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Unemployment Policies in the United States

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Unemployment Policies in the United States
Amanda Bowman
Russel Riggs
American National Government
February 8, 2015

In the United States, unemployment is a common occurrence. At this point you’d think that we would have pretty much everything figured out as far as being able to keep our people afloat financially. But slowly the middle class is disappearing, and there are a lot more Americans trying to survive on an unemployment income. The federal government has a lot of pull in whether people are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, and the amount that they’re entitled. The policies that go into making these benefits available to the unemployed have good points and bad points.
The economy in the United States definitely isn’t where it should be in the past few years. A lot of people have been laid off because of either their company is downsizing or they aren’t making enough money to stay open and pay their employees. “More than four years into an economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains abnormally high and long-term joblessness a major problem. The employment crisis has exacerbated longer term U.S. labor market trends of rising inequality, tepid real wage growth for most workers, and a decline in middle-wage jobs” (Katz 2014). And in this sediment, there are thousands of Americans that are jobless and there doesn’t seem to be any relief any time soon.
The specific policy that allows an individual to receive unemployment benefits actually gave an extension of three months to try to give the unemployed more time to find a job. “U.S. labor market policies historically have focused on providing unemployment insurance during downturns. These programs have provided financial support for unemployed workers on the premise that the cyclical downturns would prove to be temporary” (Nie & Struby 2011). In

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