Long-term unemployment benefits ended in North Carolina in July, six months before the federal government ended $25 billion in long-term jobless benefits for all the other states at the start of the new year, according to an analysis in today’s Wall Street Journal reported today. North Carolina’s unemployment rate since then has plunged, as people who were receiving benefits scrambled to find jobs or stopped looking for work. Employers report a flood of applicants. But the experience in North Carolina has exposed two persistent problems dogging the workforce: many experienced workers are settling for lower-skill jobs, and a lack of skills is blocking many other workers from settling into an abundance of openings. Many of the long-term unemployed have taken jobs for which they appear to be overqualified, based on experience or education, and some are piecing together multiple part-time jobs to fill the benefits gap. At the same time, some employers say they face challenges finding the right people to fill openings.
