Posted on 12/12/2011 3:58:25 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:20am EST
(Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.
At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.
A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.
Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.
Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
We are back to 1985’s level of Civilian labor force participation rate at 64%.
I am sure the H1-B visa program can bring in Rahm from Bengali to do Civil Engineering. /sarc
I think once all of the Unemployment is spent we will see another dip in housing prices as people downsize. A 60 year old doesn’t really need a house he can’t afford.
Please folks, keep a lookout for some work that a jobless eye can do.
Like storming the local welfare office?
“I can’t figure out why other folks just went right on spending”
‘How about losing your job at 62 and then getting stuck with your 92 yr old peniless MIL?
“I can’t figure out why other folks just went right on spending”
‘How about losing your job at 62 and then getting stuck with your 92 yr old penniless MIL who insists on having her own place?
By golly, if they can make storms, then they can do some other work, too.
It is not healthy to hold back! ;-)
LLS
“...1985’s level of Civilian labor force participation rate at 64%.
Remove the growth in illegal alien participation from the civilian labor force count and the actual civilian participation rate is even lower.
My parents were both children of the Depression. Dad was one of six children and Mom was one of three children. Public assistance was minimal and difficult to get. Mom talked about the humiliating surprise inspections. Agents would periodically go through the house looking for any evidence of fraud. Once an inspector held up a new dress my grandmother made for Mom and began grilling Grandma about it. Grandma was an excellent seamstress. She had made the dress out of scraps of fabric she had around. But the dress looked brand new and like something from an upscale department store. It ended up that the inspector couldn’t prove one way or the other where the dress came from, so he dropped the matter. But seeing Grandma go through such an interrogation made my mother determined not to live on the public dole ever again.
My parents worked and saved for everything they had and what they couldn’t afford, they did without. For a number of years Dad didn’t own a car. Then for many years he owned used cars. Old jalopies that could fall apart at any moment. It wasn’t until he retired that be bought his first new car. And Dad didn’t believe in credit. He reluctantly agreed to allow my mother three department store charges, but Dad wouldn’t even have a checking account. Everything was cash. He even paid cash for his house. Of course, he could do that because the price at that time was $3,000.
My brother and I aren’t quite that way, but we both live rather well because we learned from our parents. When I became disabled and could no longer work, I gave up the trips to Vegas, most of the dinners out and any other luxuries I once had. When the money isn’t coming in, you do what you have to,do. You don’t live off the taxpayers. We have to end this entitlement mentality and get people to take responsibility for themselves.
Things are relative. If you can afford a $480.00 car payment and it isn’t putting you in the hole, why not? The problem is the family who takes on the $480.00 car payment, but could only afford $240.00.
For the person who is sitting at the table writing the checks, it is painful. Give up the car and kill your credit, which means you won’t be able to get another car. Or pay the $480 and drain whatever money you have left so you do not have your credit killed.
Gym memberships are ridiculous to start with. Run, pushups and situps. Worked for millenia.
I can’t figure out why other folks just went right on spending.
In my case, the spending was done for me, without my knowing that I was going into deep dept. The problem: I had a heart attack.
When I reviewed the final bill with my doctor and with my cardiologist, I asked, line by line, "was that really necessary for my care?" Out of the $30,000 not covered by insurance, about $14,000 of the items received a "no" answer. The tests and procedures were done for the benefit of the hospital and the doctors, not me, the patient. Malpractice exposure.
Since that time, I've paid down that $30K significantly, to the point that there is only about $2K left. I'm lucky I'm still employed. But the paycheck doesn't go nearly as far as it used to. I've stopped almost all entertainment expenses; cable is gone; I drive a used car on its last legs; if I didn't need it for my job, I'd not have the broadband I have. And so forth.
And at my age, if my job goes, that's it. I've experienced age discrimination in the workplace. It won't get better as I get older.
Parks’ savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.
I cannot understand how a guy 60 years old could have exhausted his savings in seven months. I know it is difficult to get a job at 60. I am just hoping that the guy has hundreds of thousands of dollars in mutual funds and other investments that he doesn’t want to touch. If he is down to zero TOTAL after less than a year then he did not prepare the last 38 years at all. And it does not matter how much the house value went down unless he wants to sell. Otherwise it is no big deal.
I pray to God that is not my situation in 20 years. My mother collected alimony well after I graduated college from my father, and somehow there is nary a cent left, and she has to depend on social security. I think I'd go insane.
Things are relative. If you can afford a $480.00 car payment and it isn’t putting you in the hole, why not?
That is the fastest way today to get the attention of the government, and I'm not talking about good attention.
This was 1949. In our little blue collar suburb, no one would notice. It may well have been common especially since the house wasn’t worth that much. :)
This was 1949. In our little blue collar suburb, no one would notice. It may well have been common especially since the house wasn’t worth that much. :)
People, I’m not picking on you. I’m picking on those who went on with the gym memberships and new cars while on unemployment.
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