Why can’t the long-term unemployed—6 million of whom will lose their unemployment insurance benefits if Congress does not act before the end of year—find jobs?  “Because the jobs aren’t there—not because they are not looking or are unwilling to accept pay cuts or relocate,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), told a Senate hearing on long-term joblessness this afternoon.

Testifying before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Owens urged lawmakers to act now.

Congress needs to help create good-paying jobs and reauthorize the unemployment insurance programs slated to expire at the end of the year. Otherwise, millions of workers and their families will continue to fall behind.

Job creation is not keeping up with the demand for work and during the past six months, job growth has just kept pace with population growth, But Owens said:

That is not enough to create the nearly 11 million jobs we need to get back to pre-recession levels. There are still more than four unemployed workers for every job opening.

Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said today’s jobless face new discriminatory barriers to finding work in a broken economy. Figures show older workers are out of work longer as employers pass them over in favor of younger applicants. Some employers won’t consider out-of-work applicants for job openings. Some even run credit checks, leaving long-term jobless workers who have likely fallen far behind in their bills and seen their credit scores tank on the streets.

Donna Stebbins, 58, from Phoenix, Ariz., lost her job in April of 2008 and has yet to find work. In the last year and half alone, she’s applied for more than 200 jobs.

The interviews I have been on—a couple dozen—have been “group” interviews. That’s right, “group” interviews. Gone is the day when you could sit one-on-one with a potential employer and tout your strengths, your work experience and what an asset you would be for their company. Today, it’s me, a 58-year-old woman, surrounded by 20 and 30-year-olds applying for the same job.  Interviewers directed their attention to younger applicants. Seldom was I asked a question. I have yet to get a phone call from anyone.

Click here for video of the entire hearing and written testimony all the witnesses.

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