Thursday, March 31, 2005
Tweet[IWS] GAO: Unemployment Insurance: Information on Benefit Receipt. GAO-05-291, March 17, 2005 (online 31 March)
IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
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Unemployment Insurance: Information on Benefit Receipt. GAO-05-291, March 17, 2005 (online 31 March)
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-291
or
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05291.pdf
[full-text, 39 pages]
[excerpt]
In summary, we estimate that about 38 percent of workers born between
1957 and 1964 received UI at least once between 1979 and 2002, with
almost half of these individuals receiving UI benefits more than once (see
fig. 1). Another 39 percent of this age group of workers were eligible to
receive UI benefits at least once but never did so. Nine percent of all
workers in this age group are estimated to have been unemployed at least
once but never eligible for UI benefits, mostly because of the conditions
under which they separated from their jobs, such as leaving a job to look
for other employment. The remaining 15 percent were employed at least
once and subsequently never unemployed.
As this baby boom group aged, its members experienced fewer UI-eligible
unemployment spells but were more likely to receive UI benefits during
these spells. Late baby boom workers had the greatest number of UIeligible
unemployment spells around the time of the recessions of the
early 1980s, when most were beginning their working careers. Over time,
the number of UI-eligible unemployment spells declined. This is not
surprising, given changes in the overall economy and age-related changes
for individuals, such as increasing levels of education, training, work
experience, and job tenure, that made their employment more stable and
made them less likely to become unemployed. Although these workers had
more unemployment when they were younger, higher proportions of those
who became unemployed when they were older (up to age 45) received UI
benefits. More specifically, at ages 18 to 20, 15 percent of those eligible
received UI benefits; at ages 36 to 45, the rate of receipt was 30 percent.
Regarding UI receipt by industries and occupations, we found that rates
varied.
We provided a draft of this report to officials at the Department of Labor
for their technical review and incorporated their comments where
appropriate.
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