JOB-RELATED
NEWS updated May 3, 2013
- Unemployment
data--April 2013 graph:
unempl>
6mos. CBPP
4/13
- Analysis
- "While the total jobs number was somewhat better
than the consensus prediction, the composition was disturbing.
More than a fifth of the added jobs (34,600) were in employment
services. Restaurant employment accounted for 38,000 jobs
and the retail sector added 29,300. These three sectors
accounted for more than half of April job growth. Health
care added 19,000 jobs, a bit less than its 25,000 average
over the last year.....The job losers were led by the government
sector, with the federal government shedding 8,000 jobs,
3,500 of which were in the Postal Service. State and local
governments lost 3,000 jobs, bringing their job loss over
the last year to 224,000. Construction shed 6,000 jobs,
all in the non-residential sector. This reflects less public
building as reported in the March construction data. Manufacturing
employment was flat in April for the second consecutive
month. There is clearly little momentum in this sector right
now.....One issue worth emphasizing from this and past reports
is that there is zero evidence that the prolonged period
of high unemployment is due to a lack of skills of the workforce.
This is known because there are no major areas of the economy
in which we see the standard signs of a shortage of skilled
workers: rising wages, increasing hours, and large numbers
of vacancies. However at an even more basic level, the rise
in unemployment rates has been roughly proportionate across
education levels." Baker,
CEPR, 5/3/13
"This
is a classic “hold-steady” report—there were
enough jobs to keep the unemployment rate stable, but not much
more. In good times this would be fine, but at a time of persistent
economic weakness, it represents an ongoing disaster. We need
8.7 million jobs to get back to a healthy labor market. The
average growth rate so far in 2013 is 196,000 jobs a month;
at that rate, it will take more than five years to return to
the prerecession unemployment rate..... It is worth noting that
sustained high unemployment among young college graduates underscores
that today’s unemployment crisis does not stem from workers
lacking adequate education or skills. Rather, a lack of demand
for goods and services makes it unnecessary for employers to
significantly ramp up hiring..... the majority of this country’s
more than 4 million missing workers are “prime-age”
workers (age 25–54), particularly prime-age men."
See
graphs Shierholz
EPI
5/3/13
"Unemployment remains stubbornly high and many people
who would likely have a job in a stronger economy are not
even looking for work. Consequently, the share of the population
with a job remains well below what it was over the two decades
before the recession started in December 2007.... lawmakers
allowed the payroll tax cut to expire at the end of the year
(while extending some of the high-income tax cuts that have
much lower job-creating, bang-for-the-buck impacts) because
they are focused too much on deficit reduction and not enough
on job creation, and because many lawmakers insisted on preserving
as much of the high-income tax cuts as possible. They have
let sequestration’s automatic spending cuts take effect
rather than crafting a balanced alternative that would achieve
the same deficit reduction over the longer term without hampering
the economic recovery (and ideally providing additional short-term
infrastructure investment or other stimulus)." Stone,
CBPP 5/3/13
"The report beat expectations, but the unemployment rate barely changed at 7.5%, labor force participation is actually down slightly, remaining stubbornly low at 63.3%, and more workers who need full-time work are employed part time. The labor force participation rate and high rate of involuntary part-time workers shows once again that the economy is not able to create adequate jobs for our growing population, to truly recover from the Lesser Depression, or to provide workers with the income they need to meet their basic needs. The rise in involuntary part-time employment helped bump the broader measure of unemployment that includes those workers as well as discouraged workers (“U-6”) up to 13.9%. What job growth we did see in April is welcome, but troublingly concentrated in low-wage sectors or unstable temporary work. 19% of the new jobs were in temporary help services and 18% were in retail, the sector that includes the same employers that workers struck in Chicago because they can’t survive on the low wages." CPEG 5/7/13
"The labor force participation rate, that is the ratio between the labor force as measured by the BLS and the potential labor force (NIP) remained unchanged from March both adjusted and unadjusted. Seasonally unadjusted, it was 63.3%. This is the lowest participation rate since May 1979, that is 34 years ago." Hugh, Naked Capitalism, 5/3/13
See also "Should the United States Have 2.2 Million
More Jobs?", Greenstone
& Looney, Brookings, 5/3/13
- State,
Met. Area Employment and Unemployment Data,
BLS, monthly
- Interactive
map: Unemployment rates by state, BLS;
also
WSJ
- Interactive
map: Job loss by state. EPI
- Geography
of Recession chronological map of unemployment rates by county
- Going
Nowhere: Workers Wages since the Mid-1970s, TCF,
1/13
- Are
We Winning the War on Poverty? Landy,
TCF 9/12
- No
Relief in 2012 from High Unemployment for African Americans
and LatinosEPT, 2/12
- Who
Has Benefitted from the Post-Great Recession Recovery? Sum
&McLaughlin 7/11
- Global
Employment Trends 2013, ILO 1/13
- Jobs Missing in the Great
Recession. 12/11
- Downturn
Continues to Lower Union Membership, Zipperer, CEPR 1/11
- Long
Road Ahead, Krugman blog, 1/11
- How
Government spent your income taxes, National Priorities
Project
- Unemployment Insurance
Extension May Be Short-Lived, Bloom, WDL10/10
- International
Unemployment Rates and Employment Indexes 2008-2009, BLS
- The
Stagnating Labor Market Jayadev & Konczal, Roosevelt
Institute 9/10
- The
Good, the Bad and the ERGly, Stecker, NJPP 9/10
- How
America Can Create Jobs, Andy Grove, Intel, BW 7/10
- SF Labor Council demands
U.S. enforcement of treaties & laws ensuring Full Employment,
Right to a Job & Union Rights, 3/10
- Jobs
Crisis Fact Sheet, A.Turner, 3/10
- How
a New Jobless Era Will Transform America, D.Peck,, Atlantic,
3/10
- Many
highly profitable companies cut jobs in 2009, Orr, EPI 12/09
- "Generation
Recession," Ratner, the Nation, 11/09
- The
safety net and the recession, Mishel, EPI, 10/09
- The
Great Recession of 2007-2009: PostWW II Record Impacts on
Rising Unemployment and Underutilization Problems, Sum &
al, 7/09
- Work-Sharing
May Help Companies Avoid Layoffs, Greenhouse,
NYT 6/09
- Work
Sharing--an Alternative to Layoffs for Tough Times, Ridley,
CLASP 3/09
- Welfare
Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off, NYT,
2/09
- Where
Homes Are Cheaper Than Cars: Bankruptcy Weighs Heavily on Real
Estate, Timiraos, WSJ 6/05
- Why
labor law doesn't work for workers, Bacon [EFCA],
3/09
- Variations
in Government Aid Across the Nation, NYT, 5/09
- Illegal
Firings During Union Election Campaigns, CEPR 3/09
- Interactive
map: Unemployment rates by state
- Conference
Board Employment Trends Index
- Median
income rose as did poverty in 2007 2000s have been
extremely weak for living standards of most households, Bernstein,
EPI 8/08
- The
medicare myth that refuses to die, Lorinc,
Globe and Mail, 8/08
- Dr.
