01/23/2014
When asked to pick a topic recently from the world of business and news I could not think of a better controversial topic than the world of Unemployment Benefits and if and how the long term benefits lead to long term Unemployment rate. When looking at this issue there is two sides of the fence and depending on what side you are on or what possibly has happened to you in the past no two views or stories seem to ever be the same. The topic that of Unemployment can strike fear into every single soul on the planet especially if you have ever had to go onto it for different types of reasons. Now my personal belief is that long term Unemployment benefits will lead to a higher Unemployment rate and could cause us to go back into a recession like we had in 2009-2012. As of December 28, 2013 some 1.3 million individuals that are on Unemployment benefits will be without any form of financial support from the Government. This also means that there is a possibility of another 2.5 million Americans that could run out of Unemployment Benefits by the end of 2014. Now depending on the City or State that you live in the benefits are all different. Currently some states have benefits as short as 26 weeks and some can go as long as 73 weeks. According to Washington Post that between 35-40% of all individuals that are currently looking for work have been on Unemployment Benefits more than 37 weeks. As in comparison to past economic recoveries that long term Unemployment has only made up around 20% of the total of individuals that were on Unemployment benefits. Some believe that if an individual is getting paid to be on Unemployment they simply will not look for a job until it gets closer to when the benefits are running out. A simple stat to think about is that in the past 12 months 718,000 workers that were on Unemployment benefits found jobs. The question to ask yourself how many more would have found jobs if the benefits were shorter or not extended. Now I have personally been on both sides of the fence I lost my job of 5 years due to the doors being closed and I had to go on Unemployment for about 3 months before I found a job that paid enough to support my family. I went door to door looking for work asked family and friends if they had any leads and did the internet searches just like millions of others. I kept doing it over and over until something came up and I could go back to work. There is no 100% clear cut but from what I saw from the amount of individuals in the South East Michigan market people abuse it and do anything they can just so they don’t have to go back to work. I do believe with the help of these two articles it supports that it would force many people to accept lower paying jobs or in different field but it would get them back into the workforce. When reading the two articles that I chose both I felt did a very nice job on both sides of the fence and supported both with statistics and figures. I do feel that enough information was provided to be able to support my side of the discussion. Both Stories gave both sides of the stories and allowed me to ask myself even more questions and show different perspectives. When reading this story online instead of watching on the television or listening on the radio I felt it gave me a better understanding of both fields of view. The only thing that I felt could have been better is if done on the television it would have allowed for a good drama or even round robin type discussion forum. When reading or formulating an opinion it is important to not hesitate to choose one side or another. If you remain in the middle the point of the article or your story may get lost in the details and may confuse your targeted audience.
References
Get off the Couch. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.economist.com
Weiner, J. (2013). Losing Unemployment benefits may help in the long run, but will hurt in the short run. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com
References: Get off the Couch. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.economist.com Weiner, J. (2013). Losing Unemployment benefits may help in the long run, but will hurt in the short run. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com
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