Repairing safety net badly shredded by the Great Recession | Commentary | NewJerseyNewsroom.com -- Your State. Your News.

The Great Recession has cost the nation more than 7 million jobs since the downturn began in late 2007. Unemployment reached 9.8% last month and will go to double digits this year. Worse, the rate of underemployment is nearly 18%: underemployment includes those working less than 35 hours a week because they cannot find full-time jobs and those who have given up looking for work.

Long-term unemployment, people jobless for more than six months, has reached five million. Things have not been this bad since the 1930s...