I'm off to Atlanta this morning to talk to some employers about environmental factors impacting their unemployment costs.  Unemployment is all over the news of course, so they see what is happening on a daily basis, but do we hear the whole story on the news?

We are looking at another extension of unemployment benefits.  This extension would be funded by extending for a year a federal unemployment tax on employers that has been in place for 30 years.  Even though past benefit extensions were funded by the Federal Government, not by employers, we are kidding ourselves if we don't think employers are impacted.  I can't even begin to tell you the amount of paperwork employers receive on individuals collecting unemployment benefits.

Some states send out weekly requests for information for the entire duration of the claim.  If the current legislation passes, we would be looking at some individuals receiving 92 weeks.  Other states send out 2 forms for each claimant, both asking for similar information. 

All that paper has to be processed and responded to by someone and whether an employer uses a 3rd party administrator like TALX or does it themselves the employer is impacted.  I'm not saying that the unemployed don't deserve help during these hard economic times; I'm just saying that it would have been nice to provide a solution that didn't bury employers in paperwork.  It takes them away from their core goals of growing their business and hopefully creating jobs.  

Tammy Mullin