Originally Posted by kane

That might be an oversimplification of the situation. I don't doubt that there are some people on unemployment who are just lazy/undesirable, but I think some are just holding out for a better job.

If you had a job making $20 per hour and now you were on unemployment and getting the equivalent of $11-$12 per hour you may not take a job paying $9 per hour. Instead you might ride out the unemployment and try to find something that pays more.