"On a sweltering morning in early August, Lester Dixon packed a U-Haul truck tightly with his family’s possessions, which would soon set off for a nearby storage facility. No longer able to afford rent on their four-bedroom home, the family would disperse later that day to stay with friends and relatives until a cheaper dwelling became available. Resting his elbows on the lid of an industrial-size plastic garbage bin, Dixon pointed to one thing he’d be holding onto: a regional phonebook he used daily to call warehouses, factories and retail stores across the state that might hire him as a forklift driver.On July 1, Dixon, along with over 70,000 other North Carolinians, lost his unemployment benefits in an unprecedented cut to state aid for the jobless. By voting to slash its unemployment insurance program last February, the state violated federal guidelines, causing it to become the first state ineligible for federal jobless aid. Over the next few months, an additional 100,000 job seekers in the state, who would have otherwise qualified, will lose benefits." ~jp~
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:17:50 +0000
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