Fears grow as millions lose jobless benefits

CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Deborah Coleman lost her unemployment benefits in April, and now fears for millions of others if the Senate does not extend aid for the jobless.

"It's too late for me now," she said, fighting back tears at the Freestore Foodbank in the low-income Over-the-Rhine district near downtown Cincinnati. "But it will be terrible for the people who'll lose their benefits if Congress does nothing."

For nearly two years, Coleman says she has filed an average of 30 job applications a day, but remains jobless.

"People keep telling me there are jobs out there, but I haven't been able to find them."

Coleman, 58, a former manager at a telecommunications firm, said the only jobs she found were over the Ohio state line in Kentucky, but she cannot reach them because her car has been repossessed and there is no bus service to those areas. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100714/ts_nm/us_usa_economy_unemployment

:scared:

I wish some one had an idea that would get us out of this downward spiral. When people accuse the unemployed of being "lazy" or "prefering not to work" I wish more considered that even those who may be lucky enough to find a job could face logistical problems (no car, can't sell current house and can't afford two payments, child care, etc).

And the first round of people who lost their jobs and got the stimulus have just exhausted the subsidized COBRA, if their benefits haven't already run out all together.

:(

She takes care of me physically because of my physical disabilities. I'm damned lucky she's here. I can't take care of myself anymore. But now I take care of her financially because I have income and she has been out of work for almost 2 years. NYS cut off her unemployment, and she hasn't been able to find a single job out there that hasn't been a scam. So it's good that we are here to help each other survive. It's bare-bones, because I don't have much. But we'll survive.

More and more companies are telling applicants that they won't even consider applications unless you currently have a job. They are only hiring people who have jobs already and simply want to change jobs. If you don't have a job, you're shit out of luck. They don't want to deal with desperate people.

If people have a job, let them stay there. Companies should be hiring people who DON'T have jobs First! The people who already have jobs aren't the ones who need that job the most. :grr:

It pisses me off even more that EVERY SINGLE JOB OFFER she has received for the last year has been a scam, trying to get her bank information and get her signed up right away for "direct deposit" before they've even interviewed her so they can get access to her bank account. How many people are so desperate and so gullible that they fall for these scams and give these people their bank account information? :(

I'm sure these monsters don't get much. They're preying on people don't have much left. But if they get just a little bit from each person, just this month's rent check and the money for groceries, that money obviously piles up enough for them keep doing this over and over again to more people. Meanwhile, their victims are left with demoralized, with even less, wondering what's going to hit them next, and how they're going to survive until they can get a break.

who can help you and in return you help her.

Reminds me of Joe Cocker's, 'I get by with a little help from friends.' :hug:

Is just another example of shock economics so well described by Naomi Klien. They're seeing how far hey can push the situation before it errupts. On top of that, most of the congress-critters have been living a life of prestige for so long that they really have no idea how bad things are...they simly can't and won't relate.

By the time Reagan and the Republicans finally relented and gave us one 13-week unemployment extension the 13 weeks had already passed and we got one check for the entire amount after the fact.

And I remember unemployed people at the time acting like Reagan was the greatest for getting us that one 13-week extension.

Don

benefits are extended.

:kick: