First Posted: 07- 2-10 12:23 PM | Updated: 07- 3-10 10:58 AM
It's not just candidates, however. Representative John Linder (R-Ga.) -- the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee -- citing a "Detroit News story about landscaping businesses complaining that potential employees rejected job offers in favor of collecting unemployment benefits," decreed that "nearly two years of unemployment benefits are too much of an allure for some."
But Linder's example happens to be an exception. The basic reality for America's job seekers is that currently there are five people looking for work for every job opening. The average unemployment benefit is a scant $290 per week. And, as Arthur Delaney reported on these pages in early June, there are other difficult-to-ignore facts that harpoon the notion that the unemployed are content to live off benefits:
Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute pointed out that only 67 percent of the 15 million unemployed receive benefits. Even if all those people are enjoying the dole, shouldn't businesses still be able to hire some of the other five million receiving no benefits at all?Exactly. If unemployment benefits truly tamp down the motivation of job seekers, there would still be about five million people going after the jobs that Sharron Angle believes exist with a rabid intensity.
But enough of the view from 30,000 feet. What is actually going on with job seekers in America? Well, as it turns out, they are desperately seeking jobs, wherever they may be:
June 30, 2010:
Hundreds of people attended a healthcare career fair sponsored by WALB Wednesday. Doors were opened at the Merry Acres Event Center 15 minutes early because of the long line of people wanting to get their resumes before employers.June 28, 2010:
Hundreds of job hunters descended on the Amway Arena today looking to meet dozens of potential employers for Congresswoman Corrine Brown's Annual Job Fair. Hiring employers included the military, law enforcement, theme parks, and other local and national companies.
June 24, 2010:
More than 1,500 job seekers filed into Augusta State University's Christenberry Fieldhouse on Thursday afternoon.June 24, 2010:
Trevor Huggins, 23, handed out résumés in hopes of landing a full-time gig.
"I've got an interview with an insurance company and I've handed out a few résumés," he said. "I just graduated from Mercer in Macon and moved back here so now I'm just looking for a job."
[...]
More than 60 potential employers attended the event, including Aflac, AT&T, Scana and Spherion. About 1,600 people attended, organizers said.
Some of those looking for a new job handed out their resumes at a job fair Thursday. Around 1700 hundreds applicants attended the 4th annual job expo at Christenberry Field House. There were plenty of job openings to apply for including medical jobs, teaching jobs and factory work. They also had resume critique sessions and seminars on how to scout out the job fair.June 24, 2010:
[...]
The competition was stiff. There were nearly 30 times the number of job seekers as employers.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, about 50 job-seekers were lined up outside the Watsonville Career Center on West Beach Street. During the next 90 minutes, 278 people passed through the doors in hopes of finding work at a job fair sponsored by Workforce Santa Cruz County.June 23, 2010:
"For me, I feel so happy. There's a lot of opportunities," said Maria Murillo.
For 10 years, Murillo operated La Azteca, the restaurant she and her husband owned in Corralitos. But with three small children at home and her husband working as an electronics engineer in Silicon Valley, the couple decided to sell the business. Three months later, he was laid off.
"I wish somebody would hire me," Murillo said as she left clutching a stack of fliers. "I'm looking for any type of job."
[...]
Connie Corbett, manager of the career center, said Wednesday's job fair was designed to attract local residents, and since space was limited, only 10 companies were represented.
Hundreds of job seekers lined up at the Florence County Civic Center Tuesday morning, dressed to impress with resumes in hand. Representatives from businesses around the area were there to talk about the employment opportunities their companies have to offer.June 22, 2010:
Those who attended were able to inquire about 150 available jobs, ranging from entry-level to managerial positions. Waffle House, Target, RBC Bearings and Bankers Life Insurance were among the companies advertising at the job fair.
Officials with Alvin S. Glenn Dentention Center called their job fair on Tuesday a success, after more than 100 people showed up to fill an application.June 20, 2010:
"It's a tough place to work but it's a great opportunity to work in criminal justice, so we're hoping to get 20 great applicants to fill the positions," said Kathy Harrell with the facility.
Hundreds of job seekers shuffled through Benjamin Franklin School on Friday, as representatives from 15 local businesses took resumes and fielded questions at a Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now-sponsored job fair.June 20, 2010:
WILLISTON, N.D. - A recent job fair in Williston drew 126 people from 20 states seeking oil field work and other jobs.June 17, 2010:
Nearly hour before the job fair began the line of job seekers already stretched out the door of Indian River State College in Stuart. And that line continued to grow.June 17, 2010:
More than 2000 people pre-registered for the job fair, including mothers with children in toe, managers and professionals laid off in the middle of their careers, and entry level job seekers trying to land that first job.
