More than half of jobless search six months or longer for new jobs
African American unemployment rises even as it falls overall

More than half of Michigan’s unemployed adults of prime working age (25-54) last year spent a half year or longer looking for jobs – the longest on record, the 2011 Labor Day Report from the Michigan League for Human Services concludes.

Even though overall unemployment decreased in 2010 compared with the previous year, the share of long-term unemployed (those out of work 26 weeks or longer) reached the 50 percent mark, which is far higher than even the early 1980s recession. For those of prime working age, 55 percent of unemployed were out of work for 26 weeks or longer. The data has been tracked since 1979.

The report also documents a rise in African American unemployment in 2010, even as overall unemployment declined. In fact, unemployed workers in four cities with majority African American populations (Detroit, Pontiac, Inkster and Highland Park) accounted for 16 percent of all unemployed workers last year.

“Michigan’s unemployed workers are struggling mightily to find new work once they are displaced, and, sadly, the unemployment rate for some groups continues to rise,’’ said League President & CEO Gilda Z. Jacobs. “This information shows that our public structures must respond to families in deep need as we continue to fight our way out of this terrible economy.’’

In addition, the share of Michigan workers employed in low-wage jobs is climbing – 26.6 percent in 2010 compared with 20.8 percent in 2006.  Four of the top six jobs in Michigan have median wages that will not bring a family of four out of poverty.

Research shows that increasing a worker’s educational level reduces the likelihood of unemployment. Projections show that postsecondary education will be increasingly important during the next decade.

“We know that we’ve placed a great deal of emphasis in Michigan in creating a better business climate,’’ said Karen Holcomb-Merrill, the League’s policy director. “But it should also be a priority to invest in a skilled workforce in order to create an attractive environment for employers.”

Included in those investments is the need for adult education and higher education. The budget that starts Oct. 1 cuts community colleges by 4 percent, universities and colleges by 15 percent and reduces the K-12 foundation grant by $470 per pupil. Adult education – cut dramatically in previous years – remained flat at $22 million while no state funding was given for the second year to No Worker Left Behind, a program aimed at training adult workers for high-demand jobs.

The report calls for restoration of the basic Unemployment Insurance to 26 weeks. Michigan was the first state to cut the traditional period, shrinking it to 20 weeks for newly unemployed workers next year. In addition, the report recommends that a workforce development action plan to be released by Gov. Rick Snyder this fall must include a strategy to raise basic skills in reading and math and in some cases, English. That way, job providers will have a labor pool that can readily learn the occupational skills that the existing and emerging industries will require.

The report, Long-Term Unemployment Hits High Water Mark, can be found at www.milhs.org. The data from the report was supplied by the Economic Policy Institute as part of its State of Working America project.
The Michigan League for Human Services is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that Michigan’s low-income residents achieve economic security.

The Michigan House today approved welfare reform legislation that will put a four-year limit on cash assistance from the state to able-bodied residents, if approved by Gov. Rick Snyder. Aug. 25, 2011 — Crain’s Detroit Business

Given Michigan’s dire child poverty statistics emerging from last week’s Kids Count report, it’s heartening to know there is at least one countervailing trend: the free breakfast and lunch program for all children in Detroit Public Schools this year. Aug. 21, 2011 — Detroit Free Press

Michigan children losing ground at start of school year
Passage of House Bills 4409, 4410 moves us in the wrong direction

 “The passage of House Bills 4409 and 4410 will negatively affect children across the state. As Michigan recovers from a deep, deep recession and jobs remain in short supply, this is the wrong time to implement this policy.

The 48-month, retroactive limit will make Michigan the harshest in the Midwest. Indiana has a 24-month policy but applies it only to adults in a family.
This policy is expected to impact an estimated 25,000 children. Two-thirds of the people impacted are children and the average age of a child on the Family Independence Program caseload is 7. Passage in late August with implementation Oct. 1 is too short of a time frame for communities to prepare.

Michigan has a strong network of nonprofits and charities but those groups have been battered by the recession, too, and may not have capacity to help. Many report having to do more with less.

The policy will also count in the 48-month limit those months where families received as little as $10 a month as they phased off assistance. If they have another episode of unemployment, they may be locked out of cash assistance because of taking very small amounts of help since 2007 as they worked their way off welfare. This is not sound policy.
While we share the goal of self-sufficiency, simply ending rent money is not the way to reach this goal. This is the wrong policy enacted at the wrong time. This action comes on the heels of a KIDS COUNT report that ranks Michigan 30th among the states for child well-being. We need policies that move us in the right direction on child well being.”

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The Michigan League for Human Services is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that Michigan’s low-income residents achieve economic security.

