Job Market Monitor
United States
US / The Unemployment Rate by Birthplace, 1994 to 2012
Since 1994, the unemployment rate for foreign-born workers has generally increased when the unemployment rate for native-born workers has increased and decreased when the rate for native-born workers has decreased. However, the unemployment rate for foreign-born workers has fluctuated more widely than the rate for native-born workers, and workers born in Mexico or Central America … Continue reading
US / Youth Unemployment Will Cost $18 Billion Over The Next Decade
America has a youth unemployment problem, and it’s not just the kids who are suffering. The nation is poised to lose $18 billion in wages over the next decade due to high youth unemployment, according to a Bloomberg Brief from Bloomberg Senior Economist Joseph Brusuelas. Brusuelas estimated that about 1.3 million 16- to 24-year-olds have … Continue reading
US / Suburban poverty soars
Poverty is growing faster in the suburbs than anywhere else in the United States, soaring 64% over the past decade. That was more than twice the growth rate of the urban poor population, according to the Brookings Institution, which has released Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. There are now almost 16.4 million suburban residents living … Continue reading
Rising inequality jeopardizes economic recovery says Federal Reserve’s Sarah Bloom Raskin
A top ranking member of the United States Federal Reserve cautioned economists this week that growing inequality within the US was worsening the odds of a quick return to the conditions of the pre-recession days. Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin was in Washington, DC on Thursday, and during an address before the … Continue reading
UI in US / Expanding the definition of misconduct
Traditionally, unemployment benefits can go to any laid-off employee not guilty of “misconduct.” By law, simple failure to meet production quotas, for example, cannot be deemed misconduct unless it represents a “willful and wanton” refusal. In the past two years, however, four states have rewritten their laws to vastly expand the definition of misconduct. In … Continue reading
The 70s / Did we need a terrible recession? asks Krugman
What we did have was a wage-price spiral: workers demanding large wage increases (those were the days when workers actually could make demands) because they expected lots of inflation, firms raising prices because of rising costs, all exacerbated by big oil shocks. It was mainly a case of self-fulfilling expectations, and the problem was to … Continue reading
US / Student Financial Aid / Neediest students to pay more than their families’ yearly earnings
“With their relentless pursuit of prestige and revenue, the nation’s public and private four-year colleges and universities are in danger of shutting down what has long been a pathway to the middle class for low-income and working-class students” writes Stephen Burd in Undermining Pell - How Colleges Compete for Wealthy Students and Leave the Low-Income Behind … Continue reading
US / Jobless claims jump at the fastest pace in six months
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits climbed last week at the fastest pace in six months, a worrisome sign for the economy which has been hit by government austerity. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 360,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was … Continue reading
US / Student Debt has generated nearly $120 billion to the Education Department over the last five fiscal years
The Obama administration is forecast to turn a record $51 billion profit this year from student loan borrowers, a sum greater than the earnings of the nation’s most profitable companies and roughly equal to the combined net income of the four largest U.S. banks by assets. Figures made public Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office … Continue reading
US / Industrial production drops 0.5% in April
Industrial production slumped 0.5% in April, dragged lower by a big drop in utilities output but also by a drop in manufacturing, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a drop of 0.3%. In addition, March’s growth was downwardly revised to 0.3% from 0.4%, and February’s growth was downwardly revised to 0.9% … Continue reading
