California Unemployed to be Cut Off

"Cut in benefits to have big impact on Calif. jobless" Associated Press May 07, 2012

MERCED, Calif. - Unemployed workers in rural California are bracing for next Saturday: the day the state’s chronically unemployed will be cut off from the nation’s jobless benefits.

A drop in California’s unemployment rate to 11 percent - its lowest mark in three years - is triggering the federal cutoff of emergency long-term unemployment pay to at least 93,000 Californians.

But in the state’s agricultural heartland, where Brenda Callahan-Johnson runs the Merced County Community Action Agency, a jobless rate of more than 20 percent - two and a half times the nationwide average of 8.2 percent - makes it difficult for some to believe an economic recovery has begun.... 

It only occurred at the top. Corporations are reporting record profits.

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