The Two Big Holes in the Unemployment Insurance

Robert B. Reich
Marketplace, February 6, 2008

We learned last Friday that payrolls shrunk by 17,000 in January, a job loss not seen since the tail end of the last recession, in 2003. And last week, the number of laid off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits soared by 69,000 to 375,000. It was the most new claims in one week since October, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina and other storms decimated the Gulf Coast. Unemployment insurance is supposed to help when job losses rise. But it doesn't -- for two reasons.

The first is it often runs out before someone can find a new job, especially during a recession. Senate is considering whether to lengthen the period of time people can collect unemployment benefits if they still can’t find a job after six months, which is how long unemployment insurance is now available. That’s sensible.

A new study by the Economic Policy Institute estimates almost 2 million job losers will run out of unemployment benefits this year unless benefits are extended. It’s not unusual to extend benefits during a recession, because recessions often last longer than six months and businesses don’t start hiring again until the economy picks up. And there are few better ways to stimulate the economy. Unemployment benefits put cash directly in the hands of people who need it most, and are most likely to spend it.

But there's a second big problem with unemployment insurance, and no one's doing anything about it. Most job losers don't get any benefits to begin with.

That’s because the unemployment insurance system was designed more than a half century ago when most people who lost their jobs had been employed full-time for years, and when most households had one wage earner. Even though those realities have changed, the rules haven’t. In most states, you’re eligible for unemployment insurance only if you’ve lost a full-time job that you’ve had for quite a while.

This leaves out just about everyone who’s lost one or more part-time jobs. And also excludes any full-time worker who had been at the job less than a year before they got canned. It also excludes people who had to leave their job to accompany a working spouse to another city or state. Altogether, the current rules leave out more than half of the American workforce.

So it’s not enough merely to extend unemployment benefits. If Congress really wants to help the millions of Americans who will lose their jobs in the coming recession, and also stimulate the economy, it should make sure job-losers get benefits in the first place.