Though the recession itself has reached a turning point, there is still a long road ahead for changes in the job market. We need to see new jobs being created at home instead of overseas and companies need to reach a point where they can begin hiring again. With so many Americans still searching for work, certain states are already seeing their unemployment system hitting a danger zone.

 

ProPublica recently posted an interactive map which lists States that have already had to borrow money from the government to continue paying out unemployment. States such as California, Indiana, Michigan, New York and Ohio already have borrowed between 1 billion and 3 billion dollars after they depleted their funds. States continue to see high percentages of unemployed workers with Michigan showing a rate of 15.2 % followed by Rhode Island at 12.4 % and Oregon at 12.2 %. Until we see these rates begin to decrease, states will have to rely on federal loans to ensure benefit checks get issued which of course comes with a price. The government issued a stimulus package that will allow the states to pay back their loan interest free until 2011. After this time, the government will issue a rate of 5% which will be taken from state budgets. When this happens, taxpayers once again will be the ones to take the hit for paying back these funds. We continue to follow this pattern of one step forward and two steps back.