[...]
Nineteen employers set up booths at the fair. Collectively, they have more than 400 positions available.
Summer heat and a brief downpour failed to discourage a throng of about 4,000 job seekers Thursday as they vied for about 400 positions from 19 predominantly local employers.June 12, 2010:
Workforce Solutions hosted what was to have been a three-hour job fair from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Indian River State College Chastain Campus. However, things did not go entirely as planned.
"When we got here at 9 a.m. to set up, there were already people here," said Odaly Victorio, Workforce Solutions communications coordinator. "At 12:30, we had already seen about 2,000 people.
Greene was one of approximately 200 people who visited the Goodwill Career Center in Opelika Saturday morning during a job fair for Hyundai Mobis. The manufacturing facility, on the pad of Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia in West Point, Ga., is looking to add 140 jobs to create another shift.June 8, 2010:
[...]
The fair began at 8 a.m., but when Bryant arrived for work at 7 a.m., he said people were already waiting in line.
According to numbers provided by organizers, a job fair held today at Harris-Stowe State University attracted more than 5,000 job seekers.So that's the real state of affairs. Far from being a nation of lazy sots, living off the government teat, America's unemployed are strivers. They are looking for work, everywhere. Entry-level work. Low-paying work. They show up early, they stand in line, and they often vastly outnumber the number of jobs available. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just out of touch with what's going on in the country.
Congressman Lacy Clay's 5th Annual Career Fair promised around 100 employers. Before it opened, the line of job seekers stretched nearly around the building.
By the way, let me clue Representative Linder in as to what's in the Detroit News today:
Some 36 companies, including the local offices of General Electric Co., Aflac and software firm ESI, set up recruiting shops Thursday in a job fair at the Rock Financial Showplace. They are looking to fill more than 3,000 positions, ranging from insurance agents and sales personnel to engineers and financial planners.Stop attacking the unemployed, chump.
Thousands of Metro Detroit job seekers showed up at the one-day event sponsored by HiredMyWay, a job recruiting firm.
VIDEO: Angle Says Plenty of Low-Wage Jobs Exist for “Spoiled” Nevadans on Unemployment
Angle coldly rejects any benefit extension for struggling Nevadans, evidence mounts that she’s either completely clueless or just plain cruelLAS VEGAS – Multiple Nevada television stations decided to investigate GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s claims from her Tuesday Face to Face appearance that government should cut off the final lifeline of unemployment benefits for struggling Nevadans because there were “plenty of jobs” out there if people weren’t being “spoiled” by their unemployment checks. Angle’s comments on Ralston’s show doubled down on her previous pejorative statements about Nevadans forced onto unemployment during these tough economic times being “spoiled.”
The reality of the situation, as reported on numerous Nevada television broadcasts, and summarized this morning on ABC News is quite the opposite:
“In Nevada, where the unemployment rate is a staggering 14 percent, Senate candidate Sharron Angle told journalist Jon Ralston in a local TV interview Tuesday that unemployment benefits discouraged people from looking for work. ‘The truth about it is that they keep extending these unemployment benefits to the point where people are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn't pay as much as the unemployment benefit does,’ she said, even though most people on unemployment receive less than 40 percent of their previous wages. (The maximum benefit in Nevada is $362 a week, far lower than the median household income there, which is more than $56,000.)”
***Watch Video Clip Summarizing Sharron Angle's "Screw You" Economics:
In addition, as reported by the Las Vegas Sun’s Anjeanette Damon, Sharron Angle’s misguided attempts to justify her cruelty to struggling Nevadans – desperately looking for jobs that simply don’t exist – is to tier their benefits to incentivize their return to work. Unfortunately for Angle, that policy actually represents how the law in Nevada currently works – suggesting Angle simply has no clue what she’s talking about, or she’s just so hell-bent on cutting government benefits that she doesn’t even care.
“Each time she opens her mouth about opposing unemployment benefits for struggling Nevadans, Sharron Angle demonstrates how out-of-touch she is with the plight of the tens of thousands of Nevadans, simply doing everything they can in these tough economic times to make ends meet,” said Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “While most Republicans and Democrats agree that cutting off these struggling Nevadans’ very last measure of support is cruel and wrong, Sharron Angle continues to insist that these ‘spoiled’ Nevadans, who have been laid off through no fault of their own, simply need to try harder – a position that demonstrates complete ignorance and blind adherence to her extreme ideological agenda, or just plain cruelty on Angle’s part.”
