Charles Jaco featured the long-term unemployment situation with this report on last night’s news and again this Sunday morning.  He notes that the low-wage service sector jobs like those being offered at job fairs don’t even come close to the manufacturing jobs lost in the St. Louis area the last several years.  A couple friends of mine – John Caragher and Mike Moore are interviewed and give some real perspective on the difficulties of the unemployed. 

Yesterday there was a protest at the district office of Representative Fuhr, one of the Lembke, Nieves gang that filibustered an unemployment extension until the initial 26 weeks of eligibility for Unemployment benefits had been reduced to 20 weeks.  Missouri is currently the only state in the nation with only 20 weeks of unemployment benefits.  So if you get laid off or terminated and it takes more than 20 weeks to find a job, thank Senators Lembke and Nieves for the “opportunity” and “choice” to withdraw funds from savings just so you can continue looking for work.