Changes to Jobless Benefits Reform Proposal

Republicans in the Pennsylvania House are scaling back their unemployment compensation reform ambitions.

A few weeks after failing to pass a measure cutting costs and benefits by $630 million dollars a year, the Labor and Industry Committee approved a bill generating $147 million in annual savings. York County Republican Scott Perry, who pushed for the more sweeping overhaul, said it’s a step in the right direction. “Am I disappointed? Sure. Does this go a long way toward solving solvency? It doesn’t go far enough for me, but it’s a step in the right direction, and I have a commitment that we’re going to revisit solvency in the fall, and take a whack at that specifically,” he said. “Are these significant unemployment compensation reforms that haven’t been addressed in the last 30 years? Absolutely.”

The new House bill requires unemployment recipients to actively look for a job, and would delay assistance for people receiving more than $11,000 in severance payments. It would not massively restructure the way benefits are calculated, like Perry’s initial measure did.

The legislation approved by the committee is an amended version of Republican John Gordner’s bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in May. It initially cut costs by about $60 million a year. Gordner said he’s fine with the House doubling his legislation’s cost-savings, but objects to two portions of the new language. If the sections are amended out on the House floor this week, he says Senate Republicans could concur and send the measure directly to Governor Corbett. If not, the Senate would need to make more changes, sending the legislation to a conference committee, and complicating efforts to arrive at a law by week’s end.

The deadline is in place due to federal regulations, which would end extended benefits for 45,000 Pennsylvanians, if changes aren’t made by June 11th. However, as is the case with most legal deadlines, lawmakers can extend it a bit. Gordner explained, “we do know from the Department of Labor and Industry, because of the delay in paying benefits that we probably have until June 15th in order to actually get a bill to the governor. So that does give us a few extra days.”

PA Jobless Rate Lowest in 20 Months

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is down. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent in January – that’s the lowest level since June 2009. The rate had held at 8.5% for four straight months.
The Commonwealth gained more than six-thousand nonfarm jobs.
Mark Price, a labor economist with the Keystone Research Center, says he’s encouraged by the news.

"It’s a good number, and it’s a clear sign that the economy is on the path that we’re all expecting it to be, which is recovery. The one downside, of course, though, is that because the recession was so deep, it’s going to take a long time to get back to full employment."

Still, Price is worried the economy could turn south again.

"One: we see rising gas prices. Which is a threat to the overall state of the economy, if that continues for another few months that could slow things. And on top of that, in addition to the federal cuts that are being discussed, we also have rounds of cutbacks in state and local governments. Not just here in Pennsylvania, but also throughout the country."

The unemployment figures were released a few days after February’s state revenue report. Taxes came in under projections last month, but Pennsylvania is still 243 million dollars in the black.That’s about the same size as the deficit the state was facing at this point last year.

PA Unemployment in May 8.2%

Pennsylvania's unemployment numbers ticked up in May but the state continues to fair better than the nation as a whole. The Rate in PA moved up four-tenths of a percentage point to 8.2% in May. Nationally the number increased half a point to 9.4%. Troy Thompson with the PA department of Labor and industry says it is also important to take a look at the overall umber of jobs in the state. Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs count was down 17,700 jobs in May to 5,630,600. Thompson says as bad as that may look, it is actually good news because it shows a slowing in the rate of loss compared to last month’s loss of 23,500 jobs. He points out that professional & business services and manufacturing accounted for two-thirds of the overall decline with losses of 6,800 and 5,400, respectively. In the last year the state has seen 3.2% of its jobs (185,000) disappear. Nationally, jobs were down 3.9% over the same period.

CareerLink Lab Helps Unemployed File Claims

Pittsburgh's PACareerLink office downtown is offering assistance for people filling out unemployment compensation claims. The pilot program provides a lab dedicated solely to filing claims, with trained staff available to help claimants with the filing process. The lab is open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Friday and is located in the Regional Enterprise Tower at 425 Sixth Ave., 21st Floor. Claims can also be filed over the phone from 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM Monday through Friday by calling 1-888-313-7284 and on the Department of Labor website www.dli.state.pa.us.