I have had numerous discussions with friends and clients concerning the state of the economy.   Jobs, Homes, and Health Care are on everyone’s mind.  While Health Care has had center stage, the recent election of Senator elect Scott Brown has stopped Health Care reform in its tracks.

A new poll shown on Meet the Press this morning placed Health Care reform number four [4].  Jobs are number one [1] on the minds of Americans.  Had a bill passed the House and Senate and signed into law by the President, it would still take several years for the law to take effect.

Here are some helpful websites

Employment

• Employment numbers by state: www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Recovery_Act_state-by-state_jobs_2-131.pdf
• Employment numbers by Congressional district: www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Recovery_Act_congressional_district_jobs_2-17.pdf

Jobs

• StimulusWatch.org interactive site intended to bring accountability to spending:www.stimuluswatch.org/

Homes

• Information on the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan: www.ustreas.gov/

Health Care

• Health care fact sheet: www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Recovery_Act_Health_Care_2-17.pdf

5 News First | NBC | Southern Colorado’s New Leader
Posted : Jan 17, 2010 5:54 PM

Major cuts are coming to Fort Carson, and they could cause problems throughout Southern Colorado’s struggling housing market.

El Paso County’s largest employer is looking at some big cuts, about 20 million dollars of a 100 million dollar operations budget at Fort Carson. Many of those cuts to come from civilian jobs on base.

“As we look at the contract, the budget cuts as you know will affect individuals,” says Col. Bob McLaughlin, garrison commander for Fort Carson.

These job loses could increase a statistic that’s already at a level of concern, foreclosures.

“One way or another it has a ripple effect and hurts our economy and ends up resulting in more foreclosures,” says Tom Mowle, Public Trustee for El Paso County. “News like this out of Fort Carson makes it more likely that 2010 will be worse than we hoped, and it’s certainly not going to make things better.”

Finalized cuts are expected in mid-Spring, many coming from the Army’s Installation Management Command.

“He’s going to work to the best of his ability to make sure we minimize the impact on people,” explains Col. McLaughlin.

No matter how much planning and care is taken, any cuts can be tough.

“Less money is coming into El Paso County,” explains Mowle. “Somewhere down the road, somebody’s not going to be able to afford their house.”

That’s a road, Mowle says, that leads away from a solution. “It’s not going to slow down until the jobs picture improves, until people start getting better jobs, earning better money and this whole thing starts to recover.”

Based on what Mowle is seeing, we’re waiting for the recovery to begin.

Decisions on these cuts won’t come until mid-Spring.

Mowle says the effects of these foreclosures probably won’t be seen until late in the year.

The DOL released a COBRA Update for The COBRA Premium Reduction Extension Provisions.  New information on the COBRA page includes an updated fact sheet, FAQS for employees, and posters and fliers updated for the provisions extending the ARRA premium reduction in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010.

United States Department of Labor EBSA – COBRA Continuation Coverage Assistance Under The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009 Update

The updated fact sheet is available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fsCOBRApremiumreduction.html

The FAQs for employees are available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-cobra-premiumreductionEE.html

The job loss poster is available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/joblossposter2.pdf

The flyer for employees is available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/cobrastimulusflyer2.pdf

The flyer for employers is available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/cobrastimulusflyer1.pdf

The flyer for employees on the application for review is available at
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/distributionflyer09.pdf

WASHINGTON—Eleventh-hour congressional action extending a COBRA premium subsidy law assures continuation of the subsidy for millions of laid-off workers and their families, but also more work for employers.

Ending weeks of uncertainty, Congress gave final approval and President Obama signed into law late last month a Department of Defense spending bill that includes provisions extending COBRA premium subsidies.

Under the measure, H.R. 3326, the nine-month 65% premium subsidy—established by an economic stimulus measure Congress passed early last year—is extended by six months to 15 months for employees involuntarily terminated from Sept. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2009.

In addition, workers who lose their jobs through Feb. 28, 2010, will be eligible for the 15-month subsidy. Without an extension, employees who lose their jobs after Dec. 31, 2009, would not have been eligible for the subsidy.

The extension of the subsidy will provide significant financial relief to employees who lose their jobs and group health insurance during the first two months of this year, as well as the hundreds of thousands of individuals who have collected the subsidy for nine months and had lost or were soon to lose the subsidy.

“Losing one job’s is difficult enough. But losing one’s health care along with it and worrying about being able to get treatment for oneself and one’s family, or fearing bankruptcy in the event of injury or illness is something Americans should not have to cope with in this difficult time,” Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said in statement. Rep. Sestak previously introduced a COBRA premium subsidy extension measure, a portion of which was incorporated into the military spending bill.

