By FRANK STRICKER In the poverty report for 2021, released on September 13, there was some good news. The official poverty rate stood at 11.6% of the population. That was essentially the same as the rate (11.5%) in 2020. Amazingly, it was just a little higher than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. So poverty… Read More The Poverty Numbers in 2021: Is There A Better Way to Count Poverty?
By FRANK STRICKER So where the heck are we on the job front? The Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employment in August included contradictory information. Payroll job totals of government and non-farm business employers showed an increase of 315,000 jobs. Yet in the household survey unemployment increased by two tenths of a percentage point… Read More The Confusing Job Situation in August 2022
By FRANK STRICKER In July, the official Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. It has not been that low since the first months of 2020 before the pandemic began. But unemployment rates were still quite high for African Americans (6%), teens (11.5%), and especially for black teens (20.3%). 1. Why Aren’t Even… Read More Recession Yet? The Jobs Report for July, 2022
By FRANK STRICKER The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job and unemployment report for the month of June is pretty positive. The official unemployment rate, derived from a sample of households, stayed low: 3.6% for the fourth month in a row. The rates for Asian-Americans and Hispanics were also quite low at 3.3% and 4.3%. But… Read More June Jobs: Pretty Good, But Wait…
By FRANK STRICKER The Employment Situation for February included pretty good numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that job totals were up significantly–678,000 for non-farm businesses and government organizations. The official unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percent to 3.8%. These numbers suggest that January’s fairly good… Read More How Good Was the February 2022 Jobs Report?
