president obama making good on a promise during his states of the union address on tuesday yesterday went to a g.e. factory in wisconsin and called to business to offer more job training, today he is going to be focusing on the issue of unemployment. once again turning to big business for help. mike viqueira is in washington and we are waiting on the president to speak in just a few moments, but while we wait and as you realize, i could cut you off as we always do,. >> reporter: i am always prepared for that. >> what does he want ceos to do. >> he wants.

>> reporter: many have sign odd to the latest program, following on from a pledge an initiative the president put forward just last tuesday night in the state of the union, he wants them to treat the long-term unemployed differently than they were now when they look for a job. our studies suggest and anecdotal evidence as well suggest that those that have been out of a job a year, six months or echeloninger, face discrimination, sort of a stigma, where employers and human resources departments look at the fact that there is a big gap in the time line there between their last nobody and the current time. and they sort of discriminate. in a very subtle way they throw out those or screen those resumes and those folks don't get a fair chance, so what the president has pr proposed here,e has ceos lined up, many will be here, wal-mart is here, visa is here, bank of america is here as well, they are going to

revamp their hiring practices to try to eliminate that de facto, very subtle discrimination in the hiring market. >> mike, what is really fascinating about this is when the economy melted down in 2000, people couldn't find jobs, went to work for themselves and we want to the job market again, they have asked the question why have you been out of work for so long? >> that's right. there are a couple of problems facing the long-term unemployed. we all know the story of what happened at the end of last year with congress, republicans in the house didn't want to take up an extension of long-term unemployment benefits that, immediately put some 1.3 million people who fell in to that category, in other words, they had been unemployed longer than six months, of course the state admin veries unemployment for six months, what happens during times of economic difficulty, such as the last five years that we have been through, is that the federal government will step in and pick up the tab to extend those unemployment benefits and

that requires an act of congress and congress has not acted. so it started at 1.3 million on the first of the year, it's now up to 1.6 million long-term unemployed going without benefits. the president in a way here, not so subtle way senior here is tro put pressure congress to have events like that to move forward on that and some other of the other items he's been talking about, raising minimum wage so he will be appearing with the ceos that have signed onto try to do something about bringing the long-term unemployed back in to the market. >> mike, stands by, we are patricia our business and economics reporter concerning what is really a sticky wicket because a lot of things changed when the industry melted down, and realize there are a lot of qualified people looking for work. >> there are a tremendous amount oqualified people out there looking for work.

let's talk about who the long-term unemployed are. the bureau of labor statistics define them as people out of work for 27 weeks or more, but very, very key here, they are still actively looking for work. now, right now in america, let me just run some of the numbers for you, but as i do, keep in mind that these are people, these are lives, these are people with families to support, with hopes and dreams. 3.9 million people in the united states right now count as long-term unemployed, out of work for more than half a year. now, in december, that accounted for 37.7% of all the unemployed in america. and this is really going to drive home and put this in to perspective for you. before the great recession, the share of jobless who were long-term unemployed at its peak was in 1983, it was 26%. okay? so let's take a look at that, in december it's 371st. 37%, 8526%, this says so much about how acute the problem still is in the united states for the long term

unemployed. because back in 1983, the average amount of time that the people were out of work was about 21 weeks, today it's double that. so this is a very, very deep and pressing problem. >> i am always fascinated, though, about the number of people who simply give up. how do you give up looking for work if you are a father, if you have a family to feed, are they just falling through the cracks and taking odd jobs, doing anything that they can or do they truly just quit? >> a lot of people are becoming discouraged and dropping out of the labor force, that's a disturbing trend as we see the unemployment rate go down, we should celebrate and it should be fantastic. but when you look in to the numbers it's not going down for the right reasons, the right reason is because there is more jobs, one of the big drivers of the drop in unemployment is the fact that more people are getting discouraged and dropping out of the labor force. also i want to take a look at how this breaks down by state. okay, because right now in 2013, last year, in about 28 states plus washington, d.c., a third, one-third of jobless were

counted as long-term unemployment. that's a lot of people. >> you know, and as i remind the audience that we are waiting on the president to come to the east room in just a second where he is going to be talking about the issue of the unemployed, in fact, i believe the president is making his way to the podium rate now. so we are going to go to the white house. this is washington and this is the man who will introduce the president of the united states. [applause] thank you. >> good morning. >> have a seat, evening. >> my name is eric barela, and it is a great honor for me to be here at the white house today with the president and vice president. he iespecially since three yearo i was unemployed and homeless. i am very happy to report that my story has a happy ending. but for a long time my path forward was very unclear. i spent six years in the united states army where i probably served my -- proudly served my country as a combat infantry man in the 80 secondary born

