Benefits not extended by U.S. Senate

    A United States Senate bill to extend unemployment benefits to all unemployed persons through Dec. 31 fell three votes short of passage Thursday, according to the Associated Press. The vote was 57-41 in favor of the bill, which did not meet the 60-vote threshold to prevent a filibuster.

    The Iowa Department of Workforce Development put out a press release Friday in which spokeswoman Kerry Koonce commented that 6,000 Iowans have been without unemployment benefits since June 2, when the normal six-month period for the benefits expired. Without the extension, unemployment benefits will continue to expire six months after a worker loses a job.

    Iowa Workforce Development keeps a running record of the state?s labor force and unemployment rate on its website. From May 2009 to May 2010, the number of people listed in the labor force rose almost 16,000 people in the state while the total number of employed persons actually dropped 3,400. The unemployment rate over that span increased one whole percentage point from 5.8 percent to 6.8 percent, although it has dropped slightly since April of this year when it was 6.9 percent.

    The labor force refers to the portion of the population that is of working age and available to work, which excludes full-time students and the sick and disabled. To count as unemployed, a person must be able to be employed and actively looking for employment. Persons who are not employed but who are not searching for employment are not counted among the unemployed.    

    According to a press release from Iowa Workforce Development earlier this month, Iowa?s unemployment rate is still well below the national average. The national average was 9.7 percent for May, down from 9.9 percent in April. 

    Elisabeth Buck, the director of Iowa Workforce Development, said that the slight up-tick in employment figures in the month of May is a result of the government hiring people to deliver the 2010 census. 

    ?Iowa?s hiring pattern in May closely mirrored the U.S. employment situation, as the hiring of temporary census workers drove most of the gain in nonfarm employment,? said Buck. ?However, the recovery is expected to be broader in scope in the months ahead.?

For the full story, see the June 28 edition of The Washington Evening Journal