Fiscal Cliff

Today marks the final week of enhanced unemployment benefits due to the “fiscal cliff” in Washington, DC. California’s Economic Development Department is currently providing benefits to over 400,000 recipients of state benefits. The “life span” of these benefits was 26 weeks. This was extended by 18 months via federal government funding.The big “gotcha” has been the inability of the feds to renew this program. As such, it is going to expire at the end of this month(12/29 to be exact).   Many of our state-wide clients, who have already been victimized by a wrongful termination, or lost their jobs due to harassment or other forms of discrimination, may well find themselves without the funds needed to pay their mortgages, cars or other critical expenses. On average,our clients are usually out of work for anywhere from 6 to 18 months. For those out of work over 26 weeks, this could be a very devastating experience. Let’s hope that the fiscal cliff is a non-event and federal benefits are renewed.

Many former employees will be seeking to start their own businesses and otherwise attempting to mitigate this income stream loss.Retraining vouchers provided by workman’s compensation will cover a number of our employees if they are otherwise entitled to retraining. Let’s hope this situation resolves soon!