Unemployed-Friends.com Closes

Yesterday, the site unemployed-friends.com posted their farewell to providing an open forum for the unemployed to gather information.  In the final thread, the site moderators posted the following closing thread:  http://unemployed-friends.forumotion.com/t20598-final-announcement-board-is-closed

Although there may be multiple reasons why the moderators of unemployed-friends chose to close the forum, everyone should know from their posts that they do care deeply about the unemployed and information for the unemployed will be remain readily accessible as this blog plans to continue to post the latest information in the most timely manner possible.

The latest news, as most already know, is an attempt to add an additional 14 weeks of benefits to Tier 1 unemployment to give additional weeks to those who have exhausted the maximum amount of available benefits.  Well-respected columnist, Arthur Delaney, from Huffington Post has written an article on February 7, 2011 that is posted http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/99ers-bill-barbara-lee-bobby-scott_n_819767.html

This is not the first attempt to provide assistance to the longest term unemployed.  As many readers may recall the Americans Want to Work Act was considered "dead on arrival" as it was introduced without a way to pay for the assistance.  As more information becomes available, it will be posted.  The lobbying efforts to get Congress to take up this fight have not ended and the editor of US Unemployed Blogsite plans to continue the fight until all Americans are back on their feet with a job. 

After all, regardless of political affiliation or which unemployment blog or resource one chooses to follow - the larger end goal is jobs - not just continued unemployment insurance. 

CNN Money forecasts a hiring boom in 2011

By Chris Isidore, senior writer 

Link to source article:  http://cnnmoney.mobi/primary/_yK98xL-iXDsVuh2J6

After three years of economic pain, a growing number of economists think 2011 will finally bring what everyone's been hoping for: More jobs and a self-sustaining recovery.

"We're looking at some leading indicators on employment, and they're all flashing green lights," said Bernard Baumohl of the Economic Outlook Group, a Princeton, N.J. research firm.

Though most economists still expect a painfully high unemployment rate of about 9% at the end of this year, Baumohl and others think that stat masks more important signs of strength.

Baumohl and some other economists forecast between 2.5 million and 3 million jobs being added to U.S. payrolls in 2011, about triple the gains likely to recorded in 2010 and what would be the best one-year jump since the white hot labor market of 1999.

That wouldn't be enough to climb out of the 8-million job crater created by the Great Recession and won't bring down the unemployment rate by a significant amount. An improved job market could even bring a short-term rise in the jobless rate, as those discouraged from job-hunting resume looking for work and are once again counted as unemployed.

But the forecasted hiring boom could get the economy back into gear and provide real relief for many Americans.

Those projecting better hiring in 2010 point to a number of factors. Among them, job openings by employers rose 17% from June to October, the most recent reading available from the Labor Department, and are up by about a third compared to a year earlier.

And there has been a downward trend in newly laid-off workers filing for initial jobless claims, which fell below 400,000 in the most recent reading for the first time since the summer of 2008. That might have been distorted by the holiday season and bad weather, but the four-week average is also at a two-plus year low.

On the business front, capital expenditures -- typically followed by expansion and hiring -- have been on the rise.

"Forecasters generally underestimate the strength of a recovery once it is underway," said Bill Cheney, chief economist for Manulife Asset Management. He's forecasting be 2.5 million to 3 million new jobs this year.

Read more at http://cnnmoney.mobi/primary/_yK98xL-iXDsVuh2J6