division. the work was hard, the hours were long and the duty was dangerous, i was shot at and i watched my comrades die. after my honorable discharge from the military in 2008, i returned home to manteca, california, to begin a new life with my wife and my daughter. but was quickly met head on by the realization that there was no work for a skilled heavy equipment operator, and that i was struggling to make the transition in to a new career. i could not find work anywhere in the construction industry or work in fast food restaurants and retail stores. with no luck, i was motivated to work and i wanted to work and i knew i could contribute to society like i had in my military service. but i felt help little, lost, and more importantly, a disappointment and a failure to my family. i was fortunate to find online a new program started by pacific

gas and electronic company in california called the power pathway program that offer job training and skills to people who had no experience in the utility industry. i quickly applied and was accepted in to a 16-week program in san francisco and i am happy to share that i graduated the pg & e power pathway program in 2009 and was hired by pg & e in 2010 where i currently work as an apprentice election in eureka, california. i would like to thank them for giving me this opportunity. the work provided me, restored purpose in my life and gave me a sense of direction once again and i am glad they are ex-opinionedding the power pathway program to address long-term unemployment and for signing onto the president's initiative. let me end my remarks by thanking president obama for bringing companies together to help find work for thousands of americans who only want the

opportunity to succeed. and now it is my honor to introduce the president of the united states, barack obama. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you, everybody. everybody, please have a seat. well, first of all, let me just thank eric for being here, for sharing his story, for his service to our country. i hope that listening to eric here, everybody recognizes what a great success story this is, but also the notion that somebody with this kind of skill and talent was having difficul

difficulty finding a job it indicates the challenge that we face. and i want to thank all of you, business leaders and philanthropists, elected officials, owe levels and members of my cabinet and administration, not only for coming, but for committing to more success stories for people like eric. making sure that everybody in this country who wants to work has a chance to get ahead and not just get a pay check but also the dignity and the structure that a job provides people. on tuesday i delivered my state of the union address and i said that while the economy is getting stronger and businesses like yours have created more than 8 million new jobs over the past four years, our unemployment rate is lower than it's been in over five years, we all know we have still got a lot more to do to built an economy where everybody, who is willing to work hard and take

responsibility, can get ahead. we've got to do more to restore opportunity for every american. and the opportunity agenda i laid out begins with doing everything that we can to create new jobs here in america. jobs in construction, and manufacturing, jobs in american innovation, and american energy. there are steps we can take to streamline our tax code, to incentivize companies to invest here. there are things that we can do to make sure that we are continucontinuing to lead the wn innovation and basic research. we have a whole lot of infrastructure that we can build that could put people to work right away. we've got a couple of trillion dollars worth of deferred maintenance in america. and the ramifications of us taking that on would be significant. so we've got to grow faster and put more shoulders behind the wheel of expanding economic

growth. step two is making sure that every american has the skills to fill those jobs. step three, we've got to guarantee every child access to a world class education. from early childhood to college to a career. and -- [applause] >> and step four, we have to make sure that hard work pays off with wages that you can live on, stayings that you can retire on, health insures that's there for you when you need it. today we are here to focus the second point, connecting ready to work americans to be jobs that need to be filled. so that folks out of work can apply the skills that they've already got. getting people back on the job faster is one of our top prior at this ors, i have to confess last month congress made it higher by letting unemployment insurance expire for more than a million people.

each week congress fails to retore that insurance, roughly 72,000 americans will join those ranks. for our fellow americans who have been laid off through no fault of their own yo, unemployt insurance is the only source to have to support their families while they look for a new job. when eric was out of work, it's a lot harder to look for work if you can't put gas in the gas tank. if you are worried about whether there is food on the table for your kid. if mom isn't making the rent and paying her phone bill, it's a lot harder for her to follow-up with a potential employer. unemployment insurance provides that extra bit of security so that losing your livelihood doesn't mean that you lose everything that you worked so hard to build. that's true whether you have been out of work for one month or six months, but folks

