The Hidden Cost of Jobs - Selling Fear

At great economic cost to taxpayers, governmental entities have desperately attempted to save jobs during the economic depression of our generation. The hidden costs to save jobs has been revealed in a story and database appearing in the NY Times today. The gamble in many jurisdictions just didn't payoff and now the taxpayers are subsidizing the costs.

"Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited that fear, creating a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages. States compete with other states, cities compete with surrounding suburbs, and even small towns have entered the race with the goal of defeating their neighbors."

Likewise, states have targeted workers' compensation insurance as a competitive giveaway incentive to industry, adding insult to injury for disabled workers, as a trade-off cost in order to save jobs. This has been an unfortunate experiment and has resulted in an unfortunately emsaculation of the entire workers' compensation benefit programs. The "giveaway," like the other governmental incentive efforts, has created more losers than winners, and and decimated workers' compensation.

Read the complete NY Times story Hidden Costs to Taxpayers As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price http://buff.ly/RtoiBk The Interactive Data

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Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ, helping injured workers and their families for over 4 decades, is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson).  

Read more about the "recession" and workers' compensation

Is The Recovery Of The Workers' Compensation System An Illusion?

Feb 23, 2009

The present economic downturn has been compared to the Great Depression of the 1930's or the recession of the 1980's. The factors that existed during those financial cycles need to be compared to the present political and ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: High Unemployment Rates & The Future of ...

Nov 06, 2009

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points." "Among the marginally attached, there were ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Declining Salaries and Unemployment Challenege Workers

Jul 21, 2009

Compounding that predicament is the fact that the recession has eliminated 6.5 million jobs since 2007. Both higher levels of unemployment and a reduction in salary increases impact have a fiscal impact of the workers' ...

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Law Firm Prosperity California Style-Post Dewey & LeBoeuf

May 29, 2012

The Dewey & LeBoeuf bankruptcy was a long time coming as the firm simply failed to curtail its spending and partner dividends when clients were pulling back in the face of the recession. So I don't see Dewey & LeBoeuf as ...

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Is The Recovery Of The Workers’ Compensation System An Illusion?

The present economic downturn has been compared to the Great Depression of the 1930’s or the recession of the 1980’s. The factors that existed during those financial cycles need to be compared to the present political and economic dynamic to determine whether or not history is repeating itself. Analysis of those two periods provides an insight as to whether or not there will be a rebound or surge of claims in the future.

The depression of the 1930’s occurred at a time when the workers’ compensation program in the United States was in its infancy. The benefits delivered were very limited. Occupational diseases were not included in most acts, the population had a lower life expectancy, early retirement plans did not exist, social security was not yet enacted, and Medicare was only an idea. The federal government poured dollars into the economy to construct public works [WPA] projects while limiting private debt. A consumer based economy didn’t exist at the time of the Great Depression.

Likewise, the recession of the 1980’s had its own characteristics. During the 1980’s, the populations mostly affected by layoffs were those who were the labor force of post-World War II. The workers of that generation suffered from occupational exposures to many deleterious and carcinogenic substances. The occupational diseases were latent in manifestation and epidemic in proportion. Laid-off workers who became victims of the recession of the 1980’s participated in a surge of litigation, both workers’ compensation claims and third-party actions against the manufacturers of toxic substances. Litigation snowballed against , including asbestos manufacturers, suppliers and distributors because of the minimal money recovered in the ordinary workers’ compensation claim. Asbestos litigation became “the longest mass tort in history.” In the years following the 1980’s the many workers separated from their jobs did not return to employment. Instead they collected both workers’ compensation benefits and Social Security disability.

The medical costs incurred, due to their occupational illnesses, were intentionally shifted from the workers’ compensation program to the Social Security Medicare program. The Medicare Secondary Payer Act was enacted by Congress in 1980 to end the cost shifting tactics by employers and their workers’ compensation insurance companies programs, Medicare and health group coverage, and pension offsets.

The current workforce, now being laid-off, is composed of an entirely different demographic than what existed in the 1930s and the 1980s. The social and political factors at the present time are far different from what was facing the workforce of the prior recession/depression years. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, “In January 2009, the unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 13.2 percent, compared with 8.3 percent for persons with no disability, not seasonally adjusted. The employment-population ratio for persons with a disability was 20.0 percent, compared with 65.0 percent for persons with no disability.” The elderly have now been designated as a “new class of workers” as they return to the labor market out of economic desperation. The numbers of unemployed workers who are 65 years old and older now in the workforce, compared to a decade ago, have increased to 7.3% from 4.7%.

