In an effort to extend benefits to over one million Americans whose emergency unemployment coverage expired, a White House economic adviser said there is a 3-to-1 ratio in the number of unemployed looking for jobs.
Gene Sperling, leading economic adviser to President Obama and
director of the National Economic Council, is pushing to renew
the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provided
benefits to some 1.3 Americans before it was abruptly terminated
on Dec. 28.
Although the Senate agreed to extend the program on Tuesday,
political analysts say the House is unlikely to do the same.
Sperling rejected the notion that some Americans were able to
“game the system,” in other words, receive benefits for
as long as possible without making an honest effort to find work.
"Most of the people are desperately looking for jobs,"
he told CNN. "You know, our economy still has three people
looking for every job (opening)."
There were a reported 3.925 million job openings for the month of
October, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics
report from Dec. 10, while an estimated 11.3 million are
unemployed. Incidentally, the figure represents those individuals
who are actively searching for work, not those who have given up
hope on finding employment.
To put it another way, that’s a ratio of 2.88-to-1 or,
approximately 3-to-1, as Obama’s top economic advisor said.
“The worst legacy of the great Recession is that there is a
crisis of long-term unemployment,” Sperling said.
“People who have been unemployed for 6 months or longer are
finding it most difficult.”
The financial hardships now facing long-term unemployed
Americans, however, also affects their immediate dependents. For
about 4.9 million Americans who are scheduled to have their
long-term benefits terminated, an additional 9 million people
they support would also feel the brunt of the cuts, the adviser
mentioned.
This brings the total number of people affected by the
termination of emergency unemployment benefits to about 14
million.
The unemployment insurance system, started in 1935, provides up
to 26 weeks of benefits to unemployed workers while they hunt for
a new job. The basic program in most states gives about half the
amount of a worker’s previous wages, on average.
In June 2008, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that
forced millions of Americans out of work, Congress enacted
Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) that provided emergency
benefit extensions until the end of 2013.
Members of Congress declined to renew the emergency unemployment
program as part of the bipartisan budget deal before departing
for the holiday recess.