As Jobless Rates Rise Millions of Unemployed Face Humbling Cutoffs for the Holidays

If you’re without a job, and on the fence about whether to seek the benefits of bankruptcy, the latest news on the unemployment front should be proof positive that there’s no better time to take your financial future into your own hands.

Following three months of positive growth in what had been an extended period of recession-era unemployment numbers, business hiring slowed in November 2010 as national unemployment figures rose to a staggering 9.8%, the highest rate since April and up from 9.6% in October. According to a report by The New York Times, “The United States added a total of just 39,000 jobs last month, down from an upwardly revised gain of 172,000 in October, the Labor Department reported on Friday. With local governments shedding jobs, the additions in the private sector were too small to reduce the ranks of the unemployed or even to keep pace with people entering the work force.”

This bad news on the job front is more than a blow to hopes for an economic recovery this holiday season. It is also compounded by recent developments in a more deficit-minded Congress, signaling an end to aid for unemployed workers, as the Senate defeated a bill not only meant to reauthorize unemployment benefits for those needing it most—the long-term jobless—but also intended to extend beneficial tax provision for the middle and lower class.

Based on The Huffington Post’s recent analysis,  “Two bills were defeated. By a vote of 53-36, seven short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster, the Senate rejected a measure by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that would have preserved Bush era tax cuts for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, but would have allowed cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year to expire…. The Senate also rejected a bill by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would have extended all the cuts, but not for anybody making more than $1 million.  The Baucus bill would have preserved Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits Programs created in 2008 as a customary response to rising unemployment. The programs provide up to 73 weeks of federally-funded benefits for when layoff victims exhaust the standard 26 weeks of state-funded aid. The programs lapsed last week, threatening a holiday cutoff for two million unemployed.”

With unemployment high and benefits running low for so many Americans, many more risks remain for the U.S. economy and its outlook for the near future. Recent reports showed 14,000 jobs were cut by local governments, a decline, as reported by The New York Times, “that could accelerate if states and towns were required to prune further to deal with shrinking budgets and larger deficits.”

With millions of Americans unemployed for a year or more, and millions more just beginning to face the hard truth that job insecurity is here to stay, many households are facing increased pressure to tap into savings, retirement, college funds, or even turn to bankruptcy as a means to stay afloat. But rather than triggering more seasonal sad tidings, it’s important to know that a personal bankruptcy—whether via a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 repayment plan—can mark the starting point for a more festival financial outlook that gets you on your merry way back to your pre-unemployment levels of savings, personal wealth and asset accumulation.

So, are you one of the millions of short or long-term unemployed looking for financial support but not exactly sure where to turn? Knowing a qualified bankruptcy attorney with an excellent record and resources helpful to navigating this recent economic recession can also help you through an uncertain employment future. The bankruptcy experts at the Law Offices of John T. Orcutt offer a totally FREE debt consultation and now, more than ever, it’s time to take them up on their offer. Just call toll free to +1-833-627-0115, or during the off hours, you can make your own appointment right online at www.billsbills.com. Simply click on the yellow “FREE Consultation Now” button.