BY JIM BARON

PAWTUCKET — Even under the best circumstances it is harder today for unemployed people to find a job, but now Rhode Island’s highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate is making it even more difficult.

“People are coming in with barriers to employment that…maybe it didn’t matter 10 years ago that they didn’t have certain degrees because of the kind of work that was involved,” said Laura Hart, spokesperson for the state Department of Labor and Training (DLT), “but now it is more of a knowledge-based economy and they need to skill-up.
“We are trying to help connect them to short-term job training programs, some of them are eligible for free short-term training that will help them get a job and we are also trying to let them know what skills are transferable,” Hart said. “Because maybe you have been in manufacturing, but your skills could work really well in health care, which is the number one hiring industry in Rhode Island right now.”
It was announced last week that Rhode Island’s unemployment rate had risen to 8.8 percent and experts worry that figure will go even higher before it starts to fall. The Ocean State won the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the country, Hart noted, because many people in Michigan, which had the highest rate until last week, became frustrated and opted out of looking for work, which knocked them off the unemployment rolls.
“Looking for a job right now is a job unto itself,” she said. “Years ago you would hear people talking that they were happy to get a break when they got laid off. That is not the truth now. People come in here, they want jobs. They are willing to take jobs that may not be their ideal choice because they have economic concerns.”
Gov. Donald Carcieri “has been meeting with his top advisers to review the (unemployment) situation, looking at the short-term solutions to spur the economy and small businesses as well as looking ahead longer term when the General Assembly comes back into session” said spokeswoman Amy Kempe. “When the legislature reconvenes, she said, the governor wants to change the tax structure in the state to make Rhode Island more competitive, more tax-attractive for businesses to locate here and existing businesses to grow and invest in workers.
See JOBLESS, Page A-2
Asked what some of the short-term solutions are, Kempe said, “It’s a little too soon to pinpoint anything.”
DLT’s primary focus at the moment, Hart said, is matching up people with jobs so they can start earning income. “We are trying to be sensitive to how everyone is hurting,” she explained. “We are not trying to prevent someone from connecting with work and if the economic reality is such that you have to take a job that is a steppingstone to the next job you really want, and you don’t get your dream job right away…I think that is the reality now.”
Just how difficult it is to find a job, Hart said, “really, really depends on the skill set of the person coming in.”
If there is a bit of good news for the unemployed, it is that Rhode Island gives more monetary support to job seekers than many other states do.
“Rhode Island has not only federal extended benefits for unemployment insurance, but we are one of the few states with state extended benefits. So there is help while you are doing your job search,
“We get, right now, up to an additional 13 weeks more than any other state gets and that may be extended sometime soon to 20 weeks,” Hart explained. “The way this works, regular unemployment insurance, if you are out of work through no fault of your own – you don’t get fired, you get laid off – you can get up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance. The federal stimulus package passed at the beginning of the summer, allows for up to an additional 13 weeks. Once those 13 weeks exhaust, you may be eligible for additional state extended benefits, Alaska and North Carolina are the only other states doing that right now.”
The extended state benefits are paid 50 percent by the federal government and 50 percent from a fund to which employers contribute. “It is not affecting the state budget,” Hart added.
“The qualifications for each one of these programs are a little different and it’s complicated,” Hart warned, “so you have to register with the Department of Labor and Training and you have to find out if you are qualified.”
Aggravating the situation for some low-income residents is the “Work First” welfare philosophy adopted earlier this year by the governor and the General Assembly.
It requires those seeking welfare benefits
With the new legislation, said Lori Norris, employment and training administrator at DLT, “work is the number one focus” and people must work at least 20 hours a week to remain eligible.
“People who are referred from DHS (Department of Human Services) to DLT are engaged in an intensive program to see if we can get them a job,” Norris said.
A third problem for those at the bottom of the economic ladder is that, as of October 1, children are now being denied welfare benefits if their parents have been on the program for five years. Previously, adults could be removed from the program after 5 years, but children were allowed to continue receiving benefits, now that has been shut down, too.
That is what brought a group from the George Wiley Center to DLT Wednesday morning, looking to get more people connected with employment.
“You don’t throw these kids under the bus and run them over again and again and again and leave them out in the cold,” Kathi Reilly Jones told Norris. “In the 21st century, that is obscene.”
Prudence Ngarambe, said even his Masters degree in social work has not helped him find a job.
“If you have no job, you have no home, no transportation.”
“In an emergency, the rules go out the window,” declared Henry Shelton, coordinator of the Wiley Center. “We’ve go to deal with as an emergency, whether it be food, jobs, daycare, the rules have to go out the window. That’s one of the reasons we came here today because we want to highlight the fact that statewide, we have a major emergency.”