Catherwood LibraryILR School

With much of America out of work as corporate scandals continue to batter the stock market, and talk of a jobless recovery instilling little faith in job markets, many workers who never finished high school and have now lost the manufacturing and service jobs they had relied on are ending up on federal disability pay. Far from an indicator of laziness or attempts to exploit the system, the jump in recipients of disability pay over the past eighteen months is actually an indicator of just how much the average American worker will suffer in order to avoid relying on welfare. Most of the recent increase in disability pay applications has come from workers who, while they could find steady employment worked through injuries and conditions that meet the requirements for disability pay, and are seeking benefits only now that the jobs they had relied on have disappeared.