Unemployment

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

This segment of Chuck Todd's "The Daily Rundown" Monday got more media bounce than usual for the show thanks to MSNBC commentator Michael Steele sounding very serious about running for governor in Maryland. But to me, it was first and foremost the perfect tableau of the troubled channel as TV boneyard for unemployed politicos. This video featuring Steele and put-out-to-pasture Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs illustrates not only the reason MSNBC is dying in the ratings, but also the deeper disease of our democracy with cable channels handing over airtime to talking heads who are committed to ideology and partisan political gain, not information, analysis or civic enlightenment.

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.

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 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?

I run a small business - about 20 employees - in the Baltimore area. We are a manufacturing company in the construction industry. I have worked extremely hard and sacrificed my own pay to keep our people employed over the last five years. I have not had a layoff and had previously earned a low unemployment tax rate. It used to be 1 percent. In 2011 it was up to 4.463 percent and I got a letter this week saying it will be 11.99 percent for 2012. It is ridiculous that I am shouldering the costs of all others.

Ah, another person writes in with the true skinny on why people in "the real world" will never get off unemployment ("Payroll taxes and unemployment benefits: two bad decisions," Dec. 28). Funny, all the people I know who are unemployed are trying their best to get a job. And though grateful for the assistance, they are finding it difficult to make ends meet even with their unemployment checks - all of which, let it be noted, go right back into the economy. Charles Rammelkamp, Baltimore

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell slightly last week, marking the second consecutive decline.The Labor Department said yesterday that new claims forunemployment benefits dropped by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 332,000, the lowest level in four weeks. That followed a drop of 60,000 claims the week before -- the biggest one-week improvement in a year.But analysts cautioned against reading too much into the latest figures. The declines largely represent the aftermath of an increase of 43,000 claims two weeks earlier after General Motors Corp.

The U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday that Maryland will get $126.8 million in federal money because it expanded the number of people eligible for unemployment benefits. The move was expected: State legislators changed the program guidelines in the past session with an eye toward qualifying for the "modernization" incentive money. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis praised the state Thursday, saying that offering unemployment checks to more out-of-work people "is the right thing to do."

Stabilizing Maryland's unemployment system is crucial to the state's economy and business community. The Maryland Chamber of Commerce appreciates the O'Malley administration's focus on this important issue. While the administration's proposal has some merit, the Maryland Chamber disagrees with The Sun's recent editorial ("Expanding benefits is worth the price," Dec. 21). Deferring more than $80 million in unemployment insurance tax increases and expanding benefits to access $126.8 million from the federal government sounds appealing.

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.

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.

Singer/songwriter Ellen Cherry would like to thank all the folks who helped her get to where she is today - most notably, the state labor department. When Cherry was laid off from her accounting job in May 2004, she filed for unemployment, which gave her six months to pursue a career as a full-time musician. She never looked back. Cherry founded Wrong Size Shoes, a home studio and personal record label, and has since recorded and released five albums. Her soft yet striking voice and versatile songwriting have helped make her a notable player on the local music scene.

It was in early September 2010, and I was serving in Afghanistan, helping to plan our mission to support that country's parliamentary elections. Offhandedly, a colleague asked whether I was going to return to my civilian job when I returned home. I replied, "I don't think so. " Surprised, he asked what I planned to do instead. Confidently, I shrugged him off, "I don't know. I'm sure something will shake loose. " We returned to the Unites States in December 2010 and were assured that we were not going to be forgotten.

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.