Long-term unemployment looms large

Like us on Facebook

"We would need remarkably rapid growth to bring unemployment down to 5 percent by 2015," Mishel said.

Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, told the panel that unemployment has a new face in America.

"The unemployed from the Great Recession have different problems than the unemployed in other recessions," Boushey said. "For example, this is the first major recession the United States has had involving dual-earner households."

She explained that when one partner is out of the work and the other, often the woman, is still employed, questions about relocating to where the jobs may be become more difficult to resolve.

"In addition, there is less mobility among the unemployed, because many have homes with mortgages that are underwater and cannot go anywhere," Boushey said.

Boushey and Mishel both called upon Congress to extend unemployment benefits and take additional steps, like training and jobs creation programs, to assist the millions who cannot find work.

"We should administer unemployment benefits on a state-by-state basis, as some states are faring worse than others, and it is a mistake to cut off benefits before a job market rises out of the recession," Boushey said. "That's not only bad for the families. It is also bad for the economy."

"Creating a bigger deficit is good in the short term, because that is what we should be doing - putting money out there to create jobs," Mishel said.

He added that economic growth solely through market forces will barely create enough jobs to absorb the growth of the labor force.

"And the safety net is looking more like a cement floor," he said.

Congressman McDermott empathized.

" Our first priority must be to maintain the current emergency federal unemployment benefits to prevent millions of workers from losing their benefits before the end of the year," he said.

McDermott noted that the House has already passed a jobs bill - the America Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, but that the Senate has yet to act on the legislation. The bill includes an extension of unemployment benefits that will last until the end of November.

"But if the Senate does not act and we don't pass this extension, 1.2 million workers will lose unemployment benefits this month, and 5 million will lose benefits by the end of the year," McDermott said.

Mishel said that, even with an unemployment insurance benefit extension, roughly 3 million unemployed workers will have exhausted all claims to benefits by the year's end.

"And by the end of 2011, 13 million will have exhausted their claims to benefits, unless the government steps in and helps them," he said. "We should not be turning our backs on these people in their hour of need."