Senator Coons and 41 of his colleagues wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to call for an extension of unemployment insurance for millions of out-of-work Americans. You can read the letter below:
Nearly a year ago, Senator Coons stood outside the U.S. Capitol with Senators Patty Murray, Jon Tester, and Mark Begich to announce the introduction of the Hiring Heroes Act. The prospects for their legislation promoting employment for veterans seemed dark, since only ten bills had been signed by the President at the time, and only one of those was not naming a courthouse or a temporary extension to keep federal agencies running.
But the challenges facing veterans were worth fighting against, including high unemployment and a daunting transition to civilian life. Chris and his colleagues were committed to making progress, and with the help of veterans themselves, their bill garnered 40 bipartisan cosponsors. Eventually, the bill became the centerpiece of President Obama’s VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which was signed into law on November 21, 2011.
Last week, a tangible result of those efforts went live for service members and veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new website to guide veterans through job-related benefits available under the law. For service veterans, it includes an easy-to-read guide to the additional Vocational and Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits now available for service-connected disabled veterans, as well as the additional benefits under the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program to help veterans find work in high-demand jobs. For transitioning service members, it has a section on a number of newly or more widely available benefits for seamless transition from duty to civilian life. And for employers, it provides resources on how to access the tax credits and other incentives provided if they hire veterans.
There’s still a long way to go in fulfilling the commitment we made to our veterans, particularly in the area of processing their benefits claims. But we’ve already made progress from last May, and Chris is committed to making more in the year ahead.
The News Journal reported on Sunday that unemployment among young American workers is easing as the economy begins to recover. Young workers were the hardest hit by the recession, with a national unemployment rate of 16.3 percent for 19-to-24-year-olds, compared to 8.8 percent for all adults.
Things are even looking sunnier for the perennial late-bloomers of the labor market -- younger workers.
In February, the jobless rate for 25- to 34-year-olds fell to 8.7 percent, the lowest since January 2009, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Last May, it had hit a high of 10.5 percent, nearly a percentage point higher than the U.S. average.
Delaware's young workers are also seeing conditions improve -- after peaking at 10.2 percent in 2009, the jobless rate for 25- to 34-year-olds improved to 9.1 percent last year -- but still 1.6 points higher than the state average.
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Increasingly, in today's tech-saturated and globally oriented economy, that education is crucial, said Susan B. Stoller, a longtime career counselor at Delaware Technical Community College in Stanton.
"I think employers have ratcheted up their minimum requirements for hiring," she said. "They want more education. They want more technical skills. We're in a much more competitive global economy. ... It's a good time to be in college."
And it's a good time to be enrolled in degree programs that stress those technical skills, or prepare students for specific careers in growing fields. That dynamic has increased the appeal of community colleges and career schools, and it has boosted student's confidence they will be able to find a job. At Delaware Tech, even in this still-shaky labor market, placement rates of graduates top 90 percent.
Senator Coons has made job creation a top priority. Last fall Chris introducing the bipartisan AGREE Act to help small start-up companies expand and hire employees, and he also hosted job fairs last year that were attended by nearly 5,000 Delawareans. This spring Chris will host three more job fairs – one in each county in Delaware.
Click here to read the full article on The News Journal’s website.
Click here to learn more about Chris’ work to create jobs.
Click here to learn more about the upcoming job fairs.
News this morning that our country had added 200,000 jobs in December is another welcome sign that America's economy is recovering. These new jobs, driven by private sector hiring, pushed the nation’s unemployment rate down to its lowest level in nearly three years. At 8.5 percent, unemployment is still far too high, but signs of a positive trend are emerging, with the economy adding private sector jobs for 22 straight months, as illustrated by the chart below.
Although there is still much more work to be done, the trend lines are pointing in a positive direction, and that’s good for Delaware families and businesses.
Click here to learn more about Chris’ work to help create jobs in Delaware.
Senator Coons participated in a forum with economists from the public and private sectors on Wednesday to look at innovative ways to jumpstart the economy and create jobs. The meeting, which was hosted by the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, mainly focused on broad economic strategies for improving our economy, with an emphasis on consumer confidence and demand.
“My number one priority since joining the Senate has been creating jobs for Delaware and helping Delaware business grow,” Chris said. “In August, I hosted three roundtable discussions with Delaware business leaders to listen to their ideas for job creation. It’s imperative that we continue to seek counsel from a wide range of stakeholders, so we can keep the lines of communication open and the ideas on how to create jobs flowing.”
The panel examined job-creating initiatives currently being reviewed by the Senate, including the latest measure put forth by Senate Democrats, the Rebuild America Jobs Act. This legislation would create jobs through investments in our nation’s decaying transportation infrastructure. Senator Coons is a cosponsor and spoke on it on the floor on Wednesday.
In August, Senator Coons hosted several jobs roundtables discussions in Delaware on: jobs for Delaware's veterans, jobs in Delaware's high-tech and R&D sector, and jobs in Delaware's community-based businesses
In addition to the roundtable discussion, Chris hosted three in-state job fairs this year with more than 4,900 job seekers in attendance.
Click here to learn more about Chris’ blueprint for job creation.
Click here to share your thoughts with Chris on how to bring jobs to Delaware.
Unforeseen financial hardships can bring the threat of foreclosure to even the most responsible of homeowners, and during these difficult economic times, many Delaware homeowners are finding it hard to keep up with their mortgage payments.
Fortunately, the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has created the Delaware Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (DEMAP) to assist Delaware homeowners who are three or more months behind on their mortgage payments as a result of unemployment, reduced hours, illness or injury by providing a no-interest, forgivable loan of up to $50,000 for payments and back taxes.
