Returning To The Workforce

Can't believe I haven't written a blog article in almost a month but there has been good reason for that.

After being unemployed for a little over 21 months I am glad to say that I have returned to the workforce.

Regardless of your length away from the workforce returning to the workforce after long-term unemployment can be daunting to say the least.

You may not know what to expect and wonder if you can accomplish what you had previously.

After being back at work for four weeks now I would like to share some tips that I feel would be very helpful to anyone returning back to work after long term unemployment.

• Let others help you. You may feel a little frustrated to have someone younger or less experienced than you "showing you the ropes," but you may need some refreshers. 

• Leave your pride at the door.

• Do not expect too much from yourself.

You cannot expect that you will just be able to jump right back into your field as if you had never left. It may take you a little while to get acclimated again, and that is okay.  You may be even in a new field. Expecting too much may make you frustrated. It is natural that you may need a little time to return to your previous output.

• Make sure that you are mentally and physically prepared

Make sure that you get enough sleep because you do not want to be tired. Even if you are used to staying up late, you may need to adjust your hours if you have to get up early to go to work. Also, you will not be able to eat any time you want so be sure that you have a good meal before work.

• Try to be organized

Many who are returning to the workforce still have other responsibilities at home and with kids. You may now have to juggle. Try to be as organized as possible in order to accomplish this. Also, try to separate your work from your home life so that you do not feel overwhelmed. When you are at work, focus on that and do not get stressed about home.


Returning to the workforce after long-term unemployment can be challenging, but it is a wonderful thing. Let yourself feel a sense of accomplishment. As time passes, you will get accustomed to it, and it should become easier.

Returning to work after long-term unemployment is a big adjustment but it is the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Hopefully, your new job turns out to be the one you have always wanted, I know mine has.

Happy Holidays.......

Share

Next up on unfinished Senate agenda: unemployment insurance

Once Democrat Carte Goodwin is sworn in Tuesday to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats will have the votes to try again to extend unemployment insurance to the jobless.

For congressional Democrats – especially in the often-gridlocked US Senate – this week marks a sprint to wind up a large, unfinished agenda in time to sway midterm elections.

Big-ticket items range from energy and campaign-finance reform to decisions over expiring Bush-era tax cuts, war funding, and 12 spending bills for fiscal year 2011, which begins Oct. 1. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court, with a full Senate vote expected later in the week.

With the swearing-in on Tuesday of Democrat Carte Goodwin to fill the seat of the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Democrats say they have the 60th vote needed break a Republican filibuster and approve a long-stalled $34 billion extension of unemployment benefits..

Highlighting the unfinished Senate agenda in his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama charged Republicans with "filibustering the nation's economic recovery" and making a stand “on the backs of the unemployed.” Most Senate Republicans oppose the measure on the grounds that Democrats have not identified offsetting spending cuts to pay for it..

“We're all for extending unemployment insurance. The question is, when are we going to get serious … about the debt?” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union." “We recently passed a $13 trillion cumulative deficit threshold. When are we going to get serious about this? This administration has been on an incredible spending spree.”.

Back in February, when maverick Sen. Jim Bunning (R) of Kentucky launched a one-man bid to block a $10 billion, temporary extension of eligibility for unemployment insurance, 78 senators opposed him, including 19 of his GOP colleagues. But since then, Senate Republicans, with the exception of Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, have rallied around the theme of reining in federal deficits, even at the expense of unemployed constituents..

“There’s bipartisan support for the idea of helping the unemployed. The Democrats missed a great opportunity to pass a bill showing that we could also control costs,” says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina..

At the same time, Republicans say there is no need to offset the cost of extending the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, now set to expire Dec. 31. If these cuts expire, the highest income tax bracket jumps from 35 percent to 39.6 percent; the lowest, from 10 percent to 15 percent. The top rate for dividends, now 15 percent, runs up to 39.6 percent. The top rate for taxes on capital gains rises from 15 to 20 percent. The estate tax, which dropped to zero for 2010, reverts to a top rate of 55 percent..

“We believe that the problem is not that we tax too little but that we spend too much,” Senator McConnell said Sunday..

