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Nov 08, 2009 (Daily Camera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Two more measures to try an boost up the ailing economy on Friday: The government continued to prop up the housing market, and extended a longer lifeline to those out of work.

The so-called "jobless recovery" is starting to sound like a sick joke.

First: The bill. The popular home-buyers tax credit will continue. It offers a credit of up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers and up to $6,500 for those who have lived in their homes for more than 5 years. Home buyers need to close before July 1.

Another measure in the bill extends unemployment benefits for almost 2 million people out of work nearly a year or more as the country continues to lose jobs. The most-welcome measure extends benefits for 14 weeks for all those who have exhausted their federal aid or will do so by Dec. 31.

But if few more $300,000 homes sell thanks to a few grand in tax credits, just as car sales enjoyed a short-term bump, it's unlikely to cheer the swelling ranks of those without a job. They aren't looking for new homes; just as they weren't looking to upgrade their clunker cars.

They are, for the most part, pounding the pavement for months and months looking for jobs that don't exist.

The unemployment rate hit 10.2 in October, surpassing 10 percent for the first time since 1983. It is expected to rise higher.

More remarkably, it's the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.

But two things have emerged during the recession that Congress would do well to address: Age bias and retaliation by companies.

Since last June, it's become easier to fire workers who are older, and to make adverse employment decisions -- such as unpaid furloughs or layoffs -- against older workers, who are particularly vulnerable because they generally have higher salaries than younger workers, and it is harder for them to find jobs. Nationally, age bias complaints are up 36 percent from 2005 to 2008. A recent Supreme Court decision basically put the entire burden on workers to prove age bias, rather than supporting the notion that employers would need to show that there was some other reason for the adverse action.

In addition, employer retaliation claims are on the rise, up 23 percent to almost 33,300 in 2008 from 2007. In one such case, a woman was fired after she complained women didn't have equal access to company bathrooms.

Tax credits for cars and houses may excite some consumers, and they certainly motivate businesses involved with the building or selling of cars and houses.

Talking about the nuance of age discrimination and worker retaliation certainly isn't as exciting -- it won't make headlines, major employers will grimace -- but it must be done for the recession's end to be an actual recovery for the American workforce.

-- Erika Stutzman, for

the Camera editorial board

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