John Dearie discusses U.S. unemployment programs and the Financial Services Forum's ideas to revise them. CLICK HERE or on the photo above for video.

A white paper report to be issued this week by a group of U.S. and European financial company CEOs will support revamping the U.S.’s programs for supporting workers who lose their jobs because of trade.

John Dearie, senior vice president for policy and research at the Financial Services Forum in Washington, told GlobalAtlanta that the major U.S. programs to help employees who lose their jobs are outdated and should be replaced.

“The forum is advocating an overhaul of unemployment programs, adding more ideas to make it more flexible, more responsive to the 21st-century American worker,” he said.

The two major programs for the unemployed are unemployment insurance and trade adjustment insurance, which Mr. Dearie said do not provide enough options.

Unemployment insurance, instituted during the Great Depression in the 1930s, is a joint state and federal program that taxes businesses to pay former employees until they get their jobs back or find new ones.

Trade adjustment insurance is designed to support workers who lose jobs specifically to international competition.  This measure began in the 1960s and requires an employee to prove their job was lost because of trade.

Mr. Dearie said the forum advocates updating unemployement benefits as a way of moving people who have lost jobs back into the workforce.

“If you know anything about the global economy, you know that’s insufficient,” he said.  “Firms go away, entire industries go away.  We really need a program that will help people shift into other aspects of the global economy.”

The forum members, including 17 CEOs of U.S.-based financial services companies and four European executives, envision a diverse system of federal and state programs to support people while unemployed.

“We need a much broader array—an à la carte menu of policy programs that a worker, when he or she loses their job or are in transition, can pick and choose from,” Mr. Dearie said.

He made the remarks during a filmed interview at Emory University’s globalization conference July 11.

Fears of U.S. job losses have been a sticking point in getting free trade agreements passed by Congress.

State Department official Charles Shapiro said during a visit to Atlanta July 14 that opponents of free trade deals with Colombia and Peru are insisting on more unemployment programs before passing the agreements.

Mr. Dearie said that many in the U.S. blame trade for job losses unfairly.  He cited the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics as saying that imports account for 3 percent of total job losses annually.  Advances in technology and market shifts also contribute to losses.

He added that the forum sees a consensus in the U.S. and around the world that free trade and open markets are good as coming to an end.  Americans are questioning the overall benefits of free trade policies in the face the problems it creates, including job losses and industry moving overseas.

Forum members include executives from American International Group Inc., or AIG, Allstate Corp., Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wachovia Corp.