The July Jobs Report: Not Enough Good News

By FRANK STRICKER The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report, published Aug. 6, was on the whole positive. But Blacks and people with disabilities continue to be hit by persistently high unemployment, and true unemployment remains higher than the official government statistics indicate. In July, 943,000 nonfarm jobs were added, and the June… Read More The July Jobs Report: Not Enough Good News

The May 2021 Jobs Report: Inequities and Employment Barriers Persist Amidst Lower Unemployment    

By FRANK STRICKER The good news: the unemployment rate fell from 6.1 percent to 5.8 percent and the number of added payroll jobs doubled from 266,000 in April to 559,000 in May. But the latter was, again, less than the average prediction. Also, at this rate job totals won’t return to pre-pandemic normal until late… Read More The May 2021 Jobs Report: Inequities and Employment Barriers Persist Amidst Lower Unemployment    

The WPA’s Federal Theatre: Creating Jobs and Creative Achievement

Hallie Flanagan, Director of the FTP Flanagan on CBS Radio for the Federal Theatre of the Air, 1936. Courtesy, Wikipedia Commons.   By TRUDY GOLDBERG and SHEILA COLLINS A brief but spectacular achievement, the New Deal’s Federal Theatre Project (FTP) (1936-1939) provided jobs for some 13,000 destitute people at its height and created and produced 63,600… Read More The WPA’s Federal Theatre: Creating Jobs and Creative Achievement

Environmental Group Joins the Fight for a Federal Jobs Guarantee

Sunrise Movement calls for a Green New Deal in Chicago, February 2019. By GREGORY N. HEIRES An environmental activist group has included the federal jobs guarantee as a key component of its national campaign to address the climate crisis. The Sunrise Movement’s campaign for a Green New Deal includes a call for investing $10 trillion… Read More Environmental Group Joins the Fight for a Federal Jobs Guarantee