In Minnesota, and across the nation, jobs just aren’t there. There are 207,500 people who are unemployed in Minnesota,(1) and 14.8 million people who are unemployed nationally.(2) Many of them are in the job search of their lives.
But get this: Some lawmakers—many of the same ones who want to pass tax cuts for people who make more than $250,000 per year—want to cut off emergency unemployment benefits.
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to extend emergency unemployment insurance now.
Congress is coming back next week, and we need our lawmakers to take dramatic action. Congress has never let unemployment benefits expire when this many people have been out of work—and if it happens, economists predict catastrophic results. More parents who can’t put food on the table. Families losing their homes...real estate values sinking further, faster....And devastation for local businesses as pockets are empty during the critical holiday shopping season.
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to extend unemployment insurance now.
This is serious. The number of people out of work for more than six months is the longest on record. The National Employment Law Project estimates that—if Congress fails to act soon—800,000 people nationally will immediately lose unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Two million workers will lose their benefits by the end of December. And the longer Congress delays extending benefits after that, the worse things will get for people who are out of work.
Time is running out for Congress to take action without causing massive pain—and even homelessness—for long-term job-seekers. Our society, and our government, must not ignore our friends, family and neighbors who are unemployed through no fault of their own. These people have kids to feed, heat to keep on and homes to keep out of foreclosure—and you and I could easily be in their shoes. .
Thanks for standing in solidarity with your unemployed friends, family members and neighbors.
Demand Congress take urgent action to renew emergency unemployment insurance now.
(1) Number as of August 2010. See: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.t03.htm .