While laid-off workers will benefit from the extension of the premium subsidy, the extension also will mean more work for employers and their COBRA administrators.

For example, many employers in late November began sending bills to COBRA beneficiaries whose eligibility for the subsidy ran out, asking beneficiaries to pay the full December premium rather than 35% of the premium.

Those employers now will have to calculate the overpayments and decide either to offset future COBRA premium payments by the amount of the overpayments or issue refund checks.

A more complicated procedure involves beneficiaries whose eligibility for the subsidy ended in November and who didn’t pay the full unsubsidized December premium.

Under the legislation, those individuals—if they paid their 35% share of the premium in the month prior to losing the subsidy—will have a right to pay 35% of the premium later and receive retroactive coverage. Beneficiaries could receive retroactive coverage if they pay the 35% share within 60 days of the bill’s enactment or, if later, 30 days later after their former employer sends them notice that describes the new 15-month premium subsidy.

That will require employers and COBRA administrators to identify beneficiaries whose eligibility for the subsidy ended, send them the required notice and, assuming they pay the required premium, retroactively restore their COBRA coverage.

Some employers and plan administrators may ease this complication by expediting notice to participants about the subsidy extension and sending out a revised billing statement, said Karen Frost, a health and welfare outsourcing leader for Hewitt Associates Inc. in Lincolnshire, Ill.

COBRA premiums aren’t due until 30 days from the start of a monthly coverage period. So, if they received rapid notice, beneficiaries would have time to make their December premium payments reflecting the 65% federal subsidy.

The legislation also requires employers to send a special notice to all premium subsidy-eligible beneficiaries who are on COBRA beginning on or after Nov. 1, 2009, describing the 15-month premium subsidy.

“That will create work. Language will have to be developed for the notification document. And you will have to identify everyone affected and send them the notification. That is not a small effort,” said Linda Anderson, benefit administration consultant at Towers Watson & Co. in Chicago.

On the other hand, the legislation ends a problem created by the original subsidy law. That law required individuals to satisfy two conditions to be eligible for the premium subsidy: They must have been involuntarily terminated from Sept. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2009, and they must have been eligible to receive the subsidy during that period.

That second condition was not widely understood and may have resulted in employees laid off in December not being eligible for the subsidy.

That could happen in situations where employers allowed laid-off employees to continue regular group coverage through the end of the month. As a result, those individuals would not be entitled to the subsidy because their COBRA eligibility didn’t begin until Jan. 1, 2010, one day after the cutoff date.

The military spending bill ends what some experts say was a fairness issue by amending the law to tie subsidy eligibility to the date of involuntary termination.

And any additional work the legislation creates is a fraction of the burden employers incurred under the original law, Ms. Anderson noted. In that case, employers had to locate and provide notice of the COBRA subsidy to former employees who, in some cases, hadn’t worked for them in half a year, while employers, at first, did not have official guidance on what constituted involuntary termination.

The new COBRA subsidy extension, though, may not be the last, especially if unemployment remains high.

“This may not be the end of it,” said Rich Stover, a principal with Buck Consultants L.L.C. in Seacaucus, N.J.

The likelihood of a future extension will depend on where the unemployment rate goes in the coming months, said Ms. Anderson of Towers Watson.

Statistics are not available on how many laid-off employees took the subsidy. But a congressional Joint Committee on Taxation report, developed when Congress approved the initial subsidy, estimated that the subsidy would benefit about 7 million laid-off workers and their families at a cost of about $25 billion.

One survey found that the subsidy resulted in a surge in COBRA enrollment rates. Hewitt Associates reported last August that the COBRA opt-in rate for terminated employees more than doubled after the subsidy program.

From March 1, 2009—when the subsidy generally first became available—through Nov. 30, 2009, monthly COBRA enrollment rates for laid-off employees averaged 39%, according to a Hewitt analysis of COBRA enrollment among 200 large employers.

By contrast, from Sept. 1, 2008, through Feb. 28, 2009, an average of 19% of involuntarily terminated employees were enrolled in COBRA.

“There is no question that the subsidy has made a difference. It has been of huge value,” Hewitt’s Ms. Frost said.

With nonsubsidized COBRA premiums often about $400 a month for individual coverage and $1,200 a month for family coverage, the subsidy slashed health insurance premium costs for beneficiaries when they no longer had a regular source of income.

msingletary@MiamiHerald.com

Santa couldn’t have done better.

Millions of Americans got a great gift when Congress passed and President Obama signed a bill that included a provision to extend a subsidy helping those out of work continue their health insurance coverage.

Last February, Congress established the subsidy under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, commonly referred to as COBRA.