Nevada’s Unemployment Insurance Program
WHAT SHARRON ANGLE CONSIDERS "SPOILED” – BY THE NUMBERS:
Average Weekly Wages In NV, $875.00
4th Quarter of 2009
[Quarterly Employment And Wages Survey, www.nevadaworkforce.com]
Average Weekly UI Benefit Amount, $321.96
4th Quarter of 2009
[US Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Data Summary 4th Quarter 2009]
Maximum Allowable Unemployment Insurance
Benefit Amount $362.00
[Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance General Info]
Weekly Pay After 40-Hour Work Week At
Minimum Wage (with no health insurance) $302.00
[US Dept of Labor, Minimum Wage Laws In The States, 1/1/2010]
Weekly Pay After 40-Hour Work Week At
Minimum Wage (with health insurance) $262.00
[US Dept of Labor, Minimum Wage Laws In The States, 1/1/2010]
Unemployment Insurance Forces Unemployed To Find Work
Unemployment Insurance Recipients “May Not Refuse An Offer Of Work.” According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “when you are receiving unemployment benefits, you may not refuse an offer of work considered to be suitable. Suitable work is determined by your skills, training, experience and capabilities.” [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs]
Unemployment Insurance Recipients “Must Engage In Regular And Consistent Search For Employment.” According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “You must engage in a regular and consistent search for employment. There is no set number of job contacts you must make. Normally, you must seek work several days each week and contact several employers each time you look for work. Seeking work is a full time job.” [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs]
Nevada Unemployment Insurance Already Incentivizes Returning to Work
Unemployment Insurance Already Incentivizes Work. According to the Nevada Department Of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, “If you work during a week and earn less than your weekly benefit amount, your check will be reduced by 75% of the amount of earnings. The amount deducted remains in your account for future use.” The net effect of this would be that a job seeker with a weekly benefit amount of $200 who earns $100 in income from work would go home with $225, while costing the unemployment insurance fund only $125. [Nevada DETR Unemployment Insurance FAQs; Nevada Revised Statutes 612.185 and 612.350]
Sharron Angle advocates halting unemployment benefits to force jobless to seek work
In her much anticipated emergence into the mainstream media last night, Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle tried somewhat to soften her previous comments that implied jobless workers were spoiled by unemployment benefits.
She said she doesn’t think the workers are spoiled, but that the country’s system of entitlements have “spoiled our citizenry” and caused a “spoilage” in our ability to return the jobless to the workforce, she told Jon Ralston on Face to Face.
While she advocated eliminating the extension of unemployment benefits, she also advocated for creating a tiered system that would supplement wages for those who took entry level jobs that paid less than their unemployment benefit.
Seems, however, that Nevada already does that.
According to the state’s unemployment website, workers who earn less than their unemployment benefit still receive money from the state. Their unemployment checks are reduced by 75 percent of the amount they earned at the lower-paying job.
Thus, workers who accept entry-level jobs—those jobs that Angle maintained still exist in the Nevada economy despite its 14 percent unemployment rate—will earn more if they are working than if they just accept unemployment.
While Reid has supported legislation to stop an economic meltdown and legislation to spur the economy, Angle hasn’t seen the need for them. Reid has worked to bring several renewable energy projects to Nevada, yet Angle has been dismissive, saying that a senator is “not in the business of creating jobs” nor is it a senator’s job to “bring industry to the state.” And while Reid has been working to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the recession, Angle has said that Americans are “spoiled” by such benefits and she opposes the extension.
Angle’s views are, to put it politely, out of touch and extreme. On Tuesday, she appeared on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” and she held fast to her positions on the economy.
• Angle reaffirmed her belief that the job of a U.S. senator is not to create jobs but added that it “is to create a climate conducive to creating jobs.” How? By cutting government and regulation, she says. However, the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the resulting environmental disaster, have been underscored by a painful lack of proper oversight and regulation. Yet just a few weeks ago, with crude oil washing up on the shore, Angle had the audacity to say that the oil industry needed less regulation, not more. In the meantime, people on the Gulf Coast have seen their livelihoods ruined because of the failure of oversight.
• Angle hasn’t shown compassion to those who are unemployed. “There are jobs that do exist” in Nevada, she said. What jobs? Every time there’s a job fair in Las Vegas, there’s a huge crowd of people, far exceeding the number of openings. The Labor Department estimates that 20 percent of Nevadans are either unemployed or underemployed — working part-time when they want full-time work.
• Ralston also asked Angle about her comment that people were “spoiled” by unemployment benefits. “I said it has spoiled our citizenry; that’s a little different,” Angle said. “They’re not spoiled. What has happened is the system of entitlement has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job.” Seriously? The most someone can be “spoiled” by on unemployment in Nevada is $362 a week. That’s hardly lavish living.
