Unemployed

Earlier this month, federal emergency benefits for the unemployed expired, and thousands of Marylanders lost a critical economic lifeline. These benefits were vital for the long-term unemployed, most of whom have already tapped out their personal savings and are now left wondering how to make ends meet. A recent Sun article, "Unemployed are losing some federal assistance" (June 29) suggests that these jobless workers forget a career and take anything with a paycheck. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many jobless workers have been trying for months with no luck.

Maryland employers added 4,700 jobs in March, gains driven by the private sector, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. It was the fourth straight month of increases, though at a lower level than the previous three. The expansion brought Maryland within about 5,000 jobs of finally regaining the number of positions the state had before the effects of the last recession set in - compared with nearly 2.9 million jobs still to go nationwide, more than the country added in all of last year.

The state said Wednesday that it is mailing letters to unemployed residents eligible for more weeks of unemployment-benefit checks. The 14-week extension went into effect the week of Nov. 8, but the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation needed time to reprogram its computers so residents can claim the additional checks. The agency said eligible Marylanders can get the missed weeks' checks retroactively. The extension took effect immediately after Congress made federal money available, increasing to 73 the number of weeks unemployed Maryland residents can collect.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to tackle the high unemployment rate among Maryland veterans, his office said Tuesday. By the end of 2015, O'Malley aims to reduce veteran unemployment from 5.3 percent to below 3 percent, which economists would consider full employment, the administration said. "The military provides our service members with some of the best possible skills and leadership training," O'Malley said in statement. "We want to make sure Maryland's veterans who possess those skills become a part of our workforce.

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.

THREE YEARS ago, William R. Franklin was making a six-figure salary and presenting a paper titled "Complex Spatial Filters for Automatic Target Recognition and Feature-Aided Tracking" at a conference in Orlando, Fla. Now he is "viciously unemployed," as he describes it, and close to losing his Timonium townhouse in foreclosure proceedings. The holder of a doctorate in physics earned under a future Nobel laureate, a veteran of Maryland's defense industry, a speaker of several languages and an expert in signal processing and mathematical modeling, Franklin may be an emblem of the state's economy and of the difficulty of finding jobs for the highly educated unemployed over the age of 50. He is 52. He lost his job because of a drop in government funding last August, almost a year after the terrorist attacks prompted predictions of a renaissance for the war business.

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.

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...

LEIPZIG, Germany -- In the largest demonstration in eastern Germany since the fall of communism, at least 60,000 people marched yesterday for an end to unemployment and the uncertainty that is gripping their lives.For many it was the first demonstration since the regular Monday night demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989 and 1990 for German unity and against the East German Communist government."I decided to go out on the streets again. I just couldn't sit inside and do nothing. My wife is unemployed -- she got her notice today, on Easter week.

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.

Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp. is planning a month-long series of free workshops and networking events designed to help the county's unemployed residents find jobs. Of 60,000 available jobs in the Baltimore region, 11,000 are in Anne Arundel County, said Kirkland J. Murray, the group's president and CEO. The group operates one-stop and career connection centers in the county. Back-to-Work month, from April 2 to May 3, will help jobless residents develop skills to better compete in an improving job market, the group said.

Maryland employers added 6,700 jobs in January, picking up the pace from the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Labor said Monday. Businesses added 5,300 jobs in December, according to the agency's revised estimates. In both December and January, all gains came from the private sector as government agencies cut back — eliminating 1,500 jobs in each month. January's uptick wasn't large enough to lower the unemployment rate, which held steady at 6.7 percent. The U.S. jobless rate was 7.9 percent that month.

Friday, forecasters expect the Labor Department to report the economy added 155,000 jobs in December - substantially less than is needed to pull unemployment down to acceptable levels. The tax and spending package passed by the Senate and House provides little prospect of improvement, as the U.S. economy continues to suffer from insufficient demand and will continue growing at a subpar 2 percent a year. Factors contributing to weak demand and slow jobs creation are the huge trade deficits with China and other Asian exporters, as well as on oil. However, on the supply side, increased business regulations, rising health care costs and mandates imposed by Obamacare - and now higher taxes on small businesses - discourage investments that raise productivity and competitiveness and create jobs.

A recent Sun article painted a too rosy picture of November's unemployment data as evidence of a trend of declining joblessness that began in 2010. However, the writer failed to even mention the employment participation rate, which paints a quite different picture. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes that data as well, and it shows a very worrisome trend of decreased labor force participation since the start of the Obama administration in 2009. Also not mentioned by the writer is the fact that average employment gains since coming out the recession have barely kept pace with the number of new entrants into the labor force.

A 48-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulently claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from the state using false identities, a scheme he conducted in part while already behind bars on unrelated charges, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Kevin Bernard Smith, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, will also have to serve three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.

In Maryland, 93,000 teens and young adults are neither working nor in school, a trend that threatens future financial stability and predicts chronic joblessness, advocates said Monday. And unemployment among those ages 16 to 24 is the highest in the country since World War II, a Kids Count policy report shows. Patrick McCarthy, president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation that compiles the Kids Count data, said young people, without education or experience, are the least likely to find jobs in a stagnant economy.

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.

BEYOND Baltimore, the news is excellent: job growth up, unemployment down. Inside the city's borders, though, unemployment remains distressingly high. Close to a quarter of Maryland's unemployed live in Baltimore, even though the city accounts for just 11 percent of the state's civilian labor. Within the region, the city represents 23 percent of the work force, but a whopping 41 percent of the unemployed. It's a situation that has persisted throughout Maryland's long expansion. The state unemployment rate for September stood at 3.4 percent -- well below the national average.

With the Ravens inching closer to qualifying for the postseason for the fifth time in the last five years, the last thing anyone is thinking about is coach John Harbaugh's job status. The same, however, can't be said for Harbaugh's counterpart in Sunday's game. The San Diego Chargers have dropped five of their last six contests after a 3-1 start, and the calls for coach Norv Turner to lose his job are building in volume and intensity. A win against the Ravens might perhaps silence the doubters for a while, but Turner, who has coached the Chargers for the past six seasons, said he can't worry about the rumors swirling around the team's practice facility.