Under COBRA, former employees receive health coverage at their employer group rates. But they have to pay the full premium, including the share that the employer used to pay plus a 2 percent administrative fee. But many who become unemployed cannot afford the premium, which can consume 83 percent of their unemployment income, according to a report by Families USA.

Laid-off workers first became eligible for the subsidy in March. Those who take advantage of the program pay 35 percent of the COBRA premium, and employers pick up the remaining 65 percent, which is then reimbursed by the government through a payroll tax credit.

Because the subsidy was only to last nine months, the first eligible group was cut off at the end of November. Others who were facing losing the subsidy at the end of the year became stressed at the prospect of unaffordable monthly payments.

“How can we, as unemployed American citizens, pay those ridiculous premiums?” asked Jeff Krebs of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, in an e-mail to me. Jeff lost his job 16 months ago and his wife lost hers in April. Thanks to the COBRA subsidy, their premium was $450 a month. Without an extension, the Krebs were facing a jump to $1,550.

“This is like winning the lottery for us, especially right before Christmas,” Krebs said. “You do not understand what a relief that has just been lifted off our shoulders.”

I do understand. I hear often from so many laid-off workers struggling financially to keep health coverage. The COBRA subsidy program extension included in the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act will do the following:

• Expand the amount of time people can qualify from nine months to 15 months.

• Extend the eligibility period for the COBRA premium reduction an additional two months. Before the extension, you had to have been involuntarily separated from your job between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009, in order to qualify. That period of eligibility has been stretched to Feb. 28.

• Give credit to people who paid the full premium in December. Individuals should contact their plan administrator or employer sponsoring the plan to discuss a credit against future payments, said Phyllis C. Borzi, assistant secretary of labor. The legislation assures that people who were receiving assistance but whose eligibility has expired will be reimbursed, and they will have the option for re-enrollment, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of the legislators who pushed for the subsidy extension. This particular provision is a welcome relief for Ricky Crawford of Huntsville, Ala. He and his wife had to make a full premium payment of $1,013 in December. With the subsidy they were paying $350. “My wife has some health issues, which, without insurance, we would certainly struggle financially,” Crawford told me.

• Require employers to send out notices to laid-off workers outlining the most recent changes in the COBRA subsidy. For example, individuals who had lost the subsidy will now have additional time to pay the reduced premium to keep their coverage.

After the subsidy was first passed, COBRA enrollment doubled, according to an analysis by Hewitt Associates. With the subsidy, the cost of maintaining the average policy is $398 per month for a family and $144 for an individual, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Without the subsidy, that cost jumps to $1,137 per month for family coverage and $410 per month for individual coverage.

Unfortunately, if your company closed or went bankrupt and there no longer is a group health plan, the COBRA subsidy is not available.

Hear Michelle Singletary’s personal finance reports on www.npr.org. Readers may write to her c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington DC 20081.

December 2009
Newest Articles On Top

• Arrow Trucking Strands Drivers During Layoff
• Slightly Higher Taxes, But No Layoffs
• Looming Layoffs
• Rendell Threat: 1,000 Layoffs
• Massive Layoffs at Paul Mueller in Springfield, MO
• Workers & Riders Protest Transit Layoffs & Cuts In Chicago
• Survivors Too Must Cope After A Round Of Layoffs
• Harmonix Denies Layoffs Are Due To Poor Sales
• GM Exec: No New Layoffs Coming
• Food Company Kehe Plans Layoffs In San Antonio
• No Layoffs At Lego’s Enfield Plant
• 400 Layoffs At Energy Conversion Devices Will Predominatly Impact Michigan Workforce
• Georgia-Pacific Workers Expect Mass Layoffs at Day Street Plant
• Bay Shipbuilding Adds To Layoffs

Health reform, if it goes through, won’t take effect for at least a couple of years. But for some people, health insurance help came last Saturday, when the president extended the COBRA subsidy.

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Economic News Release

For release 3:00 p.m. (EST) Tuesday, December 22, 2009        USDL-09-1561

Technical information:  (202) 691-6392  *  mlsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/mls
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov

                    MASS LAYOFFS -- NOVEMBER 2009

Employers took 1,797 mass layoff actions in November that resulted in
the separation of 165,346 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by
new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Each action involved
at least 50 persons from a single employer. The number of mass layoff
events in November decreased by 330 from the prior month, and the num-
ber of associated initial claims decreased by 51,836, to their lowest
levels since July 2008. However, year-to-date mass layoff events
(27,669) and initial claims (2,792,736) both recorded program highs
for a January to November period. (Data begin in April 1995.) In No-
vember, 481 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing
sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 56,243 initial claims. Both
the number of events and initial claims in manufacturing decreased
over the month. (See table 1.)

