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What You Can do When Your Unemployment Benefits are Denied

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DeniedBenefits denied!

That’s the last thing you want to hear after losing your job and applying for unemployment benefits. But, don’t give up! There’s still hope, thanks mainly to the appeal process.

Reasons for Denial

There are several valid reasons for denial of benefits, including:

  • Voluntarily leaving the workplace without just cause
  • Being discharged for work misconduct
  • Not being able or available for work
  • Refusing an offer of suitable work
  • Knowingly making false statements to obtain benefits

If you don’t agree with the reason provided for the denial of unemployment benefits, you can appeal the decision. So, how exactly do you appeal a denial of unemployment benefits?

Act Fast

Time is key in the appeal process. Depending on the state’s requirements, you have somewhere between 10 and 30 days to request an appeal. Unemployment agencies are sticklers for timeframes so missing a deadline without good reason will not help your chances.

It’s OK to go Pro Se

You don’t have to hire an attorney to [Read more…] about What You Can do When Your Unemployment Benefits are Denied

September Unemployment Rate Down

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On Friday October 6th the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly employment survey results for the month of September. Every month the BLS conducts two surveys one contacts a sampling of households and the other collects data from businesses. Then they massage some of the numbers to “Seasonally Adjust” them and release them to the media.

According to the BLS, the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate for September (released October 6th) is 4.2% DOWN from 4.4% in August. The current “Unadjusted” rate is 4.1% down from 4.5% in August.

Seasonal adjustment provides something like a moving average leveling out the bumps due to normal seasonal variations. See: Unadjusted vs. Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate for more information about Seasonal Adjustment.

According to the BLS Commissioner’s report for this month:

“The unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-33,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. A sharp employment decline in food services and drinking places and below-trend growth in some other industries likely reflected the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. “

Seasonally Adj U-3 Unemployment Rate

See: Current Unemployment Rate Chart for more info.

In the very next paragraph, based on the Household Unemployment Survey, he said, “The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 4.2 percent in September, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 331,000 to 6.8 million. Both measures were down over the year.”

Declining unemployment means more jobs! So which is it 331,000 more jobs?  -33,000 fewer jobs? Or 340,000 more jobs? [Read more…] about September Unemployment Rate Down

Worldwide Unemployment Rates

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OECD Unemployment
Image courtesy of: BlogPiks.com

On Friday August 11th the OECD published the Unemployment rates of its member countries. They call it the “Harmonised Unemployment Rate” meaning that they may adjust the rate depending on how the individual countries calculate it so they are comparable.

Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade, headquartered in Paris France. In addition to its other functions the OECD publishes books, reports, statistics, working papers and reference materials.

The countries with the highest unemployment rates were:

 

Top 6 Highest Unemployment Rates in OECD Countries

Based on the most recent numbers we have for each country, we can see from the table below that the six countries with the highest unemployment rates are all [Read more…] about Worldwide Unemployment Rates

1 Million Fewer Jobs but BLS Says 209 K More

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U-3 Unemployment

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their employment and unemployment numbers for July on Friday August 4th.  The Seasonally adjusted U-3 unemployment rate was down from 4.4% in June to 4.3% in July. Unadjusted U-3 however was up from 4.5% to 4.6%. U3 is the Official unemployment rate per the International Labor Organization definition. It occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.

U-6 Unemployment

U-6 unemployment is the broadest category of unemployment and includes U3 plus “discouraged workers”, plus other “marginally attached workers”, plus part-time workers who want to work full-time, but cannot due to economic reasons. U-6 was unchanged from June at 8.9%.

 

Employment

The Commissioner of the BLS released this statement, “Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 209,000 in July, and the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, was little changed. Job gains occurred in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, and health care. Employment growth has averaged 184,000 per month thus far this year, in line with the  average monthly gain in 2016 (+187,000). “

However if we look at the actual employment data we get a different picture.  [Read more…] about 1 Million Fewer Jobs but BLS Says 209 K More

Comparing Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Numbers to an Independent Source

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NOTE: Gallup has STOPPED publishing their Unemployment Numbers effective in July 2017. This includes U-3, Underemployment (U-6), and Good Jobs Index (Payroll to Population Rate).

From 2010-2017,  the Gallup Survey people both generated numbers to help us understand the employment/unemployment situation. Unfortunately, they often presented a different picture from the numbers generated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Typically the BLS data presented a rosier picture than the independently surveyed Gallup numbers.

Often in the summer, the gap between the BLS and the Gallup closed. In July 2016, the BLS and the Gallup numbers came in identical. Early in 2017 the gap widened to 1.3% in April but has narrowed again to 0.6% in June.

