Until Friday, Gerald Shealy, of Lexington, S.C., said he didn't know where the Georgia Department of Labor was located.
Now he does.
The 56-year-old who had worked in Evans said he filed for unemployment benefits for the first time in his 39-year working career. Next week, he will be laid off from his job as a field engineer at a construction firm based in Columbia County.
"I've got numerous applications and resumes out there online and through fax. I may get a job before I actually start unemployment, but I want to make sure if I don't have one, this is taken care of," Mr. Shealy said.
On Friday, President Obama signed a bill into law extending unemployment benefits for 14 weeks. Mr. Shealy said those benefits are essential.
"The way the economy is now, I think everybody needs some sort of help in the long run because the jobs are just not out there. I'd rather not draw unemployment benefits. I'd still rather be working 100 percent," he said.
For anyone who is able, however, they should "try to find work because the benefits aren't going to last forever," he said.
In October, the national jobless rate climbed to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983. In the metro Augusta area, the unadjusted unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in September, according to the latest data from the Georgia Department of Labor.
Heather Hunter-McNitt, the operations manager at Augusta Staffing, said that extending unemployment benefits helps in some cases, but some job seekers at her office have turned down jobs and said they will start looking after their unemployment benefits run out. She helps people find jobs in the industrial sector.
Also, extending these benefits creates future challenges for states and employers, said Doug Duncan, the director of professional services at MAU Workforce Solutions. To pay these benefits, states are depleting their trust funds, and some states such as South Carolina are getting deeper in debt, he said.
South Carolina has borrowed nearly $611 million from the federal government to help pay unemployment benefits. If states can't repay the funds in two years, employers' federal tax rates will increase to pay for unemployment benefits, Mr. Duncan said.
Marvin Sanders, 42, has been unemployed for six months. He was a logistics specialist at Xpedx on Marvin Griffin Road until the company closed there and consolidated in Columbia.
He stopped by the labor department office Friday to find out how many weeks he had remaining for unemployment benefits, and was surprised to learn they had been extended. "I'm desperately looking for a job, and I'm unable to find one. That's one good spot on an otherwise bad day," he said.
Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.
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