During the 24 months from December 2007 through November 2009, the
total number of mass layoff events (seasonally adjusted) was 51,154,
and the number of initial claims filed (seasonally adjusted) in those
events was 5,187,170. (December 2007 was the start of a recession as
designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research.)

The national unemployment rate was 10.0 percent in November 2009, sea-
sonally adjusted, down from 10.2 percent the prior month but up from
6.8 percent a year earlier. In November, total nonfarm payroll employ-
ment decreased by 11,000 over the month and by 4,759,000 from a year
earlier.

Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

The number of mass layoff events in November was 1,870 on a not sea-
sonally adjusted basis; the number of associated initial claims was
164,496. (See table 2.) Over the year, the number of mass layoff
events decreased by 704, and associated initial claims decreased by
77,093. Thirteen of the 19 major industry sectors in the private
economy reported over-the-year decreases in initial claimants for the
month of November, led by manufacturing (-52,567), administrative and
waste services (-8,122), retail trade (-6,346), and construction
(-5,873).

Three of the 19 major industry sectors in the private economy report-
ed program highs in terms of average weekly initial claimants for the
month of November: arts, entertainment, and recreation; accommodation
and food services; and other services, except public administration.
(Average weekly analysis mitigates the effect of differing lengths of
months. See the Technical Note.)

The manufacturing sector accounted for 28 percent of all mass layoff
events and 33 percent of initial claims filed in November 2009. A year
earlier, manufacturing made up 39 percent of events and 45 percent of
initial claims. Within manufacturing, the number of claimants in Novem-
ber was greatest in transportation equipment and food. Transportation
equipment manufacturing had the largest over-the-year decrease in ini-
tial claims (-11,236), while food services and drinking places had the
highest increase (+2,862) among all three-digit North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) industries. (See table 3.)

The six-digit NAICS industry with the largest number of initial claims
in November 2009 was highway, street, and bridge construction. Of the
10 detailed industries with the largest number of mass layoff initial
claims, only the motorcycle, bicycle, and parts manufacturing indus-
try reached a series high for the month of November. (See table A.)

Table A. Industries with the largest number of mass layoff initial
claims in November 2009, not seasonally adjusted

                                                              November peak
                  Industry
                                                  Initial    Year   Initial
                                                  claims            claims  

Highway, street, and bridge construction ......    8,933     2001   14,805
Temporary help services (1) ...................    7,991     2000   19,023
Food service contractors ......................    6,004     2007    6,163
School and employee bus transportation ........    3,447     2007    4,547
Automobile manufacturing ......................    2,867     2007    8,416
Farm labor contractors and crew leaders .......    2,807     1999   11,613
Motorcycle, bicycle, and parts manufacturing...    2,644     2009    2,644
Motion picture and video production ...........    2,637     2000    8,664
Professional employer organizations (1) .......    2,506     2008    5,873
Casino hotels .................................    2,436     2006    2,706

  1 See the Technical Note for more information on these industries.

Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

Among the four census regions, the Midwest registered the highest num-
ber of initial claims in November due to mass layoffs, followed by the
West and the South. (See table 5.) Initial claims associated with mass
layoffs decreased over the year in all of the regions, with the Midwest
experiencing the largest decrease (-33,741), mostly in transportation
equipment manufacturing.

Of the nine geographic divisions, the East North Central had the high-
est number of initial claims due to mass layoffs in November, followed
by the Pacific, the Middle Atlantic, and the South Atlantic. (See
table 5.) Seven of the 9 divisions experienced over-the-year decreases
in initial claims, led by the East North Central (-26,022).

California recorded the highest number of initial claims in November,
followed by Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. (See
table 6.) Thirty-seven states experienced over-the-year decreases in
initial claims, led by California (-15,768), Indiana (-9,097), Ohio
(-6,447), and Michigan (-6,108). In 2009, three states reached program
highs in average weekly initial claims for the month of November:
Nevada, North Carolina, and Wyoming.

Note

The monthly data series in this release cover mass layoffs of 50 or
more workers beginning in a given month, regardless of the duration of
the layoffs. For private nonfarm establishments, information on the
length of the layoff is obtained later and issued in a quarterly re-
lease that reports on mass layoffs lasting more than 30 days (refer-
red to as "extended mass layoffs"). The quarterly release provides
more information on the industry classification and location of the
establishment and on the demographics of the laid-off workers. Be-
cause monthly figures include short-term layoffs of 30 days or less,
the sum of the figures for the 3 months in a quarter will be higher
than the quarterly figure for mass layoffs of more than 30 days.
(See table 4.) See the Technical Note for more detailed definitions.

_____________
The Mass Layoffs in December 2009 and Annual Totals for 2009 news
release is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, January 27, 2010,
at 10:00 a.m. (EST).