North Carolinians will face another reduction in benefit weeks for unemployment insurance. With the jobless rate dropping 0.3 percentage points to 6.4 percent in February, those benefits will go down – per state law – on July 1. The only question is by how much the benefit weeks will drop – four or five weeks – from the current maximum of 19 and minimum of 12. At a jobless rate between 6.1 percent and 6.5 percent, the weeks would fall to a maximum of 14 and minimum of seven. The lowest current maximum benefit limit is 18 weeks in Georgia, while Florida also is at 19. When Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 4 in February 2013, he provided the first measuring stick for whether his conservative approach to running the state economy will create jobs. Before the bill was passed, the maximum benefit amount was 26 weeks – the same level that 44 states still maintain. McCrory touted that the benefit reductions would “protect our small businesses from continued over-taxation and help provide an economic climate that allows job creators to start hiring again.” However, the sliding scale doesn’t take into account factors contributing to the rate decline, such as discouraged workers exiting the labor force. Because those individuals aren’t counted as unemployed by federal and state labor officials, it serves to lower the rate. There are 112,126 fewer North Carolinians listed as unemployed from February 2013 to February 2014, the N.C. Commerce Department said Friday. Yet, the state only had a net gain of 48,459 jobs during that time period. The data do not distinguish how many of the new private-sectors jobs are full time, temporary or part time. In that time, the state rate has declined from 8.6 percent to 6.4 percent.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 18:12:10 +0000
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