unemployed for the long he have often have the toughest time getting back to work. it's a cruel catch 22. the lodger you are unemployed. the more unemployable you may seem. now this is able il illusion, bt it's one that unfortunately we know statistically is happening out there. according to one study if you have been out of work eight months, you are likely to get called back for an interview only about half as often as if you had been out of work one month, even with the identical resume. so we are here tonight to say that's not right. because we know there are folks like eric all across this country who have enormous skills, enormous talents, enormous capacity, but they need a chance. i invited mr. duh mars to me speech on tuesday night, a mother of two young boys, she had been steadily employed since she was a teenager, put herself

cluthrough college, never colled unemployment benefits, extraordinarily em privileges woman. when she lost her job to budget cuts she couldn't find another. she turned to unemployment insurance to make sure she and her husband could keep the new home they just spent their life savings buy. as i said on tuesday, she wrote to me saying i am confident i will filed a job, i will pay my taxes, i will raise our kids in the home we purchased in the community that we love. please give us this chance. and i thought that spoke for so many americans out there, just give us this chance. they are our neighbors, our friends, young, old, black, white, men, well, ph.ds and geds. the interesting thing, by the way, is statistically, the long-term unemployed are oftentimes slightly better educated, some cases better

qualified, than folks who just lost their job. the just because you have been out of work for a while does not mean that you are not a hard worker, just means that you had bad luck or you were in the wrong industry or lived in a regis of the country catching up a little slower than others in the recovery. and i have heard from too many of these folks who show up early, they will out work anybody, they fill out 100 applications, 200 applications, they are sending out resume, still finding time to volunteer in their community or helping out at church. sometimes they have more experience, education and skill than newly unemployed americans. they just need that chance. somebody will look past that stretch of unemployment, puts it in the context of the fact that we went through the worst financial and economic crisis in our lifetimes, which created a group of folks who were unemployed longer than normal.

they just need employers to realize it doesn't reflect at all on their abilities or their value. it just means that they have been dealing with the aftermath of this really tough job market. and all they need is a fair shot. with that shot, an out of work young person can get the critical experience he needs to improve his employment prospects for the rest of his life. with that shot someone with decades of experience could get back in the game and so a younger worker the ropes. we can give them that shot. and that's what today is all about. and we really don't have an alternative, because giving up on the unemployed will create a drag on our economy that we cannot com tolerate. giving up on any american is something that america cannot do. and eric i think made an important point during his early remarks, often times folks, no matter how skilled you are, how confident you are, you get

discouraged. and that affects people's physical health, it affects their mental health, and overtime, you can have a negative feedback where it becomes harder and harder for folks to get back in the game. because they are just getting so many discouraging messages. and that can have long-term impact. particularly if it's early on in a young person's career. so while congress decides whether or not it's going to extend unemployment insurance for these americans, we are going to go ahead and act. we know what works. and we are going to go ahead and see what we can do without additional legislation to make some serious dents in the long-term unemployment problem. we know what works for employers and employees alike, i spoke on tuesday about the red of the detroit manufacturing system, she was with us at the state of the union sitting with the first

lady. when she was stabbing up her new factory have you worked with the local american job center, federally funded to hire people who were out of jobs but ready to work. on average they had been unemployed for 18 months. today she says they are some of her best employees. greg is here today, greg has been working in sales for 30 years. when he lost his job in december 2011 for the first time in his life he found himself struggle to go capitalize on decades of work experience. after months of sending out resumes, pounding the payment, greg's unemployment insurance ran out. and he began like eric described to start feeling hopeless and start feeling useless, and last year he got hooked up with an organization called skills for chicagolands future, which actually got its start thanks in part to the great work of penny, our secretary of commerce as well as my former chief of staff rahm emanuel, and so this

intermediary trains folks like greg with the skills they need to get placed right away in one of the local companies. and just two weeks after enrolling, greg was back on the job, helping people get signed up for the health insurance they need and greg said, scf made me feel relevant again, like i have something to offer. so today, more than 80 of the nation's largest businesses, over 200 small and medium sized businesses are announcing their commitment to a set of best practices like greg and misty and eric can access. and feel as if they can have a partner in getting back on the job and making the contributions that we know that they can make. and so i want to thank all of the companies who have made this commitment. with the support --

