Should there be a limit on how long one can receive unemployment benefits?

[SheilaT]

19. It does seem as though some people

are gaming the system, and collecting unemployment instead of seriously looking for work. I said some people. By no means all of them.

Perhaps length of time UE can be collected should be somehow linked to the unemployment rate itself. But that rate can vary enormously from job to job. For instance, I doubt that outside of very small towns, there isn't an ongoing strong demand for nurses everywhere, so maybe they shouldn't be able to collect UE. I am almost positive that there was a time when they couldn't.

But a lot of other fields, like manufacturing and your company has completely relocated its manufacturing overseas, that's a different story.

It also brings up the issue of retraining, and who should pay for it.

In short, there needs to be some kind of a limit. I don't feel as if I know enough to make a sensible comment on how long that should be. I also know that there will inevitably be some people who are caught in the terrible time-trap of being old enough that getting another job is difficult, and still much too young to want to retire, and too young to collect social security.

We live in a very imperfect world.