In an effort to extend benefits to over one million Americans whose emergency unemployment coverage expired, a White House economic adviser said there is a 3-to-1 ratio in the number of unemployed looking for jobs.
Gene Sperling, leading economic adviser to President Obama and director of the National Economic Council, is pushing to renew the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provided benefits to some 1.3 Americans before it was abruptly terminated on Dec. 28.
Although the Senate agreed to extend the program on Tuesday, political analysts say the House is unlikely to do the same.
Sperling rejected the notion that some Americans were able to “game the system,” in other words, receive benefits for as long as possible without making an honest effort to find work.
“Most of the people are desperately looking for jobs,” he told CNN. “You know, our economy still has three people looking for every job (opening).”
There were a reported 3.925 million job openings for the month of October, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report from Dec. 10, while an estimated 11.3 million are unemployed. Incidentally, the figure represents those individuals who are actively searching for work, not those who have given up hope on finding employment.
To put it another way, that’s a ratio of 2.88-to-1 or, approximately 3-to-1, as Obama’s top economic advisor said.