After almost one full term of Obama’s policies, the unemployment rate is still above 8% according to figures released on June 6, 2012. The number of unemployed women ages 16 and over in the civilian work force increased by 780,000 from January 2009. The economy created only 80,000 jobs in June while 85,000 workers exited … Continue reading
A police force cutting 620 jobs and shutting some of its stations ‘frittered away’ almost £500,000 on consultants paid to consider its ‘culture’ and ‘customer journey’. West Midlands Police’s decision to splash out so much money despite chopping £126 million off its budget has been branded ‘astonishing’ by one Birmingham MP. Labour’s Steve McCabe, who … Continue reading
The United Steelworkers (USW) today expressed great disappointment at Gamesa’s announcement to temporarily lay off 165 workers at its nacelle and rotor blade plants in Fairless Hills and Ebensburg, Pa. The announcement comes as U.S.-based wind manufacturers are facing the expiration of a critical tax credit, the Production Tax Credit (PTC), on December 31. “The … Continue reading
The stats are daunting. The unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months, yet as cited above, that number only reflects those people participating in the labor force. The labor force participation rate was 63.8 percent last month, one of the lowest percentages on record. If not for that convenient anomaly, unemployment would be … Continue reading
The lackluster jobs report brought a swift and coordinated response from Capitol Hill, with Republicans blaming the poor showing on President Obama’s policies, while Democrats countered that the GOP was wasting time on ideological measures that have little chance at improving the economic outlook. “Today’s report shows the private sector clearly isn’t ‘doing fine’ and … Continue reading
‘Three years after our worst recession since the Great Depression officially ended, the U.S. economy is still very weak’ writes Mark Weisbrot. The people most hurt by this weakness are the unemployed and the poor, and of course the two problems are related. We have about 23 million people who are unemployed, involuntarily working part-time, or have … Continue reading
Madam President, the American people are angry. They are angry because they are living through the worst recession since the great depression. Unemployment is not 8.2%, real unemployment is closer to 15%. Young people who are graduating high school and graduating college, they’re going out into the world, they want to become independent, they want … Continue reading
This is a huge reason for the stubborn unemployment! President Obama doesn’t have the benefit of adding public workers to the payroll, like Reagan did. Lets start right at the top, the Federal level. Under Reagan, federal government employment increased by 100,000 from the middle of the 1982 recession until the 1984. via GOP Reality … Continue reading
Antonio Fazio, the disgraced former governor of the Bank of Italy, warned half-jokingly in 1998 that the euro would not be paradise but a “purgatory” that would demand years of pain and sacrifice. Currently appealing a conviction for improperly trying to influence a bank takeover in 2005, Fazio is not much listened to these days, … Continue reading
Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both … Continue reading
The federal government is basing labour market policy on the belief that, as Jason Kenney pithily puts it in today’s Globe, there are