Why unemployment insurance should be extended and why Rand Paul is wrong

[kpete]

People on unemployment keep looking for work. When they get kicked off, they quit searching.

First, to receive unemployment benefits, Americans must prove they are searching for work. This requirement exists specifically to combat Paul's concern. A recent study found that when the benefits expire in January, the unemployment rate may drop 0.25-0.5 percentage point as disheartened workers stop looking for work when they can no longer receive benefits. The only thing keeping these Americans from giving up entirely is the EUC program.

Second, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, unemployment benefits are only $300 per week on average, though it varies widely by state. That's barely above the poverty line.

Third, long-term unemployed workers are at a distinct disadvantage in finding jobs. Once a person has been out of work for more than 26 weeks, employers are much less likely to hire them. This may be the greatest long-term effect of the great recession. Long-term unemployment may be making millions of workers permanently unemployable. Many of the long-term unemployed are not foregoing work because of their extra benefits. They simply can't get jobs at all.

Fourth, the empirical evidence on how unemployment benefits affect work incentives is mixed. This past April, researchers at the San Francisco Fed looked at whether the EUC program discouraged work from 2009 to 2012. They found that the extended benefits cause a slight decrease on the unemployment exit rate, but this primarily results from keeping Americans searching for work who otherwise would have dropped out of the labor force. In other words, the benefits did not cause people to forego work. They kept people looking for it.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-rand-paul-is-wrong-about-unemployment-benefits-2013-12#ixzz2mvPYCxAw

[CTyankee]

1. Rand Paul is talking to an ever shrinking group of RW zealots. Neither he nor they will listen to

ANYTHING that contradicts their cooked up outrage. The studies are useful for us but these people are hopeless. They will all go to their graves shot through with outrage and bitterness.