Unemployed

After news that his partner on the popular Mix 106.5 morning show had been let go, Reagan Warfield posted an emotional tribute to Jojo Girard on Facebook. "The last 24 hours have been and emotional blur," wrote Warfield, who remains at the station. "This is tough. " Girard confirmed to The Sun Thursday that he was told immediately after his show that day that his contract would not be renewed. Girard posted on Facebook: "have joined the ranks of the unemployed at least I'm not alone.

Words come easily for Dick Cavett, so he had no trouble yesterday capturing the periods of overpowering despair that have kept this funnyman in his bathrobe for weeks while contemplating the relief that might come from suicide.Mr. Cavett, 56, strode into a room full of reporters at Johns Hopkins Hospital, his shirt open at the collar, tie slung over his arm, and quipped, "It's no fun being a specimen."Then, asked to describe clinical depression for those who might not understand, he had this to say: "Everything turns sort of colorless.

The nation's jobless have rarely been treated so callously. As of today, another 3,500 unemployed Marylanders will see their benefits expire, bringing the total to nearly 12,000 in similar straits since Congress chose not to extend benefits last month. In all, nearly 2 million unemployed Americans have seen their benefits run out. The public should be outraged by the Senate's failure to extend temporary jobless benefits. Unemployment is still hovering at 9.3 percent, and jobs are hard to find.

Maryland business groups dismayed by Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to expand unemployment benefits, which could cost companies an estimated $20 million a year, are negotiating ways to offset the expense. O'Malley said last month that he wants the state to broaden the qualifying period for benefits so that the state can access about $127 million in federal money to prop up its quickly shrinking unemployment insurance fund. The change requires legislation. Business groups have balked at O'Malley's proposal to implement what's called the "alternative base period," which increases the period of time that is examined when determining whether someone is eligible for unemployment benefits.

As a certified public accountant servicing small businesses and their owners, and cramming on the final extension tax deadline day of the year, I almost got excited when I saw the headline, "Businesses may see big 2013 tax drop" (Oct. 15). The article states how Maryland's unemployment tax may fall by 55 percent, and it goes on to gush that this will "give businesses a boost as they use that money for other purposes. " For my CPA firm (and for most of my clients), the Maryland unemployment tax makes up around 1 percent of my yearly payroll tax bill.

Policy at Food LionA Sept. 23 article in The Sun, titled "A wage law with no teeth," contained some information that is not only misleading, but false.As a vice president of Food Lion Inc., I feel I owe it to my fellow 30,000 stockholders and fellow 60,000 employees to set the record straight.The article cited testimony before a House subcommittee by Food Lion employees regarding allegations that we "routinely forced employees to work off-the-clock."What the article did not say was that our indications from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

The Obama administration is touting the latest unemployment numbers released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor as proof its policies are working. But a closer look at the actual number of able-bodied people who are willing to work, but are not, reveals a different picture. As economist John R. Lott has written, not only is the drop in the unemployment rate from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent still half a percentage point higher than when President Barack Obama took office three years ago, the number of unemployed is higher.

The release of the May jobs report by the Labor Department on Friday showed that only 54,000 jobs had been added last month, down from 232,000 in April, and that unemployment had risen from 9 percent to 9.1 percent. In stark contrast to these numbers, your article "Turnover at the workplace is on the rise" (June 4) paints a rosy picture of the currently employed cheerfully choosing between the plentiful opportunities offered on CareerBuilder.com. Is this the type of news and analysis we readers can now expect from The Baltimore Sun?

If you're looking for job security, how about becoming a lawyer or financial analyst? These professions, according to Robert Half International, have lower unemployment rates than the current national average of 8.3 percent. The staffing firm says the unemployment rate in the first quarter was 1.9 percent for lawyers, 3.6 percent for software developers, 3.9 percent for financial analysts, 4.4 percent for accountants and 2.8 percent for human resource managers. (Someone has to be there to lay off everyone else.)

Jeremy Schwarz's op-ed piece contrasting unemployment insurance and welfare makes several points that don't bear up under scrutiny ("Unemployment benefits are not like welfare," Dec. 21). He's correct that people pay insurance to protect themselves in case of an adverse event; however, workers do not pay for unemployment insurance. Unlike Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, to which both employers and employees contribute, unemployment insurance is paid entirely by the employer.