Name: Zanna
Current Event Posting #1
Topic: Economy 
Title of Article:Why the unemployment rate will fail 
Author: Tami Luhby
Publication Name: CNN


There is talk that the unemployment rate could fall in the upcoming months. There are many people that are starting to lose their federal extended unemployment benefits (more than a half million people). Which means the people who lose their benefits will take any job to make ends meet. It can also mean that they'll just stop working completely. The program that grants the federal extended benefits provides jobless people with up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks after they've gone through their state and federal "emergency" benefits. The reason for these benefits suddenly expiring is because the country's economy is getting better. To be eligible for the unemployment benefits, "a state must show that its unemployment rate is at least 10% higher than it was in at least one of the past three years". The jobless have been finding new work or just dropping out of the work force completely which has led to a decrease in the unemployment rates. More than 400,000 people have already lost their extended benefits, while more than 115,000 more will see their payments disappear over the summer. With the sudden drop in unemployment benefits it will encourage people to take lower paying jobs, simply because they don't take as long to accept you for work. Many people will just drop out of the workforce, go back to school, or some will even have to retire earlier than they planned. "With the way things are going, the unemployment rate could drop as much as 50% over the next year dude to the loss of these benefits" said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. He thinks that cessation will force more younger workers to take available jobs, which is a good thing.