More Economic Fears for the Unemployed in Maryland

When Yvette and Dale Conrad first heard about Obama's February 2009 Stimulus package, they were told that Dale would be eligible for another 13-20 weeks worth of unemployment benefits since the loss of his job in November 2008. They were depending on it to bring their bills up to date. However, it is not going to happen.

Today they learned that the Maryland Labor, Licensing, and Regulation Department had added a new paragraph to the unemployment page. It states, "Congress has recently enacted economic stimulus legislation. The legislation did not add any additional weeks of unemployment insurance benefits. However, any benefits paid for weekending February 28, 2009 or later will have an additional $25.00 added. These payments are not available at this time."

Maryland, along with a few other states, did not meet the requirements for emergency unemployment benefits that are based on the unemployment rate for each state. This is based on something called the "trigger notice". Since Maryland is the wealthiest state in the United States, they did not adopt any regulations that would have saved those who have been unemployed for an extended period prior to the current stimulus package.

In 2008, over 2.6 million jobs were lost; making this the worst year since 1945 and the unemployment rate is now in excess of 7.2 percent and rising more each day. This past Wednesday, in front of a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com stated, "The country is losing half a million jobs in a month, and if the government doesn't act quickly, there's no reason that wouldn't intensify."

Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco Group North America, a unit of the world's largest employment firm and Kurt Karl, head of economic research at Swiss Re, have both stated that they expect about another 1 million jobs to be lost in January and February of this year, not counting continued expected loss of jobs throughout the remainder of 2009.

The construction industry, in which Dale works, with at 15.2 percent increase in unemployment, has the highest rate of those unemployed due to the housing slump and little new home construction anticipated. Many economists have serious doubts that even new road construction will save most of these jobs. Already companies like Home Depot, ING, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments, and more are cutting more jobs within the next few days and weeks.

What does this mean for families like Yvette and Dale's? Their only other source of income is from Social Security Disability payments for Yvette, which does not cover even their most basic needs of utilities and food. Most families do not have even that much. Even so, it does not cover vehicle insurance, clothing, household cleaning products, gasoline, heating, or medications. After already losing their home to foreclosure, they are currently living in a camper while trying to make ends meet.

What will happen is that, because they also have three children, they will be forced to apply for state aid, which includes food stamps and medical coverage for the children only. Yvette's disability payments will be used as income and will significantly decrease any benefits they may be entitled to. The main problem is that there are thousands of families nation-wide who are going to have little choice but to depend on the government to supply the barest of necessities. Some kind of help is going to be needed for the people who have slipped through the cracks of any programs geared to jumpstart the economy.

How will that influence the stimulus of the United States economy? It can be described currently as only a "fast moving downward spiral", which in turn will decrease the economy even more as the United States quickly becomes a welfare nation.

Sources:
Maryland, DLLR's Division of Unemployment Insurance, February 26 2009
Worst year for jobs since '45, by David Goldman, January 9 2009
Personal Interview