We're definitely seeing a trend of fewer individuals filing for unemployment benefits and fewer people having to be on the benefits for the full 26 weeks.

That's not surprising considering I would think many of the people here have already tried the temporary-job route and they're wanting something more permanent with benefits.

Hopefully, this system will eliminate the need for some people to keep a large amount of cash on themselves. We hope it will encourage some people to open checking accounts so they can broaden their financial options, as well as their having to pay check-cashing fees.

I think the debit cards will be well received. But we'll be doing a lot to educate recipients about the new system before it goes into effect. We've tried to encourage direct deposit ever since it became available (in 2003), but it has been slow to catch on.

Overall, we're definitely going in the correct direction, and we're better able to absorb a moderate-sized layoff than a year ago in terms of jobs. But we still have a ways to go for creating enough jobs, in particular for the unskilled worker.

We won't cut unemployment by only employing people in the public sector.