Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Unemployed seek extended benefits

By Les Blumenthal, Washington D.C. bureau

WASHINGTON -- Two years ago, Benay Doolittle of Kennewick was making $100,000 as an information technology worker.

Today she's on food stamps, living at a girlfriend's house. She's filed for bankruptcy. She says her unemployment benefits have ended and no one has shown interest in the hundreds of resumes she's sent out.

"It's like going into a black hole," said Doolittle, who has a college degree in management information systems. "I don't see an end in sight."

Wayne Ryan is sleeping on a futon on the floor of his empty mobile home. He hocked his DVDs and CDs for food money. The unemployed carpenter from Bonney Lake hasn't had a job in 14 months. His unemployment ran out weeks ago. He says he's just about hit rock bottom.

"I'm reading the Bible a lot more to keep from killing myself," said Ryan.

Ryan and Doolittle are among the nearly 331,000 unemployed in Washington. A year ago there were fewer than 200,000.

Theirs are the faces behind the numbers. They shared their stories of being down and out through no fault of their own as Congress considers whether to extend unemployment benefits for a third time since the recession began.

The Senate is expected to act this week on extending the benefits for 14 weeks, with an additional six weeks for states whose unemployment rate is above 8.5 percent. With an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, Washington would qualify. The House earlier passed a less generous version; the two bills will have to be reconciled.

The unemployed in Washington now received up to 79 weeks of benefits.

Unless Congress acts, 1.4 million people could lose their benefits by the end of the year, including 18,000 in Washington state. Meanwhile, there are no signs of a recovery in the job market.

Since late 2007, 145,000 jobs in Washington have disappeared -- roughly one in 20. The average search for a new job in the state lasts more than six months.

"It's been pretty much across the board," Sheryl Hutchison of the Washington state Employment Security Department said when asked which sectors have been hit hardest. The state has lost a quarter of its manufacturing jobs and 18 percent of its construction jobs.

One of the encouraging signs in an overall bleak economy, Hutchison said, was that the unemployment rate in Washington state was not growing as rapidly as the national rate. The national unemployment rate was 9.8 percent in September.

Even so, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said during Senate debate Tuesday that it was critical for Congress to act quickly.

"These workers are not asking for a handout, they are just asking for a small measure of support as they try to get back on their feet," Murray said. "We cannot sit by as working families are pushed to the brink by a financial crisis they didn't create, but are still paying for."

Ryan was among those mentioned by Murray in earlier comments on the floor. He and hundreds of other people have written Murray, urging her to push for an extension of benefits.

Doolittle, 48, said she is finding she is overqualified for many of the jobs she is applying for. She quit a job at the Hanford nuclear reservation, sold her house and moved to Olympia for what she thought at the time was a better job. She was laid off in 2008.

Now back in Kennewick, Doolittle said she tries to remain optimistic. Some have suggested she might want to strip information about her college degree off her resume so she might be considered for lower-wage jobs. She's reluctant to do that.

"I've always had a job," she said. "We want to work. There are just no jobs."