Who are the unemployed 99ers?
The 99ers are the American people who were laid off of their jobs and have used up their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.
Generally, in the past, when someone is laid off of work, they are given 26 weeks of unemployment from the state, but in the Great Recession, Congress has mandated federal tiers which gives up to 99 weeks of unemployment. However, once a person reaches the 99th tier, their benefits stop regardless of their current employment situation.
An estimated 1 million people could become "99ers" by the end of 2010 because there is 1 job for every 6 unemployed people and it is taking people on average 31.2 weeks to find a job out of unemployment. Expect that number to rise.
A quarter of the unemployed population (over 3.5 million people) have been out of a job for over a year. Now companies won’t hire people who are "overqualified." Previously upper-middle-class and middle-class people are getting stuck in a poverty trap where there are not enough high-skilled jobs to hire them, and where they are too qualified for minimum wage jobs.
