Rossen Ganev left his home country of Bulgaria in 1999 with his wife and two daughters to escape economic depression. Now, he is met with a similar economic crisis 5,000 miles away in Butler.

Bulgaria was in a chaotic state in 1999, 10 years after the fall of communism there and eight years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

“In Bulgaria,” Ganev said, “there was very high unemployment, very high inflation. We didn’t have jobs.”

He and his wife, Daniels Ganev, put their names into a lottery and were selected to receive a green card and come to America. The family earned citizenship in 2005.

Several years and four jobs later, Rossen is unemployed.

“The economy is getting even more terrible,” he said. “They need to do something about it, or it will turn into Bulgaria.”

He worked in construction upon arrival in America, and later became a material handler at a Zelienople company. He was soon laid off.

He then worked at the Creekside Mushrooms. He woke up early in the morning to spend long days harvesting mushrooms. In 2009, the company shut down, and hundreds of employees were laid off. He took a job at Pittsburgh Plastics Manufacturing earlier this year but was recently laid off again.

The American dream of the Ganevs was simple: Find work to support a family in a country that can give more opportunities to their children.

“We had more opportunity here when we moved,” Daniels said.

But now, the family depends on his small unemployment checks.

Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in May, down from 7.5 percent in April, according to the state’s department of labor and industry. Figures for June have yet to be reported. May’s rate was down 1.3 percentage points from May 2010.

Nationally, the numbers were even worse.

Unemployment rose slightly, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate in May was 9.1 percent, up from 9.0 percent in April.

Across the country, about 13.9 million residents were out of work in May. Of those, 6.2 million workers are considered long-term unemployed, having been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. There are also more than 800,000 discouraged workers who may have given up looking for jobs.

A bill was recently proposed to make a compromise on unemployment benefits. This bill would cap the largest benefit at $573 per week and prevent 45,000 Pennsylvanians from losing their checks altogether. The cap would adjust for inflation by 1 to 1.5 percent each year.

Rossen agrees with this proposal, saying that he has feared losing his unemployment benefits. Their weekly checks are below the state average.

“Even if it’s a little bit now, it still helps,” Daniels said.

However, Rossen expressed concerns about the yearly adjustment.

“The country had hyperinflation, and we don’t know how much the inflation will be in one year or two years,” he said.

Daniels works as a pharmacy technician at the Butler Health System. Their younger daughter, Mihaela Stefanova, now 21, is attending classes at Butler County Community College studying hospitality management. Their older daughter, Slavena Stefanova, 23, graduated from La Roche College in May and is working as an accountant.

“I’m trying to find a job,” Rossen said, “But for me, because I don’t speak the language, I wasn’t born here, I don’t have the education, it’s hard for me to find a job.”

The family would like to open a restaurant, but banks are unwilling to approve a loan while Rossen is unemployed.

“We have the plans. We have the property,” Daniels said. “We don’t have the money. The banks aren’t taking the risk to lend us money.”