It’s been rare recently, for a day to pass without hearing about a company announcing layoffs. The recession is taking a toll. This week for instance, General Motors will close its auto plant in Janesville, putting more than 2,000 employees out of work. The mounting layoffs have been straining Wisconsin’s unemployment compensation program. It assists people who’ve lost their jobs, by providing benefits and help in landing a new position. WUWM’s Marti Mikkelson reports on the increase in activity and payouts.
In Wisconsin this year, there’s been a 50 percent increase in the number of people filing for unemployment benefits. The maximum benefit is $355 per week. Hal Bergan administers the fund for the state Department of Workforce Development. He says at the beginning of the year, the fund contained more than $500 million dollars. But it’s dropped dramatically.
“It’s down to about oh I’d say $270-$275 million. I mean it’s not a small number but it’s a number that indicates that we don’t expect that we’re going to be able to go through 2009 without the need to borrow from the federal government,” Bergan says.
Bergan says the state will borrow enough to get through April. That’s when employers make their first quarter tax payments to the state fund.
Christina Spikes filed for benefits about a month ago. That’s when she was laid off from her job at J.C. Penney. The weekly check she now receives from the fund is equivalent to 37 percent of her salary. Spikes says she and her four-year-old daughter are getting by, barely.
“I’m not worried yet until it becomes too long and I don’t have a job, so I’m not worried,” Spikes says.
Spikes is sitting at a computer terminal at the YWCA on Martin Luther King Drive, looking for work as a cashier. That’s one of the services the unemployment program provides: computerized job listings. The room has 30 terminals and nearly every one is full this morning.
At one is Dwan Scott. He’s been collecting unemployment since September, when he was laid off from his job as an air conditioning repair coordinator for Johnson Controls. He says he’s starting to get a little nervous.
“For most of my life if I’m looking for a job, it takes about a month, so it’s taking a lot longer. My spirits are good because I have a strong faith but it’s just a difficult task that you continue with because it’s something you have to do,” Scott says.
Scott’s initial 26 weeks of unemployment benefits are set to run out in March. It is possible to file for extensions totaling an additional 20 weeks. Scott began using the center to hunt for work soon after he began receiving his checks. That’s typical these days, but a change from past years, according to Lisa Boyd-Gonzalez, the center’s associate executive director.
“Typically what would happen is when individuals went on unemployment is that they would wait until just about the point their unemployment ran out before they would come in and access services. People are coming in much sooner in that process because they know that it’s taking a lot longer period of time to actually get a job,” Boyd-Gonzalez says.
Boyd-Gonzalez says she’s also seeing more white collar workers walk through the door than in the past, and more people with years of experience. She says for many, it’s the first time they’ve ever filed for unemployment compensation.
The last time Wisconsin borrowed money from the federal government to replenish the unemployment fund was in the 1980s, when the country went through a similar deep recession. 30 other states are expected to do the same in 2009.
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