Alexandra Sirota: Unemployed not being helped

Regarding the April 8 Business article “Group calls for changes to jobless benefits”: Sen. Bob Rucho is correct that North Carolina policymakers should learn from the past.

The history of unemployment insurance policy choices in North Carolina and resulting outcomes are clear. Tax cuts for employers in good times meant the unemployment insurance was not prepared for the Great Recession. Borrowing and temporary federal tax increases on employers in the downturn were required. Benefit cuts that harmed jobless workers were justified as necessary to pay down the debt and they did.

Now the system is serving 1 in 8 jobless workers in the state and failing to provide the stabilizing dollars in local communities, thus violating the very purpose for which unemployment insurance was designed.

North Carolina policymakers should not only learn from the past. They must also engage with the data that show an unemployment insurance failing, and the very real potential that our state will repeat past mistakes.

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Alexandra Sirota: Unemployed not being helped."