After three weeks of unexpected jumps in the number of new weekly unemployment claims, this week’s new claims dropped from 478,000 to 434,000. Unfortunately, that still increased the four-week average to 436,750. That rate needs to drop below 400,000 to make any real progress on reducing the unemployment rate.
The White House is touting it as “recovery summer”: The economy is adding jobs, the unemployment rate is falling, housing is stabilizing and the $787 billion stimulus is working. But it certainly doesn’t feel that way to America’s young workers, who suffer the worst rates of joblessness of any More…
This week, Senate Democrats will attempt to push through a jobs bill that has stalled in the chamber for seven weeks. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed for cloture on Monday afternoon, leaving just days before a vote on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, or House Resolution More…
For 23 years, 58-year-old Cindy Paoletti of Salina, N.Y., worked in the corporate accounting division of J.P. Morgan Chase, balancing payroll accounts in an upstate office of the Wall Street bank. In December 2007, Paoletti was let go in a wave of layoffs that eventually shuttered the entire Syracuse operations More…
Speaking with ABC News’ Sam Donaldson yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described the recovery as “moderate-paced” and demurred on the issue of whether there might be a double-dip, saying, “There seems to be a good bit of momentum in consumer spending and investment, so my More…
The economy added 431,000 jobs last month, dropping the national unemployment rate from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent, the Department of Labor Statistics announced this morning.
But Republicans, who a month ago were saying that they’d recognize progress when the jobless rate fell, aren’t impressed. Indeed, Republican House More…
Related to the warnings from some economists that the official unemployment rate will likely jump again this year, a Labor Department official today conveyed this message to lawmakers: Don’t worry about it.
Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee, Keith Hall, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told More…
Some perspective on the Labor Department’s latest unemployment figures, from the National Employment Law Project:
With January’s unemployment figures, the average duration of unemployment has hit another record high of 30.2 weeks, with a historic 41.2% of the unemployed remaining out of work for six months or longer.
From The Washington Post:
The economy lost more jobs than expected in December while the unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent, as a sluggish economic recovery has yet to revive hiring among the nation’s employers.
The Labor Department said Friday that employers cut 85,000 jobs last
President Obama is speaking this morning at the Brookings Institution to outline his strategy for tackling the employment crisis. Before he spoke a word, Republican leaders were already attacking the news that the administration is eyeing TARP funds to pay the tab for the new stimulus bill.
“This More…
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