Offset Paperback Manufacturers Details Plans For Layoffs In Dallas Township

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Offset Paperback Manufacturers plans to shut down its sheet-fed and pre-press operations at its Dallas Township facility as the publishing industry continues to struggle, a WARN notice indicates.

The company, one of the largest paperback book manufacturers in the world, announced late last week that 37 employees received notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act giving them 60 days notice that jobs will be lost.

More details about the job cuts were revealed in a WARN notice Jack O’Donnell, chief operating officer for Offset Paperback, sent to Leona Annaguey, section chief of trade, rapid response and special programs for the state Department of Labor and Industry.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/offset-details-plans-for-layoffs-1.1789532

Unemployment Benefits End For 86,900 In Pennsylvania

The year is starting with a social safety net disappearing for 86,900 unemployed Pennsylvanians.

Congress allowed the legislation authorizing emergency unemployment compensation, the federal extension of unemployment benefits, to expire as of Monday.

That means that the unemployment compensation debit cards issued by the state department of Labor and Industry will not be reloaded for people who have exhausted their original six months of unemployment payments.

According to the National Employment Law Project in New York City, the cuts will affect 1.3 million Americans immediately, 86,900 of them from Pennsylvania, which has the fourth-highest total of unemployed workers collecting the emergency long-term benefits.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2014/01/01/Unemployment-benefits-end-for-86-900-in-state/stories/201401010094#ixzz2pAS5blvw

Pennsylvania Terminates $170 Million Project With IBM Over Failure To Deliver Computer System It Promised

After seeing a technology project fall $60 million over budget and 42 months behind, state Labor and Industry Secretary Julia Hearthway has decided it’s time to pull the plug on a contract to modernize the state’s unemployment compensation computer system.

This decision announced at a news conference on Wednesday followed a $800,000 study by Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute that found the problems with the IBM Corp.-developed system to be unsolvable.

Spending any more money on trying to make the system, originally slated to cost $106.9 million, would have been a waste, Hearthway said.

The state now estimates the cost of the project has grown to $170 million but some payments have been withheld, a department official said.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/pa_terminates_contract_with_ib.html#incart_m-rpt-2

The Real Fiscal Cliff: The 4.8 Million Long-Term Unemployed

Today’s alarming financial news is the rise in first-time unemployment claims to 385,000, up 28,000 and also above expectations.  The U.S. Labor Department report shows the labor market is weakening, not that it was anything resembling strong in the first place.  It makes me want to cry, because every piece of news like this makes me even more distraught about the future of the 4.8 million long-term unemployed.

I’ve covered unemployment issues or more than a decade and the future for those who are out of work beyond the normal six months funded by state benefits is very bleak.  These aren’t lazy bums, but desperate people who are financially and emotionally devastated by their situation.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/jobs/INQ_JobbingBlog_The-real-fiscal-cliff-The-millions-of-long-term-unemployed.html#ixzz2PVbVF6gR
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Pennsylvania Losing Extended Unemployment Aid

Map of Pennsylvania, showing major cities and roads (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania‘s unemployment rate is now too low for it to continue offering 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits, the U.S. Department of Labor and Industry says.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in March, down from a 12-month high of 8.3 percent in September.

Right now, jobless Pennsylvanians receive 26 weeks of state-funded benefits and, once that runs out, 47 weeks of federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation. The extended benefits provided 13 weeks of additional aid beyond that 47-week window.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-unemployment-compensation-20120504,0,1579587.story