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Long-Term Unemployment

Currently, nearly half a million North Carolinans and 43,000 Charlotteans are jobless. Recently we found out that the state’s unemployment rate for April was 8.9 percent, the first time since 2009 that it has dropped below nine percent. That’s the good news. But on July 1, House Bill 4 will cut North Carolina’s unemployment benefits making it the only state in the U.S. to lose the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program. This program is 100 percent funded and currently provides benefits to over 70,000 out of work North Carolinians who have exhausted their state benefits. There are local organizations assisting with workforce development and providing resources to the unemployed, but will they be able to help everyone who is about to lose their benefits? A conversation about the long-term unemployed, when Charlotte Talks.

Guests
Steve Partridge
 - CEO, Charlotte Works
Kelly Cochran - Career Coach, CPCC with REACH IT program
Nancy Johnson - Long-term unemployed constituent
Senator Kay Hagan - U.S. Senator for North Carolina, she has introduced The America Works Act and a bipartisan bill to entice U.S. corporations to bring home off-shore profits

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