Looking for work, US jobless prod Congress for action

WASHINGTON: Four miles from Capitol Hill, Michael Tate was looking for a job – any job – as he cringed at the prospects of losing unemployment benefits and appealed to lawmakers who left him and others in the lurch.

"I've got rent to pay, and it will be a crisis if I don't find a job. I don't want to go back out to the street," a sombre Tate told AFP as he emerged from an unemployment centre in Washington where every computer screen was taken by a job-seeker.