Unemployment
Watch Your Assumptions About Job Loss
Wed, 04/13/2011 - 15:25 — Patty
Norman Jameson
Religious Herald
I received an email prayer request from a friend whose daughter lost her job. Tough times loom for her, but much of his request was that God would use this trauma to illuminate her need to trust Jesus Christ for her salvation.
I paused to pray for the woman and as I did I realized that my words illustrated my insulation from the truly dire circumstances of those who balance on the edge of fiscal viability.
Laid off workers discriminated against for being unemployed
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 14:38 — PattyPatty Edwards Shaver
MCV Career Development Facilitator
Recently I read an article at CNN Money called, “Looking for work? Unemployed need not apply,” by Chris Isidore, and it was then that I realized why so many laid off workers have been unemployed for so long - many close to two years. Employers are discriminating against candidates because they are unemployed. You would think that the recession and current job market would explain why so many of these workers are unemployed and that these employers would ‘get it.’ According to Lisa Chenofsky Singer, HR Consultant, “They think you must have been laid off for performance issues.”
Long-term jobless fight rejection, fear, despair
Sun, 02/07/2010 - 21:09 — Patty
By SUE STOCK
News & Observer, Staff Writer
Dennis Shaver has been looking for a job for 17 months.
His wife, Patty Edwards Shaver, has been out of work for a year.
In eight weeks, the unemployment checks that have been helping to pay their mortgage will stop coming.
The Shavers, who live in North Raleigh, are among the 2.3 million people nationwide who have been out of work for more than a year. In North Carolina that figure stands at 88,000.
The long-term jobless are blue- and white-collar workers. They come from all age groups, income levels and ethnicities. And with the state's unemployment rate at a 30-year high of 11.2 percent, their numbers are growing.
Federal Help for Premiums Leaves Church Workers Stranded
Tue, 05/12/2009 - 18:11 — PattyBy Patty Edwards Shaver
Career Development Facilitator
Shortly after President Obama took office in January of this year, he announced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) would provide COBRA premium assistance to workers who have been laid off since Sept. 1, 2008. Many of these workers may have felt relieved at the news of paying only 35 percent of the cost of health care insurance. Family health care plans typically cost more than $1,000 per month. That’s a lot of money to pay out, especially with little or no income coming in.
Are Church Employers Excluded from Unemployment Insurance?
Sat, 04/18/2009 - 21:36 — Patty
By Patty Edwards Shaver
Career Development Facilitator
With the nation experiencing the highest unemployment rate (8.7 percent; N.C. 10.9 percent) since 1983, Churches and non-profit organizations are facing financial challenges. Many are cutting budgets and salaries, freezing pay and cutting employee’s hours. Others are forced to lay off personnel and close their doors, which means 89 percent of these workers, nationally (NC 99%), may not be eligible for state unemployment benefits.
Religious organizations exempt
Any Unemployment Insurance for Non-profits?
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 15:57 — PattyBy Tony W. Cartledge
Contributing Editor, Baptists Today
So, the nation’s economic malaise finally worked its way down to your job as a staff minister, support person, or preschool teacher at a church or other non-profit organization. That’s bad, you think, but at least you can draw unemployment while looking for another job.
Think again.