[applause] >> with the support of andrew and ursula burns, chairing the business council and randle stevenson at the business round table as well as the society for human resource management, we have engaged employers of all sizes, all around the country, including many who are here today, to commit to a set of inclusive hiring policies, for making sure that recruiting and screening practices don't disadvantage folks who have been out of work to establishing an open door policy that actively encourages all qualified applicants. and, of course, it's only right that the federal government lead by example. so today i am directing every federal agency to make sure that we are evaluating candidates on the level, without regard to their employed history. because every job applicants deserves a fair shot. and i just had a chance to meet

with some of the ceos who are making these commitments, some of them are already participating with what's going on in chicago. they had some great ideas about what they know works. for example, one of the things that we are going to have to examine is the impact of credit histories on the long-term unemployed. if you have been out of work for 18 months, you may have missed some bills. that can't be at a barrier then for you getting to work so that you can pay your bills. but unfortunately, we are setting up some in some cases perverse incentives and barriers, but in some cases, what i heard from the ceos, it was just a matter of lets pay attention to this. let's see if we are doing everything that we can to look at every candidate on the meri merits. and i was really grateful to all of them for stepping up in thi e

lead an across the board reform of all of our training programs working with secretary of labor tom perez, secretary of congress penny to make sure that our job training programs have a single mission. train americans with the skills employeers need. and then match them to the good jobs that need to be filled right now. that's what we have to prioritize. [applause] and today i am announcing that the department of labor will put forward $150 million in a ready to work partnership competition to support more partners that we know work, innovative collaborations between local governments, major employers, nonprofits all designedded to help workers get the skills they need and build bridges to the jobs that require it. so even though our economy is getting stronger, it's not going to be enough until those gains translate in to better opportunities for ordinary folks

like eric. who have the skills, the desire just need a chance. we are going to keep on knocking down barriers to reemployment so more than americans can regain the security that a good job brings their families. and by the way, so that they have more money to spend on local businesses. which will lift the entire economy up and create a virtuous cycle instead i've negative one. we are going to keep encouraging employers to welcome all applicants, you never know who will have the great next idea to grow your business, we are going to keep building new ladders of the opportunity for every american to climb in to the middle class. it's good for our economy but also good for our people. we are stronger as i said on tuesday when america fields a full team. so i just want to thank all of the businesses here for your commitments, all of the nonprofits here no the work that you are already doing on the grounds.

we are going to scale this up. we are going to make this happen. most of all i want to thank eric and some of the other folks who have experienced success because i told eric before we came out here when folks see him doing well, that gives them hope. and it reminds us that we can't afford to let such incredible talent be wasting away. we gotta get those folks back in the game. and that's what i am committed to doing and i know joe is as well. so thank you very much. i am now going to sign our new federal commitment. i appreciate you and after this i thank you guys -- i think you guys still have some more work to do. all right. you have been listening to president obama talk about how he wants to level the playing field for the unemployed having a difficult time finding jobs simply because many have been out of work for so long. the president saying that he has now met with 80 large business owners saying that what can you do? and they basically say that they can fix that simply by telling

their hiring people to take a second look at resumes that may have been over looked in the first place, mike viqueira in washington. mike, many of the things the president talking about as he signs that piece of legislation see to be common sense measures. >> reporter: right. and you have hit the spot. we'll go through the bullet points quick here, the president encouraging some 300 of these companies large and small across america to take a second look at the long-term unemployed, remove that stigma that is apparently there when they had had hr departments and hiring managers look at resumes see people out of work for a long team and don't give them a second look. one, insuring that advertising does not discourage or discriminate against the long-term unpeople i had. review screening procedures in yes route, reviewing current recruiting practices to make sure that they are casting a broad net. of course all of these companies sign onto this. it's sort of a no brainer, it's an easy thing for them to do the president also announcing $150 million initiative, job skills training initiative to go

through the department of labor. but del, you have to point out even as the president goes for some of the smaller initiative that his he can do with his pen and his phone as he would have it, it leaves open the question of how much of an impact they will have on the economy at large. now the administration is very encouraged as are many outside economists on how the economy is turning around, but still that black cloud within the silver lining unemployment, and the president trying to do something about that in a small way today. >> mike viqueira at the white house, thank you very much. i also have seated beside me our own patricia, we will talk to her in a second, because we are going to expand on on some of the things that the president talked b you should have seen her eyes when the president was talking about the issue the credit scores, also a reminds everything ali srel she will s t the plight of the unemployment. we are going to take i break, we'll be right back in just two minutes.

. >> welcome to aljazeera america. i'm del walters, and these are the stories we're following for you. >> we all know we have a lot to do. >> president obama outlined his plan for the unemployed, asking big companies for help. retaliations against the police in ukraine. and now a war of words between a quarterback and a defensive back.