The census of workers currently without employment opportunities include significant numbers of aging baby boomers who were about to seek retirement while looking forward to the "golden years." The erosion of planned retirement savings requires that many older workers now return to work. There is a reluctance to file claims. Therefore, fewer injured workers now seek total disability payments under workers’ compensation. The stagnation of the administration of the workers’ compensation system makes it even more difficult for the elderly who are injured to navigate the system. This only adds to the claimant’s frustration and encourages a greater reluctance to file a formal claim for benefits.

Some workers’ compensation insurance companies now involved in the compensation system have been nationalized by the federal government to the various stimulus and bailout programs. They lack funds to remain economically viable with out further insurgence of capital from the federal government. The federal government is now a stakeholder in the process. Self-insured employers are becoming financially weaker. Corporate assets have been minimized by lack of credit and the massive economic stock value decline. Municipal entities and others involved in joint insurance funds (JIFs) are now having difficulty in maintaining economic viability. Because of the lack of tax revenues and federal support, State and local communities are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The present ills of the American workers’ compensation system mirror the economic woes of the national economy. The last decade has demonstrated an accelerated decline in the functioning of the system. It is reflective of what Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, commented in the NY Times, that Americans are having financial “illusions.” “The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium: the net worth of the average American household, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than it was in 2001.” The workers’ compensation system is so bogged down in increasing medical debt that it is unable to deliver benefits efficiently. The present compensation system can’t be relied upon to rebound.

Compounding this downturn in the financial sector is the fact that workplaces have become safer. Over the years there has been a decline in fatalities as reported Bureau of Labor Statistics National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. As the United States becomes more of a service-based economy with a dwindling manufacturing sector, less injury risk exists in the occupational sector. The workplace has become safer and there are fewer serious injuries and less occupational illness.

The corporate downturn has been reflected by the implosion of many defense law firms who have reduced their staffs. Over a thousand lawyers were laid-off in a single day by major defense firms. The legal market restructuring is the result of a domino effect of the downsizing of corporate America. Representing injured workers and defending compensation claims on behalf of corporate America has taken a dramatic downturn. The trend is toward less attorney participation in the present system. Even attorney layoffs have become epidemic as the economic downturn intensifies.

Additionally, workers’ compensation programs have been subject to insurance industry targeted reform. The yet number of claims, eligible for benefits that would require legal representation has declined substantially as the California wave of reform swept towards the east coast. As the economies of the States shrink, so do the dollars available to operate the administrative programs for injured workers. Workers’ Compensation hearing offices in California will be closed two days per month and in New Jersey, a state that has already imposed a hiring freeze, is about to similarly close State offices.

The workers’ compensation system, based upon new national social and economic characteristics is already being re-crafted into a new program requiring less need for litigation support. Unlike the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the recession of the 1980’s, the present downturn in workers’ compensation claims activity is not anti-cyclical. It is an illusion of grandeur to believe that the present workers’ compensation system will recover or rebound in its present format. A national universal medical program will ultimately embrace the compensation delivery system and determine the future destiny of workers compensation.

Charts: The Worst Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Since the Depression

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Officially, the Great Recession of 2007 ended in June 2009. Yet the economic downturn remains in full effect for millions of Americans, particularly the nearly 40 percent of the unemployed who have been looking for work for six months or more. In less than a week, emergency federal unemployment benefits for 1.3 million of these jobless Americans are set to run out. Proponents of ending the benefits argue that the economy is expanding and that the benefits prevent people from finding work. "You get out of a recession by encouraging employment not encouraging unemployment," according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes extending benefits. However, the data shows that while corporate America has bounced back, it is not restoring all the jobs it shed when the economy tanked five years ago. Currently, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed. The unemployment rate stands at 7 percent. Both of those stats are improvements from a little more than four years ago, when the post-recession jobless rate peaked at 10 percent and more than 15 million people were out of work. However, there currently are more than 4 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer. Not since the Great Depression has the United States experienced such massive and persistent long-term unemployment. Overall, the long-term unemployed (those with out a job for six months or longer) make up nearly 40 percent of all the jobless. Long-term unemployment has not affected...

