LuvOrlando
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2006
- Messages
- 21,215
Here in the Lehigh Valley things have been tolerable but are about to get worse because thousands of people's benefits are on the verge of dropping. I can only imagine whatever resources are left in my state are slipping away because none of these people have been paying taxes on jobs or property.
In Allentown bank robberies, theft and other crimes have been jumping and the desperation is beginning to slide into surrounding areas. My heart was broken last when a perfectly normal & healthy man around the age of 30 walked up to me and asked me for $1 or $2 to help him buy gas for his car.
This poor person was reduced to begging. Now don't get me wrong, I am used to begging, I am from NYC and saw it all the time but that begging was different. In NYC I knew that there were support services and shelters everywhere to help them out but here, in the suburbs, there are no safety nets. I never thought I would live to see begging where I am, but it's here.
This is what I read in my morning local paper, please post what is going on by you, wherever you are:
"By Scott Kraus OF THE MORNING CALL
September 22, 2009
For some 1,070 jobless Lehigh Valley residents, Monday marked the day their safety net gave way.
They're part of a group of 23,400 statewide whose maximum 79 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits expired over the weekend.
With a tight job market lengthening job searches, they're the first large contingent to max out their benefits since the recession began in December 2007.
''The competition is stiff for any job opening right now,'' said Nancy Dischinat, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, which administers the state's local CareerLink employment center.
Since July 2008, laid-off workers have been eligible for 26 weeks of standard unemployment, plus 33 weeks of federal emergency unemployment compensation and 20 weeks of state extended benefits.
Congress is working on a 13-week extension for states with unemployment rates over 8.5 percent, which would include Pennsylvania, where the rate was a seasonally adjusted 8.6 percent in August. Legislators are expected to vote today.
For now, though, about 23,400 Pennsylvanians are suddenly without a source of income.
Allentown's CareerLink job hunting center was hopping Monday as workers hit the computers to try to find a job.
Charlene Truszkowski of Bethlehem isn't there yet. Jobless since last October, when she lost her medical administrative job, she dreads the day her benefits run out.
''I would lose everything,'' said Truszkowski, 53, who is raising her two grandsons and constantly looking for a job. ''I'm struggling now to keep things I worked for, for years.''
Debbie Speller, 32, of Allentown has had a similar experience, struggling to find a job since losing her post in property management and marketing over a year ago.
''When I do apply, they are getting anywhere from 200 to 300 resumes,'' Speller said, many from overqualified applicants.
A worker who loses his job today can count on the standard 26 weeks of unemployment compensation and could be in line for an additional 13 weeks, depending on economic conditions that trigger the extension. Anything beyond that will require an act of Congress.
The weekly checks are designed to replace half a worker's income, up to a maximum of $583 a week.
That just underlines the need for the newly jobless to get started looking for work or repositioning their careers right away, Dischinat said.
CareerLink can help the jobless assess their job skills, hook them up with training to make them more marketable and get them started looking for work right away.
Once benefits run out, there are fewer options, Dischinat said.
CareerLink offers clients whose benefits have run out the same range of training, job search assistance and training options, Dischinat said. But for unemployed workers whose benefits have run out, basic sustenance is the most pressing issue.
''Now they are in hustle mode, these people coming in here,'' she said. ''I have to hustle to get this.''
The number of jobless maxing out their benefits last week is a result of February's stimulus legislation, which restored benefits for a large group of workers who had lost them early this year.
That extension ran out over the weekend, said Patrick Beaty, the state's deputy secretary for unemployment.
The economy has also been hard on the state's unemployment compensation fund. Pennsylvania is one of a number of states that have been forced to borrow money from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits for the growing ranks of unemployed.
''We have been borrowing from the federal government since March of this year, and we just recently went over the $1 billion mark,'' Beaty said.
The state is expected to be $1.5 million in the hole to the federal government by the end of the year, he said."
