their homes? When the banks begin to lose money from the defaults? When there is even less and less money going into the local economies if just for food and clothing?

So it is for a bunch of people who live in the 6th most impoverished city in the nation.

This is not just Pennsylvania, it's going to start happening all over. And we'll have politicians and pundits standing there saying "We don't understand. Why is everything else seeming so bad. Why so many homeless? Why so little spending? The jobs reports are improving!"

As for myself, I'll be here as long as I can although I don't know how long that will be.

This very long journey has just turned down a bad road.