Mr. Obama campaigned on a pledge to extend the Bush tax cuts for families with incomes less than $250,000 a year and for individuals earning less than $200,000 – a measure that Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost $300 billion annually..   Full Story

.

Share .

I too am Unemployed, so reading this article............

  Reading this article today about the 

 long-term unemployed are a bunch of 

lazy drug addicts is quite upsetting to 

the many unemployed including myself 

who continue everyday to look for employment.

 

The majority of people who are unemployed would rather be working.  

Work not only provides income, but a sense of worth and direction.   

We are people who have been contributing members of society and have much more to contribute.

All we need is the opportunity.

Check out this disturbing story, they wont even consider to hire you if you are unemployed.

The last 17 months of not working has been a nightmare, everyday you wake up and still say to yourself is this a bad dream.

You have days where you feel motivated and hopeful and optimistic, Then there are other days, you really lose the faith and think, I'm never going to get another job. Ever.

Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up.

I don't do drugs, I don't live extravagantly, I want a job more than anything. 

I have marketable skills but it's just not happening. 

I am sad, and discouraged, but I am not lazy and I am not giving up.         I can't, I won't.

I just gotta believe it will work out.   

It can't be like this forever.........

Share

Jobless aid stalls in Senate; home buyers get more time

The Senate failed once again late Wednesday to advance a plan to restore jobless benefits for people out of work more than six months, leaving millions of unemployed workers in limbo until after the July 4 recess.

The measure fell one vote shy of the 60 needed to end a Republican filibuster. Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he was prepared to provide that vote, but that Democrats had rejected his request to pay for at least half of the $34 billion measure with unspent funds from last year's stimulus package.

"Democrats are more interested in having this issue to demagogue for political gamesmanship than they are in simply passing the benefits extension," Voinovich, who is retiring, said in a statement. "I came to the table with a fair compromise and the ball is in their court."

Democrats countered that the 9.7 percent jobless rate constitutes a continuing emergency that, under congressional budget rules, has traditionally been addressed through deficit spending.

"For those who question whether this is an emergency situation, they should talk to the Nevadans who I hear from every day who rely on this assistance to put food on the table and pay the bills while they look for work," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said at a news conference with Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis.

That argument won over at least two Republicans: Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted for the stripped-down measure, which would have restored jobless benefits that expired June 2 and extended the deadline for home buyers to claim a tax credit aimed at reviving the housing market until Sept. 30. After the overall bill failed, the Senate passed a separate measure that sent the tax credit to President Obama for his signature.

At Snowe's urging, Democrats had jettisoned numerous other provisions from the jobless bill, including $16 billion for cash-strapped state governments, $1 billion for summer jobs and $32 billion in special-interest tax breaks that expired earlier this year.

But other Republicans -- as well as Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) -- continued to insist that at least a portion of the jobless benefits be paid for, arguing that the nation can no longer afford to add to record budget deficits. When it became clear that the vote would fail, Reid switched sides for strategic reasons, making the final vote 58 to 38.

House leaders were planning to take up the jobless bill Thursday and said they expect it to pass. But its failure in the Senate ensures that more than 2 million people will have their checks cut off before Congress returns to Washington after a week-long break. The Labor Department estimates that more than 1.2 million people already have been affected.

States typically provide unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks. Congress triggered emergency benefits in 2008 and expanded them in last year's stimulus package. On June 2, the federal programs was providing more than 5 million people with up to 99 weeks of assistance.  Via Washington Post






Share

UPDATE **** U.S. jobless aid, tax bill fails in U.S. Senate

 Legislation to extend unemployment subsidies for hundreds of thousands of Americans who have exhausted their jobless benefits teetered on the edge of collapse on Thursday, as Senate Democrats and Republicans traded bitter accusations about who was to blame for an eight-week impasse.

The vote was 57 to 41, with the Democrats falling three short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.






Democrats, citing data by the National Employment Law Project, say that without Congressional action, 1.2 million Americans will exhaust their jobless benefits by the end of the month.

The bill, which also would have provided more aid to cash-strapped states for the Medicaid health program for the poor, fell a few votes short of the 60 needed to advance in the 100-member Senate. One Democrat, Ben Nelson, joined 40 Republicans to block the measure.