Wall Street: How the American Health Care System
Got So Sick, Brecher, 7/08
- Equality
in Job Loss: Women Are Increasingly Vulnerable
to Layoffs During
Recessions, US Congress, JEC , 7/08
- Job
Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State
Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments, Pollin
& Wicks-Lim
- Woe
is the American Worker, Waldman, Am. Prospect,
12/07
- What
We’re In For: Projected Economic Impact of
the Next Recession, Schmitt & Baker, 1/08
- The
Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Job Quality in the
United States over the Three Most Recent Business Cycles, Schmitt,
CEPR, 11/07
- Typical
families see income and earnings decline, Irons,
EPI, 9/07
- Bridging
the Gaps:A Picture of How Work Supports Work
in Ten States, 10/07
- No-Benefit
Jobs Leave Parents Struggling, H. Boushey, Sojourners,
S/O 07
- The
2007 Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work
- CEO
pay: 364 times more than workers, 8/07
- Neither
Free Nor Fair:The Subversion of Democracy Under NLRB Elections,7/07
- Americans'
ambivalence about the economy, Mishel et al, 6/07
- Unemployment
depresses immune function, Psychosom.
Med. 9/07
- Making
the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage , R. Pollin,
6/07
- A
Tale of Two Time Periods for Low-Income Families,
Bernstein, 6/07
- The
Gender Pay Gap is the Smallest on Record—Not Necessarily
Good News 9/06
- Jobs
for All: The Key to Rebuilding after Katrina, Kochan,
CAP
- Data--employment,
earnings, family income, hours, prices, unionization
- The
Bush Tax Cuts, 3/07
- 99
Percent... are Net Losers Under Bush Tax and Spending Policies
6/06
- The
Middle Class on the Precipice, by Elizabeth Warren,
Harvard Mag.,J/F 06
- What's
wrong with the economy? Mishel & Eisenbrey,
12/05
- Without
defense-related spending private sector would still be in a
jobs hole
8/05
- Finding
the better fit: Receiving unemployment insurance increases likelihood
of re-employment with health insurance,
Heather Boushey
- Ownership
Society--Social Security Is Only the BeginningWray,
Levy Inst.
- Operating
Instructions [employer power]
- U.S.
workers enjoy far fewer vacation days than Europeans,
EPI, 8/05
- Injuries
to All [workplace injuries]
- Undermining
the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representation
Campaigns
- Whatever
Happened to Private Pensions? C. R. Morris, TCF,
2/06
- Whoops!
There Goes Another Pension Plan M.W. Walsh, NY
Times , 9/18/05
- Riding
into the Sunset [retirement],
Wm Greider, Nation, 6/05
- Productivity
growth and profits far outpace compensation in current expansion,
EPI. April 21, 2005
- "As
Goes Wal-Mart," Beth Shulman 5/05
- Corporate
America Pulling Back Pension Safety Net, LA Times,
5/15//05
- Government
Budget Calculator, CEPR
- The Permanent
War Economy: Real Security or False Promise? Resource
written by ministers for church bulletins. Feedback welcomed.
- The
Late, Great Income Tax Max B. Sawicky, 4/15/ 2005
- International comparisons: Beyond the U.S.
model, EPI; Book
chapter
- The
Rise in Job Displacement, 1991-2004, Crisis in Manufacturing,
CEPR, 8/04
- Middle-Class
Tightrope, Jacob Hacker, August 2004
- Miltary Spending
and Jobs: A Quiz
- The
Job Market--Down and Out in White-Collar America,
Fortune, June, 2003
- Special Report 4:
The Permanent War Economy: Real Security or False Promise?
by C. Bell, S. D. Collins, H. L. Ginsburg, and M. Malloy
- Job
Deficits Deepen as Budget Deficits Explode, by
Gregory DeFreitas
- Poison pill:
Why the new reform bill will make Medicare's problems bigger--and
even harder to fix, J. S. Hacker & T. R. Marmor,
Boston Globe, December 7, 2003
- The
Savings from an Efficient Medicare Drug Plan, D.
Baker, 1/06
- "Jobs
for All": Another Dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. by Mathew Forstater
- Innocent
Fraud, by John Kenneth Galbraith
- Better
than Money:
Alternatives to GDP,
Nordic
New Network
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