Unemployment insurance abuse

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister blamed the problems of the unemployment insurance program on the beer-swilling slobs etc. who abused the system.

More recently, the focus has switched to employers. They are abusing the program, it has been suggested, by laying off workers during slack periods, knowing they can be re-hired later. An example cited is the auto industry, which routinely lays off workers during model changeover, enabling them to collect UI until recall.

To what extent are the problems of the unemployment insurance system problems of abuse? And what exactly are we talking about by "abuse?"

There are some practices that everyone would agree constitute "abuse". Collecting unemployment insurance while making a full-time living from the underground economy--washing windows or whatever--is obviously abuse. This is a common practice, it is said, and one that is almost impossible to...