Unemployment Growing as jobless rate hits 10.2 percent

In a country that has not seen so much unemployment since the great depression many are stunned to see the jobless rate continue to climb to levels that were once thought unattainable.

The decades of American prosperity seem a distant memory now. People who were once gainfully employed and looking to a bright future that held untold wealth and a way to an easier life in lifestyles that were unreachable by there parents are now fighting with state agencies to hold onto an average of $300 a week. Far below what many with or without children can live on.

A country and lifestyle may have changed for generations to come.

People who sensed that the company they were working for were spiraling down into a layoff and decided to make an effort to put a more stable work situation before themselves are being penalized if the company they moved to hit a road block and committed layoffs after they arrived at there new employers.

Benefits are being denied to those who switched jobs and were laid off after making the switch. I know, I am one of those who has been denied benefits. I voluntarily left my former employer to take a position with a new firm, moving and relocating my family at a great expense only to be laid off 5 weeks later. Though I increased my salary by 20% by making the switch and the company I left behind had performed so many layoffs that they were running on a skeleton crew, I was denied since I voluntarily left that company.

How many more are not being counted in the unemployed and jobless ranks?

How high would the jobless rate be if the denied were counted along with the approved?

How many of those unemployed have fallen off the list and remain unemployed?

7,000 people lose their unemployment benefits every day.

How long will this continued downturn last?

Some reports state that about a third of the 15 million people that are out of work, have gone at least six months without a job.

At least six months.

It is hard enough to regain ground once a single month's worth of payments have been missed for one reason or another, how hard will it be for a country of previously employed citizens to catch up after living on $300 a week for six months or more?

President Barack Obama is currently poised to sign an additional $24 billion economic stimulus bill. This bill is designed to provide additional tax incentives to prospective home-buyers as well as extending the previous home-buyers incentives and extending unemployment benefits to the longtime jobless who have been left behind as the economy starts to lean toward recovery.

The extension to the $8,000 first time home-buyer credit was originally set to expire at the end of October. The extension will make the first time home-buyer credit available through April of 2010 with an additional 90 days for closing purposes. A buyer must sign a binding contract for the purchase of a home by the end of April to gain the credit.

The home buyer credit now will include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who buy a new home after having lived in their current residence for a minimum of five years.

The addition of the new $6,500 tax credit is an obvious attempt to help reduce the stock pile of homes that are clogging the market and slowing home builders and other forms of business that are heavily reliant on the housing market to spur them on.

This new bill, H.R. 3548 was sponsored by Rep Jim McDermott, and co-sponsored by 49 others. The bill was introduced on September 10th 2009 and presented to the President on November 5th.

In the end, is this to little too late or is this just another drop in the bucket for what is needed to right our country and attempt to put our faltering economy back on the proper track?

I never thought that "Change we can count on" meant the penny's left in our pockets.