Some Firms Struggle to Hire Despite High Unemployment With about 15 million Americans looking for work, some employers are swamped with job applicants, but many employers can’t hire enough workers. The U.S. jobs market has changed. During the recession, millions of middle-skill, middle-wage jobs disappeared. Now with the recovery, these people can’t find the skilled jobs that they seek and have a hard time adjusting to lower-skilled work with less pay.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2010 If the government extends the period over which it pays unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, how will the cost of being unemployed change?