Local Expert Urges Those Losing Unemployment Benefits To Look Beyond

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A wave of extra trouble is about to swamp tens of thousands of the long-term jobless: an end to unemployment benefits.

Extended federal unemployment benefits will expire for nearly 18,000 Philadelphians in December, according to US Department of Labor and Industry estimates.  That's more than 50 percent more than the total whose benefits expired in the first eight months of this year.

Early 2011 doesn't look so hot either, says Eric Nelson (above), interim CEO of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board.  His advice for job-seekers:

"We really encourage them to have a broad perspective about employment opportunities.  Most of the jobs that they've worked at in the past probably don't exist anymore, so we're going to encourage them to look at a whole new world of employment and look at what skills they have, transferred to other opportunities."

Or, though the Workforce Investment Board, connect to new skills for the new reality.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060.