For June 2017 Gallup said unadjusted U-3 unemployment was 5.1% down from 5.2% in May and 5.4% in April while the BLS said it was 4.5% up from 4.1% in May and April. So the spread is currently 0.6%.

Whose Unemployment Numbers are Right?

There has been some talk about “full employment” in the media of late and if we look at the Unemployment numbers created by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) we might get that impression. If we look at the Employment numbers rather than the Unemployment Rate we see a significant increase but it hasn’t been until recent months that the increase has actually outpaced the growth in the population.

We’ve looked at Employment vs. Unemployment on other pages to see how they compare and we’ve looked at U-6 (total labor force including those who’ve given up looking) vs. U-3 (those who are still actively looking).  The U-3 unemployment rate is the commonly quoted one. But the one problem is that all that data comes from the government. If they are fudging the numbers how would we know? Unless as we’ve noted before there are inconsistencies between the Unemployment and Employment Charts. But we  [Read more…] about Comparing Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Numbers to an Independent Source

May Employment and Unemployment Numbers

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The U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the May unemployment numbers today. The BLS Commissioner says: Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 138,000 in May, but these are Seasonally Adjusted numbers. So since typically employment increases in May, what he is saying is that 138,000 more jobs than average were created. In unadjusted terms employment was 145.938 million in April and 146.748 in May for a net gain of  810,000 jobs. Adjusted U-3 Unemployment was 4.3% down from 4.4% in April. Unadjusted U-3 Unemployment was 4.1% unchanged from April.

Gallup Unadjusted U-3 was 5.2% down from 5.4% in April. Gallup’s unadjusted U-6 Unemployment was 8.1% unchanged from April. Gallup’s U-6 was 13.8% Down from 14.0% in April.

May Employment Gain and Loss Bubbles

In the following chart from the BLS we can see [Read more…] about May Employment and Unemployment Numbers

Tips for Coping with Unemployment

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UnemployedUnemployment is tough, not only are there financial repercussions, but there are psychological ones as well. Getting laid-off no matter whether it is due to adverse nationwide economic conditions, or due to personal errors in judgement, it’s still painful. According to a Gallup poll Depression Rates are Higher for Long-Term Unemployed. “The longer that Americans are unemployed, the more likely they are to report signs of poor psychological well-being. About one in five Americans who have been unemployed for a year or more say they currently have or are being treated for depression — almost double the rate among those who have been unemployed for five weeks or less.” 

On the other hand, Healthy Eating Linked to Lower Likelihood of Depression so even if you’ve been fired, you need to continue to take care of yourself and eat healthy meals.

Unemployment can initially result in our systems going into a form of “shock” which makes it difficult to think clearly and so we tend to get depressed and just “shut-down”. But it is important to act quickly to minimize the negative impact on both yourself and anyone who is depending on you.

1) Cut Back on Expenses

The first thing you need to [Read more…] about Tips for Coping with Unemployment

New Unemployment Numbers- February

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On Friday March 10th the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released their Employment and Unemployment numbers for February 2017. The media was making a big deal about these numbers because they represent the “First full month since Trump took office”.

The numbers turned out to be moderately “Bullish” although the Commissioner’s statement said, “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 235,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 percent. Employment gains occurred in construction, private educational services, manufacturing, health care, and mining.”

Now,   I’m not complaining… gaining 235,000 jobs is certainly better than losing them but what’s the big deal?  Well, first of all, the big deal is that [Read more…] about New Unemployment Numbers- February

January Unemployment

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Unemployment RateThe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the newest unemployment data for January 2017 on Friday, February 3rd. According to the BLS, the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate is 4.8% up from 4.7% in December and 4.6% in November but still below the 4.9% in October.

The current “Unadjusted” rate is 5.1% up from 4.5% in December and 4.4% in November. Typically unadjusted unemployment rates jump in January for “Seasonal” reasons which is why we see a large jump in the unadjusted rates but a much smaller jump in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. See Current Unemployment Rate for more info.

 

U.S. Employment ChartThe number of Unadjusted jobs reported for January was [Read more…] about January Unemployment

Unemployment Inches Up

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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced on Friday January 6th, 2017 that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was 4.7% up from 4.6% in November. The unadjusted U-3 came in at 4.5% up from 4.4% in November. Gallup on the other hand says the unadjusted U-3 is 5.1% up from 4.9% in November.

Unemployment U6 vs U3The U-6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, marginally attached workers and part-time workers who want to work full-time, was 9.1% in December up from 9.0% in November.
Gallup says their equivalent “Under Employment Rate” was 13.7% in December up from 13.0% in November.

Labor Force Participation Rate

For the 20 years from 1989 to 2009 the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) held fairly steady at around 66%
of the workforce being employed.

But starting in 2010 [Read more…] about Unemployment Inches Up