TheLoop21.com

By: Makaiya Brown (Add to your loop)
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 00:00

unemployment benifits are not enough for the jobless anymore.

Jobless Americans need more than just an extension of unemployment benefits, they need jobs! On July 22, the House voted 272-152 in favor of extending benefits to 2.5 million unemployed Americans. While I applaud this effort to help people who have lost their jobs, the extension is simply slapping an old band-aid on a festering issue. The measure is retroactive to June and extends benefits through November of this year. So, while the unemployed may be able to keep food on the table come Thanksgiving, what happens after that? Another extension?

A little over a year ago, an $862 billion economic stimulus package was enacted, promising to save or create 3.5 million jobs. But with the unemployment rate at nearly 10 percent, I've got to ask where is the money and where are the jobs? If there are jobs available, the fact that there are so many Americans without work leads me to believe one or a combination of three things: the unemployed are really not willing to take the jobs that are available, the jobs are in locations that the unemployed are not willing or able to move to, or the unemployed are not skilled for the jobs that are available. I'm going to focus on the latter point.

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I've never been unemployed personally but I know several people who are. Many of those people are happy to know that the recent extension stretches benefits from the standard 26 weeks to 99 weeks. That's nearly 2 years! In the same amount of time, I earned an MBA degree which enabled me to double my income. I'm not saying that graduate school is for everyone, but I think that if people are not finding jobs that they should consider getting training and education to make themselves more attractive to companies that are hiring. As someone who has reviewed hundreds if not thousands of resumes and has hired several candidates for positions at several companies that I've worked for in the past, I know that the more education and skills that a candidate has, the more value that candidate is to the job that I'm looking to fill. More education and training sets a resume apart in the boatloads recruiters and hiring mangers receive. Oftentimes more training and education also qualifies the candidate for a higher salary- and who wouldn't want that?

So while I am in favor of helping unemployed Americans get back on their feet, Congress needs to do more than simply "give people fish" by extending unemployment benefits, but also "teach them to fish."

Back when Hurricane Katrina hit, it was a devastating time for people in the Gulf region.