Many Minnesotans at end of jobless benefits

Former University of Minnesota plumber Keith Ferguson got his last unemployment check last week. Now the Maple Grove father of four, unemployed for 20 months, is wondering how he'll pay child support and feed himself.

It is a dilemma facing millions of unemployed Americans who have counted on as many as 79 weeks of government checks to help them make ends meet through the worst recession in decades.

Almost 5.5 million workers have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, a record. In Minnesota, an estimated 1,000 people currently exhaust unemployment benefits each week, said Dan McElroy, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). When the last federal extension expires the day after Christmas, the number will grow given that new job growth is expected to remain slow.

"Right now we are not having a lot of people running out of their unemployment benefits, but we will and it's going to be a large number," McElroy said.

A bill recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would extend unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks, but only for states with at least 8.5 percent unemployment for three consecutive months, or 6 percent for 13 months. Currently, Minnesota, with an unemployment rate of 8 percent, and 23 other states wouldn't qualify for help under the House version of the bill.

"That's not fair," said Ferguson.

Not all can get extensions

Even so, not everyone has been able to take advantage of the multiple state and federal extensions of benefits.

"I have a home and I am barely making it," said David Melin, who lost his job as a trucking freight broker in February 2007.

Melin's unemployment benefits ran out in August 2007. The only job he's been able to find since then is part-time work that pays less than his old unemployment check, he said.

Melin eventually got a letter from the state telling him he was eligible for 13 weeks of federal unemployment, but was never notified that he was also eligible for federal extensions that would have granted him 26 more weeks of benefits. When he applied for them, he was told by the state that he didn't qualify because he had not gone on the computer each week to apply for them. He is appealing the decision.

"They are refusing to pay me those additional 26 weeks based on a technicality," Melin said.

he research firm Global Insight still predicts that the nation's unemployment rate will surge past 10 percent in the next few months. The rate in September was 9.8 percent. Minnesota's rate as of August, the most current figure available, was 8 percent.

State figures show that for every job vacancy, there are 7.7 people looking for work. "We had one position open for a receptionist in late spring and we got 500 applications," said Jane Samargia, director of the nonprofit job counseling service HIRED. "It jammed our computer so badly, we had to shut it down."

A quarter of the members of the 1,075 members of Plumbers Local 34 in St. Paul are out of work. Stan Theis, the local's business manager, said he has seen "dozens and dozens" of members lose their homes to foreclosure or file bankruptcy because of layoffs and exhausted unemployment benefits.

With the help of the state, Ferguson went back to school to learn to install back-water flow-prevention systems for cities and anesthesia gas lines for hospitals.

Ferguson got offered $20 an hour by two construction companies, but they lacked health benefits and would require that he pay for his own workers compensation insurance, city licenses, equipment and the employer portion of his Social Security tax. In short, he would have to go into business for himself.

Last week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Al Franken and 16 other senators called on the Senate Finance Committee and Senate leaders to extend unemployment benefits for all states. Klobuchar said she testified Friday before a Joint Economic Committee that "the House Bill is not good enough."

"We've been struck by how many people are calling," she said. "These are individual calls from people who have someone in their family or they themselves can't find a job. Their unemployment is coming to an end and they're worried that they will lose their house."

Ferguson dropped his health insurance because he couldn't afford the premiums. He has just $3,000 left in savings to pay child support, rent and food. His girlfriend, a laid-off accountant, exhausted her unemployment benefits three weeks ago.

"When we both were working, we used to go out dancing," Ferguson said. "Now, basically you sit and watch a little bit of TV, read some books, sit some more and not spend money, 'cause you ain't got no money.

"I sometimes go outside to play guitar just to get out of the house."