Note below: Understanding The Unemployment Rate. Note the number of new jobs needed per month!
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Safety net provided for all, as follows, for two years.
For 26 weeks as a part of the unemployment insurance.
After that, the monies paid are considered an interest bearing loan, to be paid back
at the rate of 10% of wages until paid off.
Also, even if on a loan basis:
Required to seek employment at least with 5 employers in a week, submitting the
list and any supporting documents, subject to verification (if the list is false,
then benefits are stopped).
Required to do retraining for a new job if appropriate, where placement programs
tailor to prepare them for work where labor is scarce.
Government training money provided direct to employer if the employer does
the training. Added to the employee loan.
If not do retraining program, required to do charity work for 30 hours a week,
adjusted for job seeking time above 5 hours or for a training program
Considerations:
Some people take advantage of "entitlements". Get jobs at the last minute when entitlement runs out.
FUNDING OF UNEMPLOYMENT
Employers must pay State and Federal Unemployment taxes (SUTA and FUTA). The federal unemployment rate is equal to 6.2% of gross compensation, but normally nets to 0.8% because employers are allowed to take a credit up to 5.4% if they pay their state unemployment taxes in full and on time. The maximum wage base for computing FUTA tax is the first $7,000 of each employee's gross pay and it is all paid by the employer.
FACTS BEHIND REASONING
Denmark, people find a job when unemployment runs out.
The reason: Danish studies show that the longer a person goes without a job, the harder it is to find work. Many people get a job within the first three months of entering the system, but many more wait until just before benefits expire to take anything available.
And in turn, the jobless are guaranteed benefits if they attend retraining and job placement programs tailored to prepare them for work where labor is scarce.
A 2007 study by the Danish Economic Council gave momentum to the government’s recent move. In 2006, it conducted an experiment for people who hadn’t gotten a job within 18 weeks of unemployment, requiring participation in job search assistance programs, training and frequent meetings with jobs officers for at least three weeks. A second group was left alone. Those in job activation had an exit rate from unemployment about 8 percentage points higher than the control group.
But now Denmark, which allows employers to hire and fire at will while relying on an elaborate system of training, subsidies for those between jobs and aggressive measures to press the unemployed into available openings, is facing its own strains. Having found that recipients either get work right away or take any job as their checks run out, Curve peaks right before unemployment runs out
Clinton idea:
Clinton endorsed the idea in an interview this week that an emphasis on retraining could help jump-start employment.
"Buried in that unemployment rate was the stunning finding that for the first time since World War II," Clinton said about a recent unemployment report, "we are coming out of a recession where posted job openings -- that is, they'll hire us tomorrow, you and me -- posted job openings are going up twice as fast as job hires."
He added: "I think the quickest thing you could do is to accelerate the transfer of discretionary training money to states or to the local labor department that would go direct to employers, so that people, while they're drawing unemployment, can get trained and move and fill those
See full article from DailyFinance: Article
UNDERSTANDING THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE - ACTUALLY
January of 2011, unemployment dropped to 9.0% with only 36,000 jobs created.
Reid says there that shows the economy is further improving. But, again, unless it is strictly a political move, he needs to understand the numbers and the reasoning.
However, the unemployment % is a ratio - of the number of people officially unemployed and looking for work divided by the number of the total work force (the people employed plus the people looking for work).
The cause of the unemployment rate dropping so much is that 500,000 (per the stats) dropped out of the work force in January, discouraged, giving up. There is a great human cost in newly creating an underclass, who simply gave up, after not being able to find work.
That shows up as 500,000 less people seeking work, on the top of the equation - so the % drops.
We've had 1,800,000 people drop out since Oct 2008.
Doing the math
Dec Jan
Unemployed 14,485 13,863
Divided by:
Labor force 153,690 153,186 Labor force dropped!!!
Equals 9.4% 9.0%
The statistics
(There is a probable need for the government to adjust the jobs created number, as it doesn't quite jibe.)
Jan 2010 Nov 2010 Dec 2010 Jan 2011 Change All figures in thousands
Not in labor force: (in thousands) 84,765 85,199 85,518
Employed 138,511 138,909 139,206 139,323
+83
Unemployed 14,842 15,041 14,485 13,863 -630
Civilian labor force 153,950 153,690 153,186 -504
Unemployment rate 9.8 9.4 9.0
Total nonfarm change/ month -39 93 121 36
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm for employment numbers
for jobs numbers http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.b.htm
Jobs created is the more relevant number
The more relevant number is how many jobs are created. We need 250,000 a month to keep even.