 Via NY Times





Share

Jobless Aid Measure Dying In Senate

Republicans in the Senate appear likely to kill legislation to provide continued unemployment checks to millions of people and provide states with billions of dollars to avert layoffs.

It would be a bitter defeat for President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats, who have been trying to advance the measure for months as an insurance policy against a double-dip recession.

Despite another round of cuts to the measure aimed at pacifying GOP deficit concerns, the measure seems doomed to die by a filibuster in a vote expected as early as Thursday.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would pull the measure from the floor if Democrats lose the vote. Democrats hope that political pressure from voters and business groups might eventually revive the measure.

The latest version of the measure contains a variety of provisions sought by lawmakers in both parties, blending jobless aid averaging about $300 a week with the renewal of dozens of tax cuts sought by business groups and a host of other legislation. It is considerably smaller than a version that passed with GOP help just three months ago.

"It adds new taxes and over $30 billion to an already staggering $13 trillion dollar national debt," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The catchall measure also includes $16 billion for state governments to avert layoffs, farm disaster aid, $1 billion for a youth summer jobs initiative and an extension of a bond program that subsidizes interest costs for state and local infrastructure projects. It would levy a new tax on investment fund managers but extend tax breaks such as lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and develop new products, and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in states without income taxes.

The death of the measure would mean that more than 200,000 people a week would lose their jobless benefits because they would be unable to reapply for additional tiers of benefits enacted since 2008. People seeking the popular homebuyer tax credit would be denied a paperwork extension approved by the Senate last week.

"This is a bill that would remedy serious challenges that American families face as a result of this Great Recession," said Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chief author of the bill. "This is a bill that works to build a stronger economy. This is a bill to put Americans back to work."

And doctors are livid about a 21 percent cut in their Medicare payments imposed last week; the bill would have afforded them a six-month reprieve from the cuts. Stand-alone legislation to address the problem has stalled in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is insisting that it be part of the broader measure. By the end of this week, about 1.2 million people will have lost their jobless benefits since a temporary extension expired at the beginning of the month, according to Labor Department estimates.

Crestfallen Democrats tried in vain to win support from moderate Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, leaving them apparently two votes short of the 60 needed to defeat a filibuster. But talks collapsed Thursday, aides said, leading Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to offer a pared-back measure that would add $33 billion to the deficit over the upcoming decade.

The bill has long been considered a must-pass measure, but the political sands have shifted since it first passed in March. That vote came in the wake of a political scalding for Republicans after Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., blocked a short-term extension of jobless aid.

In the interim, however, the debt crisis in Europe and growing anxiety on deficits and debt among voters, has turned Republicans against the legislation, even though it's been cut considerably since passage of a March version that would have added about $100 billion to the debt.

Most of the measure — except for a six-month extension of jobless benefits for people who have been out of work for more than six months — is financed with offsetting tax increases or spending cuts, including more than $10 billion cut from last year's stimulus bill. Congress has always approved additional unemployment benefits as a deficit-financed emergency measure.
 
Democratic leaders said they bent over backwards to accommodate demands by  Read Full Story

Share

Unemployed Still Waiting

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed Republicans on Friday for the Senate's failure to pass an urgent jobs bill.
"The House has repeatedly sent jobs-creating bills to the Senate since December -- Build America Bonds, small business hiring incentives, and importantly, summer jobs -- and yet Republicans continue to block approval of jobs legislation," said Pelosi in a statement. "What is it that Republicans in the Senate and House don't understand about the need for jobs in America?"

At the end of May, the House approved a bill to provide tax breaks for individuals and businesses and to reauthorize several domestic aid programs, including extended unemployment benefits and the so-called "Doc Fix," which protects doctors who see Medicare patients from a 21 percent pay cut. The Senate has been unable to pass the bill because of deficit concerns, and extended unemployment benefits and Doc Fix have both expired, affecting hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

On Friday, Senate leaders congratulated each other profusely after agreeing to spending offsets to preserve Doc Fix for six months without adding to the deficit, but it was too late: Moments later, Medicare announced that after holding off for weeks, it would begin processing June claims at the reduced rate.

