Unemployed

Despite steady improvement that brought Maryland's unemployment rate to a five-year low in November, the state's job base faces serious deterioration, economists who track the state say.The Maryland unemployment rate dipped to a seasonally adjusted 4.9 percent in November, falling a tenth of a point from October's 5 percent and remaining substantially below the national rate, as it has since last summer, the state Department of Economic and Employment Development...

The expected extension of jobless benefits by Congress would give about 20,000 out-of-work Marylanders an opportunity draw an extra 20 weeks of unemployment insurance, state and federal officials said yesterday.The unemployed usually get a maximum 26 weeks of insurance after they lose their jobs, but a bill that has been approved by the House and is expected to be approved by the Senate would add seven months to an about-to-die program that gives 1.7 million eligible unemployed people a little longer to find a new job.About a third of the 9 million unemployed Americans are drawing unemployment insurance, and about half of those would be eligible to collect the extra payments.

Six hundred more people were unemployed in Carroll in December than November, as the county's unemployment rate jumped from 5.4 percent to 6.4 percent.The increase can be attributed to seasonal layoffs of construction workers, landscapers and others whose jobs are affected by cold weather, a county unemployment official said."December was full of people coming in who traditionally come in then -- all outdoors people," said Theodora Stephen, manager of the state Department of Economic and Employment Development in Westminster.

Carroll's unemployment rate dropped slightly in May, the fourth consecutive month the county has experienced a decrease.The rate for May was 5.7 percent, compared with 5.8 percent in April, the state Department of Economic and Employment Development reported last week.Fifty-five fewer people were unemployed in the county in May than in April, the numbers show.The county's jobless rate has been declining since February, when it was 8.5 percent.A year ago in May, Carroll's unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, DEED reported.

Several dozen unemployed Marylanders and their supporters -- some with clothespins on their noses -- marched into the state's Office of Unemployment Insurance today and told the agency's director "the system stinks."Organized by the Baltimore Unemployed Council, the protest was mounted to demand an end to long delays in benefit approvals, alleged dehumanizing treatment and red tape that leaves applicants without cash for weeks or months."People are being terrorized," said Robert Simpson, an unemployed worker and council co-chairman.

Laverne R. Sherrod, who was threatened with mortgage foreclosure before 30 activists protested on her behalf at a Linthicum bank office, drank champagne on her lawn yesterday to celebrate the news that her house wouldn't be taken away."

Unemployment in Maryland was down but not out in April, as state figures released yesterday showed another marked increase in the number of people employed in Maryland.The April jobless rate's 0.4 percent decline, to 5.6 percent, meant that unemployment had fallen in Maryland for two months in a row.In March, the unemployment dropped 0.5 percent.The numbers still leave Maryland's job market more anemic than a year ago. In April 1990, unemployment was 3.6 percent.But the consecutive monthly decreases were another indication of the beginning of the end of Maryland's recession.

As unemployment rates climb to their highest levels in over three years, jobless Americans no longer have the same safeguards that were available during previous recessions. The maximum 26 weeks of unemployment benefits is the least in 20 years; the 34 percent of jobless workers collecting benefits a sharp decline from 69 per cent in 1975. Even if this is not the big crash some believe is inevitable within the next decade, this country's only safety net for the jobless -- the unemployment insurance system -- is full of gaping holes.

WASHINGTON -- A busload of unemployed Baltimore residents have appealed to a House subcommittee to help them survive a recession that has left them desperate for work."

Carroll's unemployment rate improved one-tenth of 1 percent from August to September, state numbers released Friday show.The county'sunemployment rate remains below that of the state and nation.The September rate, the latest month for which numbers are available, was 4.4 percent in Carroll, compared to 4.5 percent in August, numbers from the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development show.A year ago in September, the county's rate was 3.7 percent, DEED reported.Statewide, the jobless rate dropped from 5.5 percent in August to 5.2 percent in September.

Losses in the job market are finally showing real signs of moderating. But as with most other economic data these days, Friday's employment report sent mixed messages, suggesting that while the economy may be bottoming out, recovery will likely be slow, fitful and frustrating. The Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy lost 247,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent. That was the smallest monthly decline in jobs since last August and provided clear evidence that the longer-term pace of job erosion is slowing markedly.

