NC legislators open session, tackle unemployment benefits Thursday (video)
Both the state House and the state Senate gavel in at noon, kicking off a session that will see tax and education reform, voter ID, and major changes to the state’s unemployment benefits system. House...
View ArticleWatch the sausage get ground this morning
If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching the folks now running the North Carolina General Assembly in action (like House Finance Committte co-chair Rep. Mitch Setzer – pictured at left) and have a...
View ArticleHouse Finance Committee rams through unemployment insurance rewrite
As expected, Republican members of the North Carolina House Finance Committee quickly approved a massive overhaul of state unemployment insurance law this morning. In just over an hour and half, the...
View ArticleProsperity Watch: Unemployed workers outnumber available job openings by 3 to 1
Today, the House Finance Committee passed a significant overhaul of the state’s unemployment insurance program that dramatically cuts the elligibility, duration, and amount of benefits for jobless...
View ArticleReal people discuss unemployment insurance (VIDEO)
Watch this video put together by the AFL-CIO of North Carolina in which real North Carolinians explain how unemployment insurance benefits helped them survive….barely. Mind you, the benefits they are...
View Article$350/week = about 1/3 of what legislators bring home
Just in case the question occurred to you in recent days as you pondered the plan of conservative legislators to slash the state’s maximum weekly unemployment benefit to $350 (and the average benefit...
View ArticleLawyers representing EMPLOYERS speak out against unemployment insurance bill
The North Carolina Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Council — a group whose members represent both employees and employers delivered a letter to Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger this...
View ArticleThe dividing and conquering continues (Video)
In today’s “Friday Follies” edition of his column Chris Fitzsimon reminds us of how remarkably prescient House Speaker Thom Tillis was in his October 2011 speech to Madison County Republicans in which...
View ArticleLarge turkey processor to close plant, lay off 1,060 workers
Making good on predictions issued earlier this year, House of Raeford Farms has given notice to the state Department of Commerce under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (aka the “WARN Act”) that...
View Article‘Unemployment cliff’ will impact small businesses and long-term jobless alike...
As Sarah Ovaska details in the post below, in less than a week and a half, more than 70,000 North Carolinians will see their extended federal unemployment benefits dry-up as major changes take effect...
View ArticleMoral Monday draws largest crowd yet; protesters blast plans to cut jobless...
The 8th Moral Monday protest brought an estimated 2,000 demonstrators to N.C. General Assembly. Many in this week’s crowd questioned the wisdom of state lawmakers to reject extended federal...
View ArticleCountdown to the Unemployment Cliff: North Carolina is Setting itself Apart
As we wrote yesterday, the implementation of HB4 – the radical restructuring of North Carolina’s unemployment insurance system – is just around the corner. Next Monday, on July 1st, North Carolina will...
View ArticleThe Regressive Pulse? Governor’s official press releases sounding more like...
Traditionally, official press releases issued from the offices of high public officials carry some imprimatur of solemnity and seriousness. While one realizes at some level that they’re ultimately just...
View ArticleA jobs recovery still waiting to happen
In remarks at Monday’s economic forecast forum, a number of speakers sought to take credit for enacting policies in 2013 that they believe have contributed to big drops in the unemployment rate since...
View ArticleMcCrory: People move to NC to get unemployment benefits
More confirmation today that Gov. Pat McCroy’s contempt for people in need (and the facts) literally knows no bounds. Check out this excerpt from Mark Binker’s story at WRAL.com about unemployment...
View ArticleNELP’s Christine Owens on the critical need to extend unemployment benefits...
Members of Congress head to their home districts for a 10-day work period having failed this week to pass an extension of federal unemployment benefits. Christine Owens, executive director of the...
View ArticleThe truth about job creation and unemployment benefit cuts
It’s the myth that will not die. In the ongoing debate over the impact of last year’s draconian cuts to unemployment benefits, we keep hearing the story that reducing benefits for the jobless has...
View ArticleNew and damning report: NC’s unemployment insurance cuts have harmed families...
The fiscal policy wonks at the Budget and Tax Center are out with a new and detailed analysis of the impact of last year’s harshest-in-the-nation cuts to unemployment insurance that were imposed by...
View ArticleAsk the jobless if cutting unemployment insurance has helped their job prospects
Jim Lind is a decorated US Air Force vet and a software development professional who’s done it all over a 39-year career: managing and developing for commercial industries, for the military, for...
View ArticleDifferent town, same inaccurate claims about the unemployment rate
Governor McCrory is at it again—incorrectly claiming that his decision to dramatically cut unemployment benefits is responsible for turning around the state’s job market. During a visit to Morganton...
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