Unemployed fear loss of income as senators go on spring break

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Looking for entry-level work was the last thing Rebecca Smith expected to be doing as she approached her 58th birthday, let alone her 59th.

But that's what Smith, a local resident, has been doing for the last 69 weeks, after she was laid off. A former receptionist who admits her job-searching skills have gotten rusty over the 24 years she was at the same job, Smith said she was not prepared to be dropped back into a hostile job market just years before she was planning to retire.

"It's just a lot more difficult than I remember," she said. "I don't know if that's because I'm older and companies don't want to look at me or what. I've been trying."

Adding to the pressure Houston faces is the prospect of her unemployment benefits running out in 10 weeks, as the state Senate remains in a stalemate over accepting $81 million in federal money to finance extended unemployment benefits for those individuals who have been out of work for 79 to 99 weeks.

For nearly a month, the legislation, which has already passed the House of Representatives and is expected to pass the Senate easily if ever comes up for a vote, has been blocked by an ongoing filibuster orchestrated by four conservative Senators protesting what they see as wasteful government spending.

It's a position that has put Republican Senators Jim Lembke, Rob Schaaf, Brian Nieves and Will Kraus at odds with many, including their own party's leadership, who failed to break the filibuster before lawmakers adjourned for spring break this week. Although GOP Senate leaders share the belief that Washington spending is reckless, they reject the notion that extended benefits are an example of that.

Still, Lembke and the other senators hold to their position and refute claims that their stance shows callousness to the 10,000 Missourians receiving extended benefits. Those people are set to lose the benefits starting April 2 if the senate does not pass the bill when it reconvenes next week.

"Currently in Missouri, if you are unemployed and you get these benefits, you can be on them for 79 weeks," Lembke said earlier this month. "This extension would take that to 99 weeks. I believe that is a perverse disincentive to Missourians to not get out there and get a job."

But Judy Widner, manager of the Jefferson City Career Center, scoffs at that implication. She said no one likes being out of work, but that the severity of the recession and the effect on the job market have created a situation where more people spend more time collecting benefits.

"You have to think in the economy we have now there aren't a lot of jobs out there, so when someone goes and applies for a job, there might be a hundred people applying for one entry-level position," Widner said. "It's sheer numbers."

Widner said most of the "99ers," as the center's employees call those who have exhausted or are about to exhaust their unemployment benefits, are the victims of a changing job market. She said the long-term unemployed usually fall into one of two categories. Either they don't have a very broad skill set to begin with, or their skills were tailored to a particular industry, like manufacturing, that has been shrinking overall during the recession creating fewer opportunities.

During a typical week, Widner said the Jefferson City Career Center, which serves three counties in mid-Missouri, sees about 1,300 clients. About half of them are collecting unemployment benefits. The center aims to help job seekers develop their skills and provides resources for networking and job searching.

A particularly hard-hit group is older workers, Widner said. Workers who were nearing retirement when they lost their jobs face unique challenges. Many are not familiar with online job search tools, or are eschewed for younger workers who may be seen as more likely to be productive.

The pressure to find a job intensifies as unemployment benefits wind down.

"I think they're just really concerned because there are not a lot of jobs out there and yet their unemployment may end," Widner said.

If the Senate does not pass the bill, it would make Missouri the first state in the nation to decline extended benefits. The Senate still has time to pass the bill when it gets back from the legislative spring break March 28.

But the outlook of Senate leadership before spring break was not rosy. Senate Majority Floor Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said there has been no success in finding middle ground with the filibustering senators and said there had been no discussion of using a Senate rule known as "moving to the previous question" or "PQ," which would allow the chamber to break a filibuster. Leaders are hesitant to use the maneuver for fear that it could create gridlock in the chamber on other issues.

In the meantime, Smith and others like her will continue to search for new work and hope they can find it before their benefits dry up.

"Nothing I can do about what they do in Capitol," she said. "I just got to keep looking."