The Republican campaign against Reid and the Democrats has continued to show a disconnect with reality. The stimulus bill that Democrats and Reid championed kept thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans employed. Reid’s efforts to pave the way for business in Nevada have also successfully brought many jobs, even during the recession. And the extensions of unemployment benefits have helped keep many Americans from total disaster.
Angle’s views are outrageous, but she isn’t alone in holding steadfast to them. Other Nevada Republicans have made similar remarks. For example, during a 2003 debate, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said better unemployment benefits would result in “less incentive” for people to find work. And this year Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., questioned a proposal to extend unemployment benefits, asking, “Is the government now creating hobos?”
This type of thinking is out of touch with the pain caused by the current economy. If Republicans were in charge, and they followed through on their rhetoric and slashed benefits and other economic stimulus bills, the economy would have melted down and the nation would be in shambles.
She said she doesn’t think the workers are spoiled, but that the country’s system of entitlements have “spoiled our citizenry” and caused a “spoilage” in our ability to return the jobless to the workforce, she told Jon Ralston on Face to Face.
While she advocated eliminating the extension of unemployment benefits, she also advocated for creating a tiered system that would supplement wages for those who took entry level jobs that paid less than their unemployment benefit.
Seems, however, that Nevada already does that.
According to the state’s unemployment website, workers who earn less than their unemployment benefit still receive money from the state. Their unemployment checks are reduced by 75 percent of the amount they earned at the lower-paying job.
Thus, workers who accept entry-level jobs—those jobs that Angle maintained still exist in the Nevada economy despite its 14 percent unemployment rate—will earn more if they are working than if they just accept unemployment.
A clear distinction
Angle shows she, party are out of touch with the reality Americans face
Thursday, July 1, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
At 14 percent, Nevada’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation, so knowing where the candidates stand on economic issues is of paramount importance. In the race for Senate, the contrast between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, couldn’t be clearer.While Reid has supported legislation to stop an economic meltdown and legislation to spur the economy, Angle hasn’t seen the need for them. Reid has worked to bring several renewable energy projects to Nevada, yet Angle has been dismissive, saying that a senator is “not in the business of creating jobs” nor is it a senator’s job to “bring industry to the state.” And while Reid has been working to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the recession, Angle has said that Americans are “spoiled” by such benefits and she opposes the extension.
Angle’s views are, to put it politely, out of touch and extreme. On Tuesday, she appeared on “Face to Face With Jon Ralston,” and she held fast to her positions on the economy.
• Angle reaffirmed her belief that the job of a U.S. senator is not to create jobs but added that it “is to create a climate conducive to creating jobs.” How? By cutting government and regulation, she says. However, the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and the resulting environmental disaster, have been underscored by a painful lack of proper oversight and regulation. Yet just a few weeks ago, with crude oil washing up on the shore, Angle had the audacity to say that the oil industry needed less regulation, not more. In the meantime, people on the Gulf Coast have seen their livelihoods ruined because of the failure of oversight.
• Angle hasn’t shown compassion to those who are unemployed. “There are jobs that do exist” in Nevada, she said. What jobs? Every time there’s a job fair in Las Vegas, there’s a huge crowd of people, far exceeding the number of openings. The Labor Department estimates that 20 percent of Nevadans are either unemployed or underemployed — working part-time when they want full-time work.
• Ralston also asked Angle about her comment that people were “spoiled” by unemployment benefits. “I said it has spoiled our citizenry; that’s a little different,” Angle said. “They’re not spoiled. What has happened is the system of entitlement has caused us to have a spoilage with our ability to go out and get a job.” Seriously? The most someone can be “spoiled” by on unemployment in Nevada is $362 a week. That’s hardly lavish living.
The Republican campaign against Reid and the Democrats has continued to show a disconnect with reality. The stimulus bill that Democrats and Reid championed kept thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans employed. Reid’s efforts to pave the way for business in Nevada have also successfully brought many jobs, even during the recession. And the extensions of unemployment benefits have helped keep many Americans from total disaster.
Angle’s views are outrageous, but she isn’t alone in holding steadfast to them. Other Nevada Republicans have made similar remarks. For example, during a 2003 debate, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said better unemployment benefits would result in “less incentive” for people to find work. And this year Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., questioned a proposal to extend unemployment benefits, asking, “Is the government now creating hobos?”
This type of thinking is out of touch with the pain caused by the current economy. If Republicans were in charge, and they followed through on their rhetoric and slashed benefits and other economic stimulus bills, the economy would have melted down and the nation would be in shambles.
