Dreading the day when unemployment runs out.
How many of us in this economic climate know someone relying on an unemployment check to pay a mortgage? And how many of them have a solid plan for what happens when that money dries up?
We're about to find out,
The Oregonian tells us. They visited rural
Harney County, OR, where creating any new job seems like it would take small miracle. So far, the community has remained relatively intact through the recession. People have held onto their houses and kept one step ahead of bill collectors because of weekly unemployment checks. But as those benefits start to expire (13,000 Oregonians will exhaust their unemployment allowance by the end of the year), places like Burns may face a mass exodus.
It's not a problem confined to desert towns with staggering unemployment. In Puget Sound's urban corridor, employees have been pink slipped by the tens of thousands. I'd wager that 95 percent of my former colleagues at the Seattle P-I, which closed three months ago, are still surviving on unemployment. It won't make your rich, but it's significant. Enough to pay most mortgages or rent. Enough to cover a month's worth of groceries and bills with some left over. And I'd also guess that many of them could not honestly tell you how they will manage when that money runs out.
