Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 Passed, Unemployment rates will raise

TheBigPicToday: The pot is brewing a nasty stew. Save fast, save now. It’s not the end of the world, but more people will be jobless this Christmas.

• Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008
• Unemployment rates will raise
• Middle class savings isn’t in the bank

Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008

On the 21st of November, President Bush signed the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008. It’s not going to fix everyone, but it will add 7 more weeks to unemployment, except states where unemployment is over 6%, then it will extend unemployment by 13 weeks. To my surprise, there isn’t much out there on this bill. As more states surpass the 6% unemployment, more people will get an extension to their unemployment benefits. My original estimate that unemployment will peak at 8% by March 1st needs to be modified at this point, as more items come to a head.

My Unemployment Claims Coming

I still believe that unemployment will hit 8% by the end of February, but I believe now that by next summer unemployment may be at 9.5%. As much as I don’t want that to happen, I think it will, unless the government open the floodgates to jobs, which at this point requires a magic wand. President Elect Obama’s goal is to create 2.5 million new jobs by 2011. There is a problem with that. At that rate, combined with the downward spiral of current employment levels, the 2.5 million would only offset projected additional job losses. Something more must be done at this point. We must back small businesses to help ease the cost of benefits, taxes, and employment.

Middle Class Savings

Some saddening statistics were released a couple of days ago that 76% of the middle class doesn’t have three months worth of savings for basic necessities. I cannot stress enough at this point, as I blogged earlier, SAVE, and a job is a job.

The big picture in all of this is this: This isn’t the end of the world. Save.

Links:

HR 6867: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h6867/show

Obama wants 2.5 million new jobs by 2011: http://www.examiner.com/a-1706717~Obama_plan_aims_for_2_5_million_new_jobs_by_2011.html

Middle Class Fact Sheet: http://www.demos.org/pubs/midclass_factsheetNEW.pdf