Becoming Less Invisible

The long term unemployed are finally becoming less invisible. From the PBS The Nightly Business Report:

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The official figures will tell you there are 1,371,000 people like Randy Moe.

RANDY MOE, 99ER CHICAGO: I was unemployed, laid off, August 15, 2008, and collected benefits until about six weeks ago.

GERSH: That's because Moe hit the limit on benefits. In most states, that's 99 weeks, which is why many of those who have run out call themselves "99ers."

MOE: We've become thrown away people. They're losing a lot of valuable people, the country is.

GERSH: Randy Moe found other 99ers online. A dozen meet regularly in this chat room. They talk about finding a job and about lobbying Congress for help. They're part of a grassroots movement to add what's called a tier five to unemployment insurance -- another 20 weeks of benefits.

Websites for the unemployed are cropping up:

Jobless Bloggers

No Job Survivor

Survive Unemployment News Blog

Unemploymentality

Unemploymentality has a lot of links to other unemployed bloggers, some helpful options (look for Broke-Ass Stuart's money saving recommendations) and there's also plenty of entertainment.

The only way to end long term unemployment is to put a human face on it.


cross posted at Main St/workingamerica.org