SENATE BILL REPORT

SSB 5393

BYSenate Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by  Senators Tanner, Warnke, Lee, Smitherman, Williams, Talmadge, Wojahn, Rasmussen and Moore; by request of Joint Select Committee on Unemployment Insurance and Compensation)

Making older unemployed workers and the long-term unemployed the highest priority for services available from the job service program of the employment security department.

Senate Committee on Commerce & Labor

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 2, 1987; February 20, 1987

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5393 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators Warnke, Chairman; Smitherman, Vice Chairman; Tanner, Vognild, Williams, Wojahn.

Senate Staff:Mark McDermott (786-7429)

                  April 18, 1987

AS PASSED SENATE, MARCH 11, 1987

BACKGROUND:

Research for the Joint Select Committee on Unemployment Insurance and Compensation indicates that older workers, ages 50 and over, and the long-term unemployed experience great difficulty in finding new jobs at wages comparable to their pre- layoff earnings.  Two years after a layoff, older workers earned less than 65 percent of their pre-layoff earnings compared to 91 percent for workers ages 25 to 49.  The long-term unemployed earned less than 70 percent of their pre-layoff earnings two years later compared to 93 percent for workers who drew benefits for 6-15 weeks.

Older workers and the long-term unemployed have much higher rates of failure to find subsequent unemployment insurance covered employment relative to other demographic groups.  Over 12 percent of older workers and 14 percent of the long-term unemployed had no subsequent unemployment insurance covered employment after a layoff.

SUMMARY:

Older workers, ages 50 and over, and the long-term unemployed shall be given the highest priority for services provided by the claimant placement project.

Long term unemployed means demographic groups of unemployment insurance claimants identified by Employment Security Department research which have the highest percentage of claimants who have drawn at least 15 weeks of benefits or have the highest percentage of persons who have exhausted benefits.

Each year the Employment Security Department shall produce an annual report which analyzes the re-employment experiences of the unemployed.  The report shall include:  (1) demographic groups with the greatest difficulty in finding employment with earnings comparable to their last job; (2) demographic groups with the highest rate of failure to find subsequent unemployment insurance covered work; (3) demographic, industry and employment characteristics of those persons most likely to exhaust unemployment compensation benefits; and (4) an analysis of locked out workers who draw unemployment compensation benefit under RCW 50.20.090.

The Employment Security Department shall continue to fund the combined wage and benefit history data base at a level necessary to produce the annual report on the unemployed.

Fiscal Note:      available

Senate Committee - Testified: Graeme Sakrisen, Employment Security

HOUSE AMENDMENT:

The Employment Security Department is required to submit an annual report to the Legislature and the Governor which identifies and analyzes the following:  (1) seasonal, cyclical and structural unemployment; (2) plant closures; (3) dislocated workers; (4) the re-employment experiences of unemployment insurance claimants; (5) industry and occupational employment projections; and (6) wage rates by industry and occupation.

The Department is required to produce the report only if the necessary funding is appropriated by the Legislature.