Job Market Monitor
Michel Cournoyer
Saving for Retirement in US – Who’s not ?
Earlier this week, Encore asked the rhetorical question: “Do you have to be a bleeding heart to believe that it’s hard to save money when you aren’t making money?” The occasion was the publication of the annual Retirement Confidence Survey, which yielded the palm-smack-to-the-forehead statistic that 36% of Americans had saved $1,000 or less for … Continue reading
Greece – The end of public sector 103 years job security enshrined in the Greek Constitution
Last summer, job cuts were scheduled at vocational and technical schools across Greece and staff were asked to reapply for their old jobs, or another position. As of Monday, March 23, around 400 of the total 1,845 teachers who didn’t apply for other positions, and who have not been offered other posts, will be fired. Thus ending the … Continue reading
The 2007–2009 recession in US / Full-time employment of workers ages 19 to 33 were between 16 and 26 percentage points less finds the BLS
The recession of 2007–2009 resulted in the loss of millions of jobs, although not all sectors of the economy were affected equally. Much has been written about the employment effects of the recession, with many reports focusing on the change in overall or specific sector employment over the course of the recession. However, many of … Continue reading
Work Programme in UK – A shocking fall in the number of people gaining work writes The Void
The latest Work Programme statistics (PDF) show a shocking fall in the number of people gaining work and suggest that being sent on the scheme is now actively harming people’s chance of getting a job. The figures show that even after spending a year on the Work Programme, only 10.7% of people had gained a … Continue reading
US – Employment recovery has been historically slow writes Atlanta Fed in its Annual Report
The nation’s labor market has recovered far more slowly after the Great Recession than it did following every other economic downturn since World War II. To be sure, employment growth was promising in 2013, and the unemployment rate declined. Other measures of the labor market remained subdued, however. The compensation to workers—including benefits and adjusted … Continue reading
Long-Term Unemployed in US – Only 11 percent have returned to steady, full-time employment a year later
In “Are the Long-Term Unemployed on the Margins of the Labor Market?” Alan B. Krueger, Judd Cramer, and David Cho of Princeton University find that even after finding another job, reemployment does not fully reset the clock for the long-term unemployed, who are frequently jobless again soon after they gain reemployment: only 11 percent … Continue reading
Volvo – To cut 450 jobs in Sweden
Truck maker Volvo’s construction equipment unit plans to cut 450 jobs in Sweden due to lagging profitability and an unfavourable product mix, its European head of production said on Thursday. Jorgen Svenningsson said the company hoped to be able to solve the issue on a voluntary basis and that none of the employees had been … Continue reading
Middle-Aged Women – Research finds ‘substantial benefits’ of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) on short-term employment
The increase in labor force participation, and consequently, the increase in employment of women is one of the most striking trends in the twentieth century. Although this trend is likely due to the complex interaction of many factors, available research in economics recognizes, among other causes, the important role of medical innovation in shaping labor … Continue reading
Millennials in US – Detached from institutions, networked with friends Pew finds
The Millennial generation is forging a distinctive path into adulthood. Now ranging in age from 18 to 331, they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future. They are also America’s most racially diverse generation. In … Continue reading
Flexible working in UK – New rules are due later this year
The extensions to current legislation on flexible working are due later this year, giving more employees with service of six months or more rights to request flexible working. The new legislation will require employers to consider requests for greater flexibility in terms of hours, times and location, from a greater proportion of their workforce, which … Continue reading
Baby Boomers and Participation in US – The aging effect accounts for more than 40 percent of the decline
The United States is in the process of a dramatic demographic change – the rapid aging of the popula- tion – and that change has implications for the labor force participation and unemployment figures that we see every month. Since older people have lower labor force participation than the young, as more of the population … Continue reading
Low-Wage Workers and Poverty in US – Harder to Escape
Climbing above the poverty line has become more daunting in recent years, as the composition of the nation’s low-wage work force has been transformed by the Great Recession, shifting demographics and other factors. More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers … Continue reading
Canada – Job vacancies rate at its lowest level since the data are published
Canadian businesses reported 200,000 job vacancies in December, down 21,000 compared with 12 months earlier. There were 6.3 unemployed people for every job vacancy, up from 5.7 in December 2012. The increase in the unemployment-to-job vacancies ratio was the result of fewer job vacancies, as the number of unemployed people was little changed. Unemployment-to-job vacancies ratio increases in Alberta and Saskatchewan In Alberta, there were 2.3 unemployed people … Continue reading
Growth in inequality for decades is likely
What if inequality were to continue growing years or decades into the future? Say the richest 1 percent of the population amassed a quarter of the nation’s income, up from about a fifth today. What about half? To believe Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, this future is not just possible. It is … Continue reading
US – What would explain the slowdown in growth ?
What would explain the slowdown in growth, if the culprit isn’t some version of unused capacity? It’s not as if the entire U.S. woke up one morning in 2008 and decided, “I’m going to be less productive today and every day going forward.”… Investments to expand capacity don’t happen when the capacity that already exists … Continue reading
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