The window of opportunity to take advantage of this forgivable loan program is closing: applications must be approved and closed by September 30, 2011.
To be eligible for the DEMAP loan program, the homeowner must be a Delaware resident, be 90 or more days delinquent on their first mortgage payments, and face a risk of foreclosure. They must demonstrate a reasonable prospect of being able to resume payments in the near future, meet income eligibility requirements, and contribute 31% of monthly income towards their mortgage payments during the monthly payment assistance period.
If you are a Delaware homeowner who is behind on their mortgage because of unexpected hardships, know that you aren’t alone. For more information on the program, call 888-363-8808 or visit destatehousing.com.
From The Huffington Post: Following the government’s critical role in preparing for and responding to Hurricane Irene, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington published a piece on our government’s urgent need to tackle the jobs crisis with the same urgency and cooperation as it confronted Hurricane Irene.
Excerpt from the article:
What Irene and the response to it showed is that when the media devote wall-to-wall attention to something, and government officials bring a sense of urgency and ask the public to respond in kind, remarkable things can happen. What this weekend demonstrated is that even though we can't do anything to stop the hurricane, with resolve and collective action we can greatly mitigate its destructive impact. Clearly, that capacity is always there. The question is: why do we only tap into it for natural disasters and external attacks?
The fact is we have another crisis that's been hovering over the entire United States for almost three years now and shows no signs of blowing over. The numbers should be just as scary as the ones that have dominated our national conversation about Irene:
Right now, there are over 25 million Americans unemployed or underemployed.
The number who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more is over 6 million.
The average duration of unemployment now stands at over 40 weeks, the highest since the financial crisis began.
With the toll that the job crisis is taking on the lives of millions of people in this country -- from college graduates who can't get jobs to middle class families being thrown out of their homes -- this is a Category 5 disaster.
Read the full story in The Huffington Post. To learn more about Chris’ work to create jobs in Delaware, click here.
NEW CASTLE — Senator Coons hosted a roundtable discussion on jobs for veterans at the Delaware National Guard headquarters on Monday, with participants from the military, public, private, medical, and academic sectors. They joined Chris to talk about the high unemployment rates for veterans nationally and what steps can be taken here in Delaware to provide resources to returning service members and help them find jobs.
The first of three roundtables Chris is hosting on job creation, Monday’s meeting included 19 participants and focused on the unique challenges facing veterans as they return home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The discussion, which lasted for an hour and a half, drew on the participants’ work and areas of expertise in creating opportunities to help ease veterans’ transition back to the civilian workforce.
“For months I’ve been meeting with military leaders, veterans who are looking for work, business leaders, and government officials, and the message I’m hearing from everyone is the same – we need to do more to boost hiring rates of those who’ve served,” Chris said. “To help returning veterans get into the workforce we need to do two things simultaneously. First, we need to get our economy moving again in order to create jobs, and second, we need to help businesses recognize the value in the leadership and technical skills our veterans gained from their service.”
With the national unemployment rate for veterans under the age of 24 at 21.1%, Chris introduced the Hire America’s Heroes Act in May. The bill would provide additional assistance to service members transitioning into the civilian workforce, but Chris believes this legislation must only be a first step. Monday’s roundtable discussion convened stakeholders in an effort to produce new ideas for Chris to bring to Washington when the Senate returns for its September session.
Chris will host another roundtable on August 25, focusing on Delaware’s high-tech and R&D sector, and he will host a third one on August 31 to discuss community-based small businesses.
To learn more about what Chris is doing to help Delaware’s veterans, click here.
Senator Coons will host the first of three roundtable discussions on job creation on Monday afternoon at the headquarters of the Delaware National Guard in New Castle. Focusing on finding ways to increase job opportunities for veterans — especially recently returned veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — this first roundtable will include participants from the military, civilian agencies, veterans groups, and Delaware businesses.
“After working for years in the private sector and local government,” Chris said, “I know that the best ideas for creating jobs are going to come from the people on the front lines of the economic recovery. I talk with out-of-work Delawareans and small business owners just about every day, but these roundtables will facilitate a more dynamic group discussion that I hope will generate new ideas that we can apply in Washington to help create jobs for Delawareans.”
Nationally, unemployment among veterans is 13.3%, and for those under the age of twenty-four returning from Iraq and Afghanistan the rate is a staggering 21.1%, according to the Department of Labor. Chris joined in introducing the Hiring Heroes Act in May, which would provide additional assistance to service members transitioning into the civilian workforce, but he believes more can and must be done. The goal of this roundtable discussion is to bring stakeholders together in order to generate new ideas that Chris can take back with him to Washington when Congress reconvenes in September.
“After they fought for our freedom abroad, our veterans shouldn’t have to fight hard just to get a job here at home,” Chris said. Those participating in this first roundtable will be:
From Friday's New York Times, noted economist Paul Krugman discusses the "manufacturing renaissance" underway in large part because of President Obama's economic strategy.
By the middle years of the last decade, I used to joke that Americans made a living by selling each other houses, which they paid for with money borrowed from China. Manufacturing, once America’s greatest strength, seemed to be in terminal decline.
But that may be changing. Manufacturing is one of the bright spots of a generally disappointing recovery, and there are signs — preliminary, but hopeful, nonetheless — that a sustained comeback may be under way.
And there’s something else you should know: If right-wing critics of efforts to rescue the economy had gotten their way, this comeback wouldn’t be happening.
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America’s industrial heartland is now leading the economic recovery. In August 2009, Michigan had an unemployment rate of 14.1 percent, the highest in the nation. Today, that rate is down to 10.3 percent, still above the national average, but nonetheless a huge improvement.