
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991                   TAG: 9103090217
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FALLS CHURCH                                LENGTH: Medium

BLUES FESTER IN UNEMPLOYMENT LINE

John Pennylegion, laid off as a computer systems designer, was confident he'd find a new job quickly. Months later, he's standing in an unemployment line at 7 a.m. and struggling to pay bills for himself, his wife and three children.

"It's very demoralizing," Pennylegion said, waving toward the cramped unemployment office, where the jobless lean dejectedly against walls and wait hours to file for benefits that may take a month or longer to arrive.

"You're out of work - then you have to deal with this," said Pennylegion, who got up before dawn to get a jump on the crowd at the Virginia Employment Commission office in Northern Virginia.

"I had savings, but it's been two months . . . I'm starting to put price tags on things, wondering, `What can I sell?' " said Pennylegion, of the Washington suburb of Vienna.

The jobless level has climbed since last June, when it was a relatively low 5.3 percent. Even a mild recession could put another 1 million Americans out of work by the end of the year, analysts say.

Under the nation's unemployment system, states pay out benefits through employer taxes they collect. The federal government, which receives a portion of those employer taxes, is responsible for paying the administrative costs of the system, such as office rent and salaries of clerks who process the claims.

Over the past decade, federal cuts have forced states to close dozens of unemployment offices and trim staff. Now, the offices are so shorthanded, lines stretch into the streets and checks can't be processed for weeks, state officials complain.

"Sometimes these applicants have to wait two or three hours just to talk to the claim-taker," Bob Wagner, who runs an unemployment office in Bloomington, Ind., complained at a hearing by Congress' Joint Economic Committee this week.

"I can't tell you how many times claimants ask me why this is such an inefficient and humiliating experience. And when they don't ask, I can see it on their faces," Wagner said.

"When you're grossly underfunded, I don't think it's fair to say these problems are self-made," said Bob Wack, president of the Economic Alliance for Michigan, a labor-business group urging reform of the unemployment system.

"Benefits are mandated, but there's no mandatory requirement that the federal government cough up sufficient funds to get the job done," Wack complained.

He said the federal government takes in about $5 billion a year for the program from employer taxes, but spends only about $3 billion. The rest, he said, is being used to offset the federal deficit.

States that can afford to hire more help can't find people willing to stay in the job more than a few weeks, said Faye Mitchell of the Connecticut Job Service.

"They're not staying. They can't take the pressure," she said.

Back at the Virginia unemployment office, Pennylegion said he was told that if all goes right, he should start receiving his $198-a-week benefit check within three or four weeks.

by CNB