Tsunami Of Unemployed Workers Benefits to Expire Soon

As many as 1.5 million set to lose jobless benefits by the end of 2009. Many people are becoming desperate.

58-year-old has Karen Inbody of Elkhart, IN has just about three weeks of benefits to figure out how she will pay for food and shelter.

“I’d shovel horse poop,” she says wearily. “I haven’t even found one of those jobs available.”

In the first big wave, some 540,000 are expected to fall out of the program by the end of September, according to the nonprofit National Employment Law Project.

“Every state is going to experience a substantial increase in people exhausting their benefits,” says Chris Owen, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based worker advocacy group. “That means more people who will not be able to pay their mortgages, and who will not be able to shop and buy things. It will be a blow for the national economy, and for state and local economies.”

For many in this situation, there are few obvious places to turn. Short of qualifying for another government program, most rely on family, friends, and help of churches that run food pantries and assist with other emergency needs.

Despite some recent signs that the unemployment situation is improving, the odds of actually getting a new job are grim.

Federal statistics indicate that there were more than five times as many people seeking jobs in the United States in June as there were positions available. In especially hard-hit areas like Elkhart, where the unemployment rate is 16.7 percent — compared to 9.4 percent nationwide — the odds against job seekers are even tougher.

With the clock running out on her benefits, Karen Inbody is weighing her options.

She’s already borrowed some money from her family, and does not want to ask for more

Inbody owes $600 a month on her house, a simple gray bungalow on Elkhart’s historic Bank Street. She fears that without some new source of income, she will lose it.

“Sell my house, rent out my house?” she says, running through some scenarios. She adds: “I could stand on a street corner, but those are all taken too.”