The ranks of unemployed back office workers at banks--these folks are definitely not the fat cats--is growing. And many will be pleased to know that they apparently qualify for government assistance via the U.S. Labor Department's Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which was originally aimed at workers displaced because their jobs were offshored.

Reuters reports that over the past two years, laid off workers from Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Hartford Financial Services Group, Wells Fargo and State Street  have been approved for benefits under the program. It makes a significant difference in some cases.

"Thanks to a 2009 change to the TAA program, back-office workers in the financial services industry can get retraining and extend their unemployment insurance beyond the maximum amount of 99 weeks to about 130 weeks, in some cases."

As word gets out that financial services workers can qualify, we may see more applications. Hopefully, banks will not use this as an excuse to lay off more people. These benefits are only temporary of course and only postpone some obvious retrenchment. As the holiday season gets underway, it's clear that the industry--which once seemed so vibrant--is still inflicting lots of pain at the rank-and-file level.

For a lot of back office workers, the pay has never been good. But the work was steady. It may be a long time before we see lots of job growth so many will likely be forced out of the industry. They have little in terms of stock and options to live off of.

For more:
- here's the article

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