In Allentown bank robberies, theft and other crimes have been jumping and the desperation is beginning to slide into surrounding areas. My heart was broken last when a perfectly normal & healthy man around the age of 30 walked up to me and asked me for $1 or $2 to help him buy gas for his car.
This poor person was reduced to begging. Now don't get me wrong, I am used to begging, I am from NYC and saw it all the time but that begging was different. In NYC I knew that there were support services and shelters everywhere to help them out but here, in the suburbs, there are no safety nets. I never thought I would live to see begging where I am, but it's here.This is what I read in my morning local paper, please post what is going on by you, wherever you are:
"By Scott Kraus OF THE MORNING CALL
September 22, 2009
For some 1,070 jobless Lehigh Valley residents, Monday marked the day their safety net gave way.
They're part of a group of 23,400 statewide whose maximum 79 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits expired over the weekend.
With a tight job market lengthening job searches, they're the first large contingent to max out their benefits since the recession began in December 2007.
''The competition is stiff for any job opening right now,'' said Nancy Dischinat, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, which administers the state's local CareerLink employment center.
Since July 2008, laid-off workers have been eligible for 26 weeks of standard unemployment, plus 33 weeks of federal emergency unemployment compensation and 20 weeks of state extended benefits.
Congress is working on a 13-week extension for states with unemployment rates over 8.5 percent, which would include Pennsylvania, where the rate was a seasonally adjusted 8.6 percent in August. Legislators are expected to vote today.
For now, though, about 23,400 Pennsylvanians are suddenly without a source of income.
Allentown's CareerLink job hunting center was hopping Monday as workers hit the computers to try to find a job.
Charlene Truszkowski of Bethlehem isn't there yet. Jobless since last October, when she lost her medical administrative job, she dreads the day her benefits run out.
''I would lose everything,'' said Truszkowski, 53, who is raising her two grandsons and constantly looking for a job. ''I'm struggling now to keep things I worked for, for years.''
Debbie Speller, 32, of Allentown has had a similar experience, struggling to find a job since losing her post in property management and marketing over a year ago.
''When I do apply, they are getting anywhere from 200 to 300 resumes,'' Speller said, many from overqualified applicants.
A worker who loses his job today can count on the standard 26 weeks of unemployment compensation and could be in line for an additional 13 weeks, depending on economic conditions that trigger the extension. Anything beyond that will require an act of Congress.
The weekly checks are designed to replace half a worker's income, up to a maximum of $583 a week.
That just underlines the need for the newly jobless to get started looking for work or repositioning their careers right away, Dischinat said.
CareerLink can help the jobless assess their job skills, hook them up with training to make them more marketable and get them started looking for work right away.
Once benefits run out, there are fewer options, Dischinat said.
CareerLink offers clients whose benefits have run out the same range of training, job search assistance and training options, Dischinat said. But for unemployed workers whose benefits have run out, basic sustenance is the most pressing issue.
''Now they are in hustle mode, these people coming in here,'' she said. ''I have to hustle to get this.''
The number of jobless maxing out their benefits last week is a result of February's stimulus legislation, which restored benefits for a large group of workers who had lost them early this year.
That extension ran out over the weekend, said Patrick Beaty, the state's deputy secretary for unemployment.
The economy has also been hard on the state's unemployment compensation fund. Pennsylvania is one of a number of states that have been forced to borrow money from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits for the growing ranks of unemployed.
''We have been borrowing from the federal government since March of this year, and we just recently went over the $1 billion mark,'' Beaty said.
The state is expected to be $1.5 million in the hole to the federal government by the end of the year, he said."
It will get worse when Mack Trucks leaves.
What really worries me is that the suburbs aren't set up to take on large impoverished populations. We don't have much housing and what we do have has been occupied for decades so there is no room for more people. We don't have many shelters or many support services, not compared to cities. What on earth is going to happen to all these people and the kids... what is going to happen to these kids?