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10 Reasons That Long-Term Unemployment Is a National Catastrophe

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Unemployment is bad. Obviously long-term unemployment is worse. But it's not just a little worse, it's horrifically worse. As a companion to our eight charts that describe the problem, here are the top ten reasons why long-term unemployment is such a national catastrophe: It's way higher than it's ever been before. When the headline unemployment rate peaked in 2010, it was actually a bit lower than the peak during the 1980 recession and only a point higher than the 1973 recession. As bad as it was, it was something we'd faced before. But the long-term unemployment rate is a whole different story. It peaked at a rate nearly double the worst we'd ever seen in the past, and it's been coming down only slowly ever since. It's widespread. There's a common belief that long-term unemployment mostly affects older workers and only in certain industries. In fact, with the exception of the construction industry, which was hurt especially badly during the 2007-08 recession, "the long-term unemployed are fairly evenly distributed across the age and industry spectrum." It's brutal. Obviously long-term unemployment produces a sharp loss of income, with all the stress that entails. But it does more. It produces deep distress, worse mental and physical health, higher mortality rates, hampers children’s educational progress, and lowers their future earnings. Megan McArdle summarizes the research findings this way: "Short of death or a debilitating terminal disease,...

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Aid Programs Helped U.S. Survive the Great Recession

moffitt

The country’s welfare programs scored high marks during the Great Recession, according to a new report by Robert A. Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.

The report, published this month in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, shows the country’s “social safety net” expanded to catch many Americans during the economic downturn, which lasted roughly from 2008 through 2009.

In “The Great Recession and the Social Safety Net,” Moffitt found aggregate safety net spending rose $500 billion from 2007 to 2010. Meanwhile, caseloads rose too, from 276 million to 310 million.

Carrying the bulk of this load, he said, were the Earned Income Tax Credit, Unemployment Insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Together, the three programs accounted for about a third of the spending increase.

Other programs that expanded to meet the demand included Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security retirement and disability benefits.

“Our results show that there was a major response from the safety net to the Great Recession,” Moffitt said. “The programs did their job and made a difference – there’s no question about it.”

Spending on SNAP – food stamps – more than doubled, Moffitt found, vaulting from $30 billion in 2007 to $65 billion in 2010. The program was not only helping more people, Moffitt said, but...


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Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Injured Workers Continue to Decline While Employer Costs Rise

Study Finds Benefits as a Share of Payroll Approach Lowest in Three Decades

Workers’ compensation benefits as a share of payroll for injured workers continue to decline even as employment grows and overall employer costs increase, according to anew report from the National Academy of Social Insurance (the Academy).

Where the 1.3 million people losing unemployment aid this week live

NJ is going to suffer the most by the termination of the unemployment benefit extension. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.washingtonpost.com

Darker shading means a larger share of a state's population will lose emergency jobless benefits on Saturday. Scroll down for an interactive map. Darker shading means a larger share of a state’s population will lose emergency jobless benefits Saturday. Scroll down for an interactive map. (Committee on Ways and Means Democrats/Labor Department) A projected 1.3 million people will lose emergency unemployment benefits when they expire Saturday. Congress offered the extended benefits as unemployment ballooned during the Great Recession and has put off their expiration 11 times since. Renewing the long-term insurance is a top agenda item for the Senate when it convenes  Jan. 6, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said. The body is expected to vote quickly on a three-month extension of the benefits. Recipients still face, at best, a delay in their checks and, at worst, a permanent end to them. When the aid expires Saturday, the unemployed will only be able to collect a maximum 26 weeks of benefits in most parts of the U.S., down from about twice as much in many states. The recession may technically be over, but for many the recovery has yet to begin. The plight of the long-term unemployed — a group the benefits are aimed at helping and whose ranks have swelled — has also proven particularly difficult to solve. Studies have shown that they are more likely to suffer mental-health setbacks and are less likely to be...

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Unemployment benefits, the cruelest cut of all

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.washingtonpost.com

To 1.3 million jobless Americans: The Republican Party wishes you a Very Unhappy New Year! It would be one thing if there were a logical reason to cut off unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work the longest. But no such rationale exists. On both economic and moral grounds, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed should have received an automatic, bipartisan vote in both houses of Congress. It didn’t. Nothing is automatic and bipartisan anymore, not with today’s radicalized GOP on the scene. In this case, a sensible and humane policy option is hostage to bruised Republican egos and the ideological myth of “makers” vs. “takers.” The result is a cruel blow to families that are already suffering. On Saturday, benefits were allowed to expire for 1.3 million people who have been unemployed more than six months. These are precisely the jobless who will suffer most from a cutoff, since they have been scraping by on unemployment checks for so long that their financial situations are already precarious, if not dire. Extending unemployment benefits is something that’s normally done in a recession, and Republicans correctly point out that we are now in a recovery. But there was nothing normal about the Great Recession, and there is nothing normal about the Not-So-Great Recovery. We are emerging from the worst economic slump since the Depression, and growth has been unusually — and painfully — slow. Only...

