3 The Opportunity Ahead: A Call to Action for American Skills and Jobs As these efforts continue, it remains of vital importance to provide support to the long-term th unemployed as they continue their job search. As the President noted on July 10 in a speech in Austin, the long-term unemployed, like the woman who introduced him, “have paid taxes all their lives and never depended on anything and just needed a little help to get over a hump.” According to DOL, since the expiration of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program at the end of 2013, 1.3 million people were immediately cut off benefits, and another 1.6 million people exhausted their regular unemployment insurance without the ability to transition onto emergency benefits. Another 1.48 million people are expected to exhaust unemployment benefits before the end of the year. Emergency unemployment insurance provides a crucial financial bridge for those actively seeking employment, while connecting the long-term unemployed to the labor market. Update on Workforce Partnerships Serving the Long-Term Unemployed Platform 2 Employment Platform 2 Employment provides workshops and personal counseling while placing participants in subsidized work experiences in fields for which they are qualified. Since the long-term unemployment event at the White House, Platform 2 Employment has expanded to two additional cities—San Francisco and Tampa. Platform 2 Employment has also benefited from a Job-Driven National Emergency Grant awarded in June to Nevada, where they will be opening sites in Reno and Las Vegas. They have also been asked to partner with several cities to expand as a part of Ready to Work Partnership grant proposals. P2E has broadened its partnerships, now working with vocational rehabilitation agencies to expand the number of persons with disabilities in their employment and training programs. San Francisco Jewish Vocational Service ( SF JVS) San Francisco Jewish Vocational Services provides reemployment and training to many long-term unemployed, and they attended the White House Summit on Long-Term Unemployment. Since the summit they have seen their placements of the long-term unemployed increase by 13 percent. They believe this was due to increased awareness among businesses of the challenges facing the long-term unemployed thanks to the President’s highlighting of the issue. San Francisco JVS applied for DOL’s Ready to Work grants, and this provided an impetus to do a deep-dive into the long-term unemployment problem, including surveys of individuals and employers, to develop program models that will better suit their needs. Skills for Chicagoland’s Future Skills for Chicagoland’s Future works with employers through a demand-driven model to help place the unemployed into their companies and coordinates among non-profits to find unemployed workers looking for jobs. When the White House held the long-term unemployment event on January 31st, Skills for Chicagoland’s Future had hired over 600 people since launching in 2012 and over 70 percent of them were long-term unemployed. Since the summit, SFC has been able to 370 more hires due to a higher level of interest from employer partners including new partners like Aetna (see box above.). SCF is on track to place 670 jobseekers in jobs in 2014, up from the 540 placed in 2013. 62