2-04-08, 4:20 pm

Long-term unemployment in the US is steadily worsening. In 2007, according to analysis by the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute, 1.2 million people were unsuccessfully seeking jobs for more than six months, the federal time limit on unemployment compensation benefits.

In January, that number stood at 1.4 million.

In 2007, the long-term unemployment rate stood at 0.8 percent (the percentage of the labor force that has been in the job market for over 26 weeks). Michigan had the highest rate at 1.7 percent with the long-term unemployed numbering over 85,000. California, with over 160,000, and New York, at over 97,000, followed suit.

The latest government data indicate that long-term unemployment is worse today than at the end of the last recession when Congress finally chose to extend unemployment benefits. Even with a lower unemployment rate in 2008 than in 2002, only 1.3 million workers were considered to be long-term unemployed in March 2002.

Despite these signs that long-term unemployment is worsening, Senate Republicans are delaying a pending economic stimulus package by threatening to filibuster a Democratic proposal to boost unemployment compensation benefits for workers out of work for more than six months. And the Bush administration is flatly stating it won't sign an economic stimulus package with this sort of aid for working families.

Obviously, long-term unemployment harms working families, eroding savings and limiting purchasing power. And as the numbers of the long-term unemployed grow, the impact on the general economy will be devastating as well. That is why the labor movement has amplified its call for extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Writing in the Detroit News this past week, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger noted that strong unemployment benefits are needed. 'There is near universal agreement that extending unemployment insurance and enhanced food stamp benefits is the fastest, most effective way to stimulate the economy,' he wrote. 'These benefits put money directly in the hands of those who need it – and who will spend it directly into our struggling economy.

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel called on Congress to act to hold off economic crisis with a sense of urgency. He said, 'We believe the economy is at risk of sliding into a very serious recession, and Congress must act immediately and decisively to head off the worst.'

Samuel called for extending unemployment compensation benefits. 'There is a general consensus among economists,' he noted, 'that providing unemployment benefits is one of the most efficient ways to stimulate the economy, since jobless workers are most likely to spend their benefits immediately and pump more money back into the economy, generating more economic activity.

The labor movement is also calling for serious federal reinvestment in the country's infrastructure to help boost job growth in the construction industries hardest hit by the collapse of the housing market.

Echoing labor's call for broader institutional reforms to revive the economy, Anna Burger, the president of the Change to Win federation of labor unions, said, “It is also vital for Congress to provide a long-term plan to stimulate the economy that includes developing comprehensive health care reform, ending free trade deals that send our jobs overseas, and initiating a long-term program to rebuild America’s infrastructure.”

--Reach Joel Wendland at