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Extension of Benefits for Jobless Is Set to End

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — Unless Congress acts, during the last week of December an estimated 1.3 million people will lose access to an emergency program providing them with additional weeks of jobless benefits. A further 850,000 will be denied benefits in the first quarter of 2014. Congressional Democrats and the White House, pointing to the sluggish recovery and the still-high jobless rate, are pushing once again to extend the period covered by the unemployment insurance program. But with Congress still far from a budget deal and still struggling to find alternatives to the $1 trillion in long-term cuts known as sequestration, lawmakers say the chances of an extension before Congress adjourns in two weeks are slim. As a result, one of the largest stimulus measures passed during the recession is likely to come to an end, and jobless workers in many states are likely to receive considerably fewer weeks of benefits. In all, as many as 4.8 million people could be affected by expiring unemployment benefits through 2014, estimated Gene Sperling, President Obama’s top economic adviser. “Historically, there has not been a time where the unemployment rate has been this high where you have not extended it,” Mr. Sperling said in an interview. “Why would you not extend now, when you’re dealing with the nearly unprecedented levels of long-term unemployment coming off such a historic recession? This would be the wrong time to do it.” Democrats are pushing...

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High Unemployment Rates & The Future of Workers Compensation

Soaring unemployment rates will continue to have a critical impact upon the nation's workers' compensation system. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released numbers revealing that The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October.

"In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points."

"Among the marginally attached, there were 808,000 discouraged workers in October, up from 484,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.6 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in October had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities."

While currently disabled workers may continue to collect benefits in most jurisdictions , even if unemployed, lower payrolls will result in lower premium revenues for insurance companies and lower contributions to State workers' copensation funds. The advocacy system will continue to implode with the resulting less revenue to maintain present and generate new infrastructure.

The numbers show a pattern that the "aging workforce", complicated by younger discouraged workers, may have difficulty finding employment in the new market post-recession. While the practice of workers' compensation law may rebound somewhat on the future, it will cetainly take a different path.
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To read more about the the furture of workers' compensation click here.

Income Growth Has Stalled for Most Americans

Workers' Compensation is basically a system based on wages that determine benefits. Over the decades the spread or "inequality" of wealth has moved more workers into a lower pay class wherein they only receive the minimum rates of workers' compensation benefits despite what appears to be yearly increases in rate structures. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Yesterday the Census Bureau released its latest income data, confirming what millions of Americans already know: The recession may be over, but the recovery has yet to trickle down. Specifically, the Census reported that median household incomes didn't budge between 2011 and 2012. Digging deeper into the new data reveals more evidence of the widening income gap between the rich and the rest. The only bright side of stalled incomes is that they are no longer experiencing the steep decline that started in 2007 before the recession hit. But that's hardly cause for celebration: At $51,017, the real median household income in 2012 is even less than it was at the end of the '80s, and it's down 9 percent from its high in 1999. This loss of real income hasn't affected all Americans equally. For the top 20 percent of earners, average incomes grew 70 percent since 1967, and they grew 88 percent for the top 5 percent. Meanwhile, middle-income households have seen their earnings grow just 20 percent in the past four decades.    This translates into a greater share of total income going to top earners. In 2012, the top 20 percent took in more than half of all income in the United States, according to the Census. To put that into sharper focus, I've charted how each percentile's share of total income has changed since the late '60s. After experiencing significant growth in the mid-1970s, the bottom 20 percent of earners have seen their share steadily drop. Compare that...

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Equifax Battles Unemployed Workers

Today's guest author is Jon Rehm, Esq. of the Nebraska bar.

According to USA Today, thanks to a data breach that effected 143 million Americans, credit reporting company Equifax is the most hated corporation in America. 

But if you think the data breach was bad, just wait until you hear what Equifax does with unemployment claims. 

In 2012 Equifax acquired TALX (pronounced “talks”) which helps employers process unemployment claims. In 2010, the New York Times did some good reporting about how TALX helped delay and even deny unemployment benefits to unemployed workers during the height of the Great Recession with questionable appeals and other tactics. At that time, TALX processed unemployment claims for employers comprising up to 30 percent of the workforce. 

But even as memories of the Great Recession fade from media consciousness, TALX is still up its old tricks as a division of Equifax. The silver lining to the Equifax/TALX dark cloud for newly unemployed is if an employee appeals a denial of unemployment and Equifax/TALX is handling the claim, there is a good chance that Equifax/TALX will not appear for the unemployment appeal hearing. 

The mere fact Equifax/TALX no shows a hearing doesn’t automatically mean an employee wins their unemployment appeal in Nebraska. According to 224 NAC 01 014, an employee appealing a determination still must present evidence as to why the determination was incorrect. This is true whether the employee was alleged to have quit or was fired. The quit/fired distinction is important as the employee has the burden to prove they quit for good cause while the employer has the burden of proof to show the they fired the employee for misconduct in connection with employment. 

