Unemployment yesterday, unemployment today

Unemployment through the ages (well, since I was born).
From 1958 to the present, there have been 31 instances of "emergency unemployment" benefits (e.g., beyond the usual 26 weeks of benefits). Of these, 23 (75%) were not paid for by any "offset".

If you recall the long, very long, and grueling march towards an unemployment extension last summer (I do, and have the cspan logs to prove it), which was finally retroactively passed about 6 weeks after expiring. Well there was a huge debate in Congress about whether to "offset" it, in other words find some way of paying for it. The Republicans all clamoured for an offset - "It must be paid for"! The Democrats clamoured "This is an emergency! You don't need an offset for an emergency!"

So apparently through history over the past half century, 75% of these emergency unemployment extensions were deemed emergencies. Whether they were true emergencies, or whether the people in power just wanted to grant them, or whether states were broke and couldn't pay for them, or whatever. I wonder if we just lack the creativity as a nation to figure out how to keep people employed.

So here in Oregon, we have a benevolent Legislature, who understands that Oregon has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Can't continue to blame that spotted owl, or Bush, or the volatility of high tech. Well, maybe the volatility of high tech. But the Legislature, along with the very important topics of banning non-certified firewood into the state, passing bills that "encourage agencies to work together", and, as they like to say, bills that require the counting of frogs. Well they did pass a short-term unemployment extension. Oregon Emergency Benefits III.

It is available to people who have exhausted (run out) of their 99 weeks of unemployment. They can get up to 6 weeks of benefits, and already the program is oversubscribed. At 1:58pm on Friday, the queue times were:
156 people on hold, waiting to talk to a claims rep
801 people waiting for a callback (which is a nifty innovation, and doesn't suck up cell minutes)
3,172 calls had been handled thus far that day.
Hold time: 90 mins

Note - for fastest time through the call-in lines, learn a few lines of Vietnamese. That queue always always has the shorted hold times.

And today, there is a job fair at Century H.S. in Hillsboro. The sign reads "Custodians" as in janitors. Looks like they have cops directing traffic. They must be expecting a lot of people, and at noon there were dozens of cars in the lot. I wonder if these are real school district jobs, or contract jobs. I am suspicious. This is something school districts try to do to save money, but not sure I want contract people cleaning lockers at my kids' elementary school. Rather a known person who looks out for the kids and who they know by name. A school village is not just about cost.

I don't hear anyone talking about green shoots anymore. I don't hear anyone talking about jobs programs anymore, except in political rhetoric. Paul Krugman in the NY Times today bemoans that no one is talking about unemployment anymore.

Creative job solutions. Don't expect them from your politicians any time soon.