Couldn’t we require people who are collecting unemployment to work? They’re already getting unemployment, right? So why not just make their weekly unemployment payment conditional upon doing some work assigned to them (preferably work that actually needs to get done). The assigned work would need to closely match their skill set, or be “general labor” that most anyone could do. The work would be scaled so that weekly payment divided by hours worked would be at least minimum wage.
If they refuse, or do anything that would ordinarily get someone fired in that position, they don’t get their unemployment check (and thus would no longer be required to perform that work). This could potentially increase productivity in necessary areas. It would also cost no more money than what we’re paying now, since they would be getting the same amount they get currently. And it would provide an additional incentive for people to get out and look for a “real” job.
We could even create sort of a menu system for employers, whereby the work performance of the unemployed is made public while they’re performing their assigned duties. So Company X is looking for a call center employee, they look and see that Joe Smith is in their area and performs his DMV call center duties very well, and then offer him a permanent job at their company. If Joe refuses the job, he loses his unemployment (because, as we all know, unemployment payments are conditional upon actually looking for work, and accepting job offers).
I don’t know, this sounds to me like it would increase unemployment. Why should an employer hire anyone and pay them benefits and a decent salary? They would have this huge pool of people to pick from that know if they don’t do something, their family is going to starve.
In a Mister Burns Voice, “Oh, lets see, which unemployed person can do this task this week.”
That’s just an employment service. See, if people could find a job, they wouldn’t be unemployed. So “forcing” them to work would be doing them a favor by helping them find a job that they obviously were incapable of finding on their own. If there were so many jobs available, then why are there so many unemployed?
The OP seems to suffer from the same misapprehension that apparently so many currently do: the nation’s unemployed are just lazy and don’t work because they don’t want to, the work is there by people just won’t do it.
See you can’t make people collecting unemployment work, because there is no work to do. What there is that needs to be done has nobody willing to pay the unemployed to do it, jobs generally require more than just paying a wage, they require materials and planning and other types of overhead. Why does this keep coming up? Politicians of a certain stripe were against extending unemployment benefits because it encouraged people not to find new jobs, possibly one of the stupidest things ever uttered in American politics.
The OP uses a DMV call center as an example. But seems to forget that there may already be people working there, making more than a person on unemployment is collecting. GASP! It’s true! Unemployment does NOT pay 100% of ones previous wage, and it does not include insurance or retirement plans. But let’s create a second tier of worker who is less skilled, even the DMV requires training, but who are cheaper to the employer and whom the employer doesn’t even have to hire. Looks like it is time for some pink slips!
Meanwhile the unemployed can be out breaking rocks or whatever, and not occupied with finding a position that is equivalent to what they used to have. Or worse, the small percentage who take the opportunity to retrain and enter a better field or start their own business will never have that chance.
But by golly, let’s make those lazy slobs who paid for their unemployment insurance through the jobs they used to have go out and work at whatever make-work job we can find.
Do you or do you not realize that the vast majority of people who are currently unemployed are in that state because there is a lack of jobs?
What work, exactly, are you going to force them to do? Call center work, is that your suggestion? Hasn’t that all been outsourced to other countries by now? The reason these people aren’t working isn’t a lack of desire to work, it’s a lack of jobs. Employers don’t need these people, that’s how they got laid off in the first place.
If we could somehow increase the supply of work that needs to be done you wouldn’t have to force people on unemployment to work, they’d be hired to do those jobs.
For “welfare” payments (not the same as Unemployment) this is exactly what they do, at least in my state. If you want cash assistance, you either have to be employed (but making less than the maximum income qualification, of course) or you have to do a minimum of 30 hours of volunteer work every week.
HOWEVER, it doesn’t come out to even close to minimum wage. The amount of cash you can get is based on family size, and I was told that with two dependents, I *might *get as much as $300 a month for 120-150 hours of volunteer work.
The only way this idea works is if there is a vast reservoir of unfilled, un-applied-for jobs OR a vast reservoir of government expenditures to create opportunities for useful work to be done.
The latter is an exceptional idea, mind you–stimulating the economy by giving out federal grants for infrastructure improvement/repair for everything from roads to water pipes to whatever–but the kind of people who think the unemployed are just all too lazy to work also don’t generally want the government creating jobs with tax money.
That’s ignoring the elephant in the room of “unemployment” being something that we all, as employed people, pay into as insurance.
I just signed up to get Families First assistance (I think this what what people call “welfare”) and it’s looking like this is how it works. I qualify for 10 hours of training every week but I must spend another 20 doing “work related activities” whether it’s putting in applications, interviews or some sort of community service. I have been assigned a counselor to determine what is best for my situation and I think they will be testing me to see where my skills are strongest. Seems like the dept. of employment security could do the same, although I suppose it would be a lot more expensive to run.
I see WhyNot beat me to it.
For a family of two I get $146 a month, plus childcare and state insurance for both of us. There are different training programs I qualify for as well. And that maximum you can earn before you’re cut off is insanely low, like around 5k a year.
But no, 146 a month is nowhere near as much as unemployment pays.
I don’t know how it works where the OP lives, but here’s how it works in my state.
If you’re collecting unemployment, you must also be actively looking for work. The unemployment people can call you in at any time and demand proof that you’re looking for work.
At the same time, employers who are looking to hire can provide a list of job openings to the unemployment office, which in turn publishes them. So the unemployment office serves as a placement service to match people with jobs.
I suggest the OP visit the unemployment office in my area sometime, to see people lined up to use one of the 20 public computers (not to mention the ones who are searching from home or their local library) to find a job they can apply for.
I don’t recall how many times one can decline a job offered after passing the job interview and still maintain eligibility to draw unemployment insurance; however, 30 odd years ago, it wasn’t a large number. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were zero today.
I find that a lot of these ideas are proposed primarily by people who’ve never actually had to collect unemployment or welfare, and have NO IDEA how they work.
True story: a very Tea Party/Anarcho-libertarian buddy of mine lives at home with his mom in his 30s because he won’t drive a cash register and he has yet to finish a college degree or get any other skills. I got to hear him ranting about how he couldn’t afford to go to ComicCon because he couldn’t get ANY unemployment or welfare–apparently it never occurred to him that you have to have either worked or reproduced at some point in your life before you can get either of those things.
I’m not with the OP, but my state has rules that seem really counterproductive. If you are collecting unemployment, any money you earn just subtracts from your benefit. They would be better to either have the earnings extend the benefit period, or some scaling process where it wasn’t just zero sum.
Further, if a temporary gig earns you as much as the unemployment benefit, you are then off unemployment and have to reapply when the gig ends. In my state this requires several hours of waiting on hold or standing in line.
This discourages people from taking temporary jobs that in many cases could lead to permanent positions. Even if it doesn’t, “I’m working as a temp” sounds a lot better to a prospective employer than “I’m on unemployment”.
Also, “overqualified” is a very real factor. People claim that the unemployed are unwilling to do menial jobs, and that is partly true, but it is also true that WalMart and McDonalds are not interested in hiring an unemployed engineer to run a cash register and mop the floor, regardless of how willing they might be.
Great plan. They could do work for their unemployment checks and the company would fire people doing the work now. They would in turn start collecting unemployment and be forced to take more jobs from workers.
After awhile, all jobs would be done by the “unemployed”. The very same people you think don’t work because they are lazy.