In my experience with uncontested unemployment appeals, the quit/fired distinction is less important than it is in a contested hearing. The problem for many employees though is that they don’t appeal their determination within the 20 day period allowed under Nebraska law. Additionally some employees could avoid an initial denial of benefits if they would better communicate with the Nebraska Department of Labor about their unemployment claim. 

Sometimes newly unemployed workers do things to undermine their right to receive unemployment, but I refuse to scapegoat ordinary people when a corporation like Equifax is actively working against unemployed workers pursing unemployment insurance. 

See also:
Taxi cab driver awarded workers compensation benefits

Employment Status: Common Law Tests May Need an Update

The Internet Redefines Jurisdiction

Is Social Insurance in Our Nation's Future?

NJDOL Alerts CPA;s About Employee Misclassification

No Legislation is Stiring: Jobless Fear Looming Cutoff of Benefits

The US House of representative has passed a budget excluding the extension of unemployment benefits. Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

Mary Helen Gillespie of Londonderry, N.H., is about to lose her last government lifeline. Since being laid off from a large banking firm in April, Ms. Gillespie, 57, has been living on little more than her unemployment insurance payments of $384 a week. She has burned through her savings and moved back in with her parents. “There are times where I’ll go two, three, four days where I only have five dollars in my wallet and no money in my checking account,” said Ms. Gillespie, who worked as a corporate compliance officer at her previous employer,choking up as she described the difficulty of finding a job, any job, after her second extended period of joblessness since 2007. “I’ve been making decisions such as: Do I buy groceries or do I buy prescriptions?” Ms. Gillespie’s 26 weeks of state benefits ran out this month, but she remained eligible for the emergency federal unemployment-insurance program, which has provided as many as 73 additional weeks of checks in states with high jobless rates. Until now. Unless Congress acts — suddenly and unexpectedly — that recession-era initiative will expire at the end of the month. About 1.3 million current beneficiaries will lose aid. Also affected are an estimated 1.9 million more who would have been eligible for the program in the first half of 2014 after their state benefits ran out. Democrats in Congress are pushing for an extension, which would cost the...

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Rutgers report: devastating impact of long term joblessness

Today's post is shared from northjersey.com

* Research finds that many who have been unemployed describe "devastated" lives A Rutgers University study released today provides a grim, detailed picture of the severe impact that long-term unemployment continues to have on the lives of millions of Americans more than five years after the end of the Great Recession. About one-third of the long-term unemployed workers — six months or more — in the study, based on surveys of unemployed and employed Americans across the nation, said they had been "devastated" and suffered a permanent change in their lifestyle by their jobless experience. The study, titled "Left behind: The long-term unemployed struggle in an improving economy," found that one in five workers laid off in the last five years are still unemployed. And it showed how far long-term jobless workers slip compared with employed workers. Fifty-one percent of long-term jobless workers said they had a lot less income and savings than they did five years ago, while only 23 percent of employed workers said they had suffered similar economic damage, the study found. Sixty-one percent of the long-term unemployed said they did not expect their finances to improve in the next five years, the study found. That was about 11 percentage points higher than the assessment by employed workers of their finances over the next five years. "While the worst effects of the Great Recession are over for...

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No Jobs, No Benefits, and Lousy Pay

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

There is nothing good to say about the December employment report, which showed that only 74,000 jobs were added last month. But dismal as it was, the report came at an opportune political moment. The new numbers rebut the Republican arguments that jobless benefits need not be renewed, and that the current minimum wage is adequate. At the same time, they underscore the need, only recently raised to the top of the political agenda, to combat poverty and inequality. The report showed that average monthly job growth in 2013 was 182,000, basically unchanged from 2012. Even the decline in the jobless rate last month, from 7 percent in November to 6.7 percent, was a sign of weakness: It mainly reflects a shrinking labor force — not new hiring — as the share of workers employed or looking for work fell to the lowest level since 1978. That’s a tragic waste of human capital. It would be comforting to ascribe the dwindling labor force mainly to retirements or other long-term changes, but most of the decline is due to weak job opportunities and weak labor demand since the Great Recession. One result is that the share of jobless workers who have been unemployed for six months or longer has remained stubbornly high. In December, it was nearly 38 percent, still higher by far than at any time before the Great Recession, in records going back to 1948. And yet, nearly 1.3 million of those long-term unemployed had their federal jobless benefits abruptly cut off at the end...

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