Its kinda quiet in here. Anyone know anything about Unemployment?

[quakerboy]

My wife ran into a strange situation with unemployment, and if anyone has knowledge of the system and could help us sort it out

[gateley]

1. Don't know, but I'll give this a kick. Hope you find your answer. nt

[SaintPete]

2. Whats the issue?

I've dealt with unemployment in two state, and Federal Emergency Unemployment (EUC).

[elleng]

3. Ditto gate's kick.

X-post at 'Economy,' 'Personal Finance,?'

[midnight]

4. K&R Hope someone with knowledge will see this and post info.

[Politicalboi]

5. I live in Ca

And I collect unemployment, and I found online that I didn't have a form to fill out this week. I was doing it with snail mail till I found out about doing it online. So then I used the phone to do it. Don't know what kind of issues you are having.

[TheMastersNemesis]

6. Retired Labor Specialist - Back ground in the Unemployment Insurance Program.

I was an employment specialist for the Colorado Job Service for 24 years. I started out as a claims taker in the unemployment insurance office. I also worked as a liason to the governor's ombudsman for several months in 1974 - 1975 working on problem unemployment claims that were not paying due to a huge overload from a recession in January 1975. I worked in the main UI administrative office for 4 months directly under the State Director of the Unemployment Claims Division. That was before I became and employment specialist for a welfare to work program (WIN) for 6 years.

I was an employment program specialist until I retired 14 years ago. I worked veterans programs, a homeless program day labor operations, group unemployment claims taking, Job seeking counseling, job development, public relations, public service employment contracts, federal OJT contracts for welfare clients, etc.

What is your state and what is the situation?

[gateley]

7. Boy, well if I ever have a question, I'll know who to ask! Hope he sees your post! nt

[TheMastersNemesis]

9. I Feel Like The Man Who Knew Too Much - My Hair Burns From The Garbage I Hear About The Labor Mkt

It is not that I know too much really. What I mean by my statement is that I am very well versed in the labor and employment situation. If the general public only knew how the GOP and the American business community has screwed up the job market they would be out in the street with pitchforks and torches. The public is misled and lied to all the time about what is going on.

My hair is on fire almost every day I hear the bullshit code that politicians and American business leaders use to trick the American work force. American business, the GOP and conservatives are the worst of the worst. The problem is that the deep structural problems that they are causing and will make worse are difficult to explain in a just a couple of words. I would say that they are purposely instigating these problems for their own gain at the expense of the country. And the media is directly complicit in the destruction of a decent labor market.

It has taken more than 30 years for the GOP to completely trash the future. Democrats are too scared and weak to counter as much as they could. They are at the mercy of huge amounts of money by the opposition. And the public just keeps playing six bullet Russian roulette with their voting patterns. Being anti union, anti labor and anti government regulation in the labor field is just plain suicidal. When demanding a fair wage and fair working conditions is seen as too communistic then we are really in trouble. That sub meme is played over and over 24/7 in thousands of ways. People do not even know that they are being manipulated.

I probably cannot solve that poster's problem but I believe I can shed light on how the process works and what is going on. Most people just do not understand the law or the system that the politicians and employers have rigged in many ways.

[gateley]

11. As Mother Teresa said, if you can't feed one hundred mouths, feed one.

You're helping more than you know.

[SaintPete]

8. will nyou tell us what's happening? /nt

[TheMastersNemesis]

10. I Sure Will

I understand the mechinations of the labor market and I believe I know what the ultimate agenda is. The problem is that what is going on is very well camouflaged and fogged over. The process has been going on in earnest since Ronald Reagan. The public has been massively misdirected for many years. What is going on is what I call the "flat earth scenario".

[quakerboy]

12. Thanks to those of you I talked with.

And to everyone who responded. I was quite shocked at how many responses I got here.

[cascadiance]

13. Fortunately I'm off it now, but a few notes for those in Oregon on this...

Not sure what the problem is you are referring to but...

1) the methodology of signing up for it and filing for it is a lot better than California. In California it is insane trying to call in as there is no "call queue" to wait for an attendant, and therefore you have to continue to call in to their voicemail multiple times a minute for sometimes hours, which is a complete time sink, and also is probably blowing a hole in California's state budget, as I was told by someone I talked to that a certain phone company is given a nice fee for each call that is placed through that voicemail which at multiple fees per minute when a single person can spend hours making such calls can be a big sum just for one person. Oregon's call queuing is a lot better comparatively speaking. You can also file online a lot more easily when California requires you use the U.S. mail to file your weekly claims.

2) One thing of note that isn't talked about a lot is that once you go through your 26 weeks of basic unemployment in Oregon, and subsequently through all of your federal extensions, there is an additional Oregon extension that comes after that, but which has some additional requirements like logging your job contacts online in addition to the other info when you make a claim. Not sure though if the state budget being more in jeopardy might have them pulling back on this later though.

Also, if you work a job in the middle of your claim it can sometimes cause the unemployment office putting our benefits on hold and saying that "you may qualify for a change of your unemployment claim" given the more recent experience. I went through that three times, even tough each time they came up with the same conclusion that filing a new claim for the brief employment experience would have the payments substantially less than extending the original claim, and therefore invalidates that "new claim" and they in each case reverted back to extending the original claim. Don't know if that was your problem, but you have to go through calling in to straighten those situations out, as it will repeat, even if that situation is found subsequently to not have been applicable.

I'm glad that just recently I returned to the land of the employed and no longer have to worry about this stuff. Good luck.

[quakerboy]

14. Actually we had the opposite problem

After running through the 26 week basic benefit, while sending out resume after resume to jobs all over the metro area every week to the point it feels useless, but you have to do it anyway because finding that job is now your job,

Rather than basing her unemployment extension on that basic claim, connected to the full time job she had for the past 4 years,

They have reverted to a claim she had after her previous employer before that laid her off 4 years ago. A claim that expired 3 years ago, but somehow they are reactivating, Which is significantly lower in total benefit and slightly lower in weekly payment.