The American Medical Association, a physicians' lobbying group, says that some doctors are already shunning Medicare patients because of uncertainties about compensation, and the AARP says its members have reported trouble finding doctors specifically because of the current lapse in Doc Fix.

It's not just Republicans, but conservative Democrats in both chambers who are standing in the way of the jobs legislation. After monthly jobs reports have shown modest gains, conservative Democrats have lost their appetites for fighting the jobs crisis if doing so adds to the deficit, and party leaders apparently have no choice but to try to appease them. 

Since June 1, federally-funded extended unemployment benefits for people who've been out of work for longer than six months have been phasing out. So far, 903,000 people have prematurely lost access to the extra weeks of benefits, which were originally provided by the stimulus bill. By Friday, that number will climb to 1.2 million. 

Source







Share

Jobless Aid Bill Hits Deficit Wall In Senate

President Barack Obama's plea for more stimulus spending as insurance against a double-dip recession hit a roadblock in the Senate on Wednesday, the victim of election-year anxiety over huge federal deficits. A dozen Democrats joined Republicans on a key 52-45 test vote rejecting an Obama-endorsed, $140 billion package of unemployment benefits, aid to states, business and family tax breaks and Medicare payments for doctors because it would swell the federal debt by $80 billion.

The swing toward frugality runs counter to the advice of economists who support the bill's funding for additional jobless benefits and help to states to avoid layoffs of public service jobs. They fear that the economy could slip back into recession just as it's emerging from the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned last week that while lawmakers need to come up with a plan for tackling the nation's long-term deficit crisis, the U.S. recovery is still fragile. It's too early for large, immediate spending cuts, Bernanke said. "We've got to do more to build on the existing jobs momentum and that's what these targeted measures are about," said White House economist Jared Bernstein.
The Senate earlier passed another version with even bigger deficits. But that was before tea party-backed candidates running on anti-deficit, anti-big government platforms began knocking off more established politicians in spring primaries.
Despite the loss, Democratic leaders predicted serenely that a scaled-back version of the measure — extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and providing $24 billion in aid to the states — could pass, possibly as early as later this week, after relatively minor revisions. "We need to change a few things," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Later Wednesday, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., unveiled a new, slimmer version of the bill that he predicted would "provide a path forward."  But Republicans cautioned that the margin of Wednesday's vote was a bad sign for a bill that, even after     Read More





Share

House OKs extension of unemployment benefits

The U.S. House of Representatives approved another extension of unemployment benefits on Friday. But this widening of the safety net could be the last as lawmakers grow uneasy over the costs of what is looking to some like an unfunded welfare benefit. In a 215-204 vote, House members approved extending benefits through Nov. 30, which would help nearly 350,000 long-term unemployed people nationwide from falling off the unemployment rolls by next month. But the measure still must be approved by the Senate, which already left for a week long Memorial Day break. That means some workers' benefits will expire May 31, although they could be restored retroactively. Friday's House extension is part of a scaled-back $112-billion package that also includes tax breaks and an annual patch to prevent pay cuts for Medicare doctors. With new taxes on investment fund managers and overseas companies to offset the spending, the final cost is $54 billion. Share

Long-Term Unemployment: No Help For The 99ers

This week Congress will consider legislation to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. It's going to be an epic fight: Republicans in the Senate will likely do everything they can to stand in the way of a bill projected to add $123 billion to the deficit, forcing Dem leadership to round up a super majority for a last-minute Friday vote before Congress adjourns for its Memorial Day recess.

Too bad the jobs crisis, in a big way, has already left this bill in the dust. Hundreds of thousands of people have exhausted their extended unemployment benefits. In some states, laid-off workers can receive checks for 99 weeks -- and that's all they're going to get. This bill isn't for the "99ers" and there's no proposal on deck to give them additional weeks of benefits.

Read Full Story:

Long-Term Unemployment: No Help For The 99ers

YouTube - "Mr. President ...I Need a Freakin Job"

An unemployed man creates a grassroots organization to give a voice to the nation's jobless.