Friday, President Obama met with business leaders to discuss hiring the long-term unemployed.
Dr. Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin says the nation still has the highest rate of long term unemployed since the Great Depression...
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".....there's a large portion of people...a large portion of the unemployment rate, who have been trying for more than six months and can't find a job. That's partly because of how few jobs there are compared to the number of people looking. It's also because after you've been unemployed for a certain length of time you face discrimination...."
Kraig says studies are showing it is very difficult to find work once you've been unemployed more than six months. He says there's a bill in the Wisconsin legislature banning discrimination against the long term unemployed..
Rhett Buttle from the group Small Business Majority says older workers seem to be the ones with the most difficult time finding work after being laid off...
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"....but we're still struggling with issues of long term unemployment, particularly with high-skilled folks who are in the fifty-plus age range who are disproportionately affected by long term unemployment...
President Obama met with business leaders to see if a set of hiring principles could be enacted to help those persons without work for a long period of time.
1.3 million persons had their unemployment insurance terminated December 31.
