Michigan to force some people off unemployment after ten weeks
And 20 weeks will be the new maximum for everyone else. Contrast this with the 99 weeks people get in states that have better economies--Michigan has an "official" unemployment of 10.6%,while Detroit's actual unemployment is closer to 60%.
Forcing people to take any low-paying job just to get them off the unemployment rolls is a terrible idea for many reasons:
* It's difficult to look for a job when you are working full time.
* The law will force people to take any job that it is offered, even if it doesn't pay enough to afford daycare or to make rent. (Many jobs pay less than unemployment, after all.)
* Salaries are extremely sticky these days: you should not expect to make more than you are hired for.
* Highly-qualified people taking low-qualification jobs deprives people who have no qualifications from those jobs. If laid-off auto workers take all the fast food jobs, what will all the teenagers do for work?
Gov. Rick Snyder signs bills lowering worker benefits, costs | MLive.com
The measures require some unemployed workers to take new jobs after 10 weeks of benefits even if the available work is outside their previous experience or pays lower wages than they were making before. They also make it harder for someone to collect jobless benefits if they're fired for cause or leave a job voluntarily.
The new requirements come on top of an earlier law that cuts the length of time that jobless workers can get state unemployment benefits from the current 26 weeks to 20 weeks starting with new applicants in January.
Snyder disagreed with critics who say requiring jobless workers to take a job paying 120 percent of their weekly benefit could trap them in a low-wage position by leaving them little time to look for work in their area of expertise.
"It's to encourage people to work. It's not to have them go backward," Snyder said of the legislation. "It's easiest to find a job when you've gotten a job."
The new laws also overhaul the state's worker's compensation law for the first time in more than two decades by requiring recipients to work if they're offered a job within their skill set that they can physically perform. If they don't take the job, they risk losing their benefits.