Communities, families need to know about cash cutoff
Michigan misses opportunity to shore up unemployment system, too

With less than six weeks to go before thousands of Michigan families with children are expected to lose their cash assistance grants, too little information has been given to families, caseworkers, nonprofits, charities and community leaders about the impact of the changes that may cause a new wave of homelessness among children in our state.

The Legislature is expected to finalize House Bills 4409 and 4410 this week, which will cut an estimated 12,600 families from cash assistance. This is the money that pays the rent for many if not most of these families.  In the meantime, the department has sent letters to long-term recipients warning that the state will start enforcing federal 60-month limits for the first time in state history.
The letter to recipients says help with rent may be available but lists no programs that will fill that gap.

“What is the plan? Simply ending the rent money is not the way to help families reach self-sufficiency.  But it is a sure-fire way to help uproot many families just as the school year gets under way,’’ said Michigan League for Human Services President & CEO Gilda Z. Jacobs. “There’s got to be a better way to handle this.’’

Besides an interview with the Detroit Free Press, the department has released no information to the public or its caseworkers about who these families are, the numbers expected to lose assistance in each county, or how families need to proceed. It has suggested that they call 2-1-1 for help.

The budget that starts Oct. 1 counts on 12,600 fewer families receiving cash assistance to save the state $77.4 million over the budget year.

The League emailed a request to Gov. Snyder Monday asking him to reconsider this negative policy. An estimated 25,000 children and their parents – enough to fill Comerica Park – will lose a key  source of income. The average age of a child on assistance is 7.The recent Kids Count Data Book recorded an astounding 64 percent jump in child poverty in Michigan over the last decade.

Ironically on Monday, the deadline passed for states to file an application to claim $139 million in federal funds for the state’s Unemployment Insurance system. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it must have passed two of four improvements to the system to claim the money. At least 33 states and the Virgin Islands have passed these modernizations, including many with Republican governors.

“Michigan, of all places, needed to step up and claim this pot of money to shore up our strained Unemployment Insurance system,’’ Jacobs said. “The fact that legislative leaders  and the administration did not make this happen in a state where breadwinners cannot find work to support their families is beyond comprehension.”

Nationally, child poverty leaped 18 percent between 2000 and 2009. In Michigan, however, it rose a whopping 64 percent, the  2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book reports. That means 75,000 more children in the state are living below the federal poverty line ($22,700 for a two-parent family with two children) and nearly one in every four children in Michigan are in poverty.
 
Unemployment and foreclosure are two new indicators addressed in this year’s report, America’s Children, America’s Challenge: Promoting Opportunity for the Next Generation. In 2010, 281,000 children in Michigan had at least one unemployed parent, and 217,000 were affected by foreclosure between 2007 and 2009.
 
Overall, Michigan ranked 30th among the 50 states with No. 1 being the best for child well-being. Michigan is doing relatively well on measures of teen well-being, but not so on economic security for children. Specifically, the state ranked 47th among the 50 states in having one of the largest percentages (36%) of children living in families where no parent had a full-time year-round job. In the face of these numbers recent state legislation to limit unemployment insurance from 26 to 20 weeks and cash assistance to 48 months for needy families will place many more children at risk of suffering the impact of the economic downturn.
 
Fortunately, the report did contain some good news. Of the 10 key indicators analyzed by the national KIDS COUNT report, Michigan improved on five with the most dramatic gains in the following measures:

• A 40 percent decline in the percent of teens ages 16-19 not in school and not high school graduates – down from 10 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2009.
• An 18 percent decline in births to teens, ages 15-19—down from 40 births per 1,000 teens to 33 births per 1,000 teens in 2008.
• An 18 percent decline in deaths among children ages 1-14 – down from 22 deaths per 100,000 children in 2000 to 18 deaths per 100,000 in 2007.

Here in Michigan we should focus our attention on:

• Expanding programs, such job training and postsecondary education for unemployed and low-income parents and the Earned Income Tax Credit to supplement low wages; these programs promote economic success for families.
• Implementing programs and disbursing funds that help more families negotiate the foreclosure process; Michigan has $498 million in federal funds to help families in foreclosure.
• Enacting the reforms, such as including part-time workers, to the unemployment system that would recognize the changes in the world of work and bring another $139 million of federal funding into the state.

– Jane Zehnder-Merrell

If you’d like to see what Michigan’s recession looks like up close and personal, flip through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s new Kids Count report. It’s a sobering look at child suffering. Aug. 19, 2011 — mlive.com

The latest Kids Count report released Wednesday shows child poverty is a growing problem in Michigan. Aug. 17, 2011 — WLNS.com

There has been a 64 percent increase in the child poverty rate in Michigan over the past decade, according to an annual “Kid’s Count” report from the Michigan League for Human Services. Aug.1 7, 2011 –  Interlochen Public Radio

Michigan poised to slash 13,000 families from welfare forever.  Aug. 17, 2011 — Metro Times