Unemployment & Retraining

As the federal government considers an economic recovery plan that will most directly address the needs of those suffering and revive the economy, expanding funding for and modernizing state-based unemployment compensation systems should be a central part of any recovery plan. 

While the financial crisis has received more of the headlines, there has been a growing unemployment crisis over the last year.  With unemployment at a five-year high, nearly 10 million Americans were officially unemployed last month, with nearly 500,000 workers applying for benefits each week.  And the problem doesn't stop there, with long-term joblessness rising:

As the country enters into a recession and suffers increasing job losses, the Great Lakes Region is facing a particularly acute crisis. Literally millions of decent-paying manufacturing jobs have disappeared from the region in recent years.  How regional political leaders are responding to that crisis provides lessons for state policymakers across the country.