Help wanted for Iowa's unemployed

Bad news for more than a million American job-seekers whose unemployment benefits are exhausted today. Congress could have extended the benefits, but hasn't yet gotten it done. While they fiddle, an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 Iowans are expected to lose their benefits each week.

Seventy-six percent of unemployed Iowans have been without a job for more than half a year. More than two-thirds of unemployed respondents to a recent survey said they already were dipping into retirement savings just to make ends meet.

And that doesn't even touch on the stress -- the psychological cost of wanting to work, knowing you're darn-well qualified to work, and not being able to land a job because of a 5:1 ratio of job-seekers to jobs.

Adding insult to injury is this report that those long-term job seekers are having a tough time getting hired on for the few positions that are available during this slow, painful, jobless recovery.

Even though it's the economy that is to blame for a good number of the 15 million Americans who are unemployed (1 in 10 over age 16), some employers still openly discriminate against “active job seekers” who are willing to take just about anything to get back in the game. It's not illegal to discriminate against a candidate because of their current employment status, but it sure is a crappy thing to do.

Somebody's got to give these folks a break and soon – put them to work or help out if they can't. No one's got the wherewithal, financially or psychologically, to wait out the full five years economists say it's going to take for full recovery.