Unemployment in Maryland topped 7 percent in May, reaching a more than 25-year high as joblessness rose in 48 states and experts said the worst is far from over. The jobless rate hit 7.2 percent in Maryland, up from 4.1 percent in May 2008, preliminary government figures released Friday showed. Economists say joblessness is expected to rise well into next year. "There is always a lag in terms of economic recovery in output and employment, and this recovery is expected to be slower," said Mohammad Iqbal, an economist with IHS Global Insight.

Although Travis Galey knew there was a chance he could become unemployed, he was shocked when he became a victim of companywide layoffs about a month ago. But as the 35-year-old Annapolis man searches for jobs and contemplates the future, he is also sharing his experience with other people in his city who are going through a similar situation. "There's been times when you're sitting at home and you're not used to sitting at home," he said. "The panic sets in." Galey and a handful of other Annapolis residents are part of a new Unemployment Support Group, organized by Ward 7 Alderman Sam Shropshire.

Public works proposal a win-win situation I very much like the fact that the recovery plan presented by President-elect Barack Obama emphasizes public works programs ("Obama warns of worsening economy," Dec. 8). I have long advocated such programs because they are not just a tax-and-spend policy but a precious investment in our infrastructure that will create millions of jobs. As Mr. Obama has also suggested, I would invest more money in helping the unemployed; the unemployment numbers are just plain scary, and if our financial institutions and auto companies can get a bailout, our unemployed deserve a sizable investment.

It can be devastating to lose a job, whenever it happens. But the growing numbers of the unemployed in today's economy are facing some tough challenges getting their lives back on track. In Maryland and across the country, thousands of families are feeling the pain of job losses. Crises in housing, credit and the financial arena have forced companies to trim work forces or freeze hiring, leaving few industries untouched. And the employment outlook appears bleak. About 10.1 million people were unemployed nationwide in October.

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton's campaign famously defined the 1992 election with the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid." Today, "It's the jobs, stupid." The latest employment figures, released in late January, showed a 52-month streak of job creation ending with a loss of 17,000 jobs last month. The Bush administration acknowledged the contraction, but pointed to the national unemployment rate of 4.9 percent to say that the labor market wasn't a harbinger of recession. A closer look at unemployment data by McClatchy Newspapers, however, found that jobless Americans are spending more time looking for work and that those who can't find work now make up a greater share of the unemployed.

As the nation's 8.3 million jobless wait for evidence that a growing economy will finally lead to robust hiring, one thing is clear: Long-term unemployment is the worst it has been in this country for more than 20 years. According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, 22.1 percent of all unemployed workers were out of work for six months or more last year - the worst annual rate since 1983. Also, a growing number of those long-term job seekers were people with lots of experience and education, raising disturbing questions about the loss of high-quality work during the nation's persistent "jobless recovery."

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Morning after morning, they arrive in ragged ones and twos, until dusty plazas across the city are clogged with one of Iraq's most volatile populations: the unemployed. To understand many of the tensions shaping Iraq more than seven months after the United States took control, there is perhaps no better place to begin than with the teeming open-air job markets for day laborers that illustrate a startling statistic: As much as 50 percent of the work force remains unemployed.

IN A MOMENT only an unrepentant Ebenezer Scrooge could fully appreciate, Congress got out of Washington yesterday without leaving behind so much as a lump of coal for the unemployed. Thanks to Republican inaction this year, there will soon be no more extensions of the 13-week federal unemployment benefit for those who exhaust the customary 26 weeks of state benefits. That federal program kicked in during March of last year when the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. It ends while unemployment is 5.9 percent.

A slight improvement in unemployment numbers last month concealed the dismaying fact that businesses cut 93,000 jobs across the nation - the largest loss in five months and a sign that the economy has yet to recover in the way that matters most to workers. America's unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent in July, but the ranks of out-of-work people too discouraged to seek new jobs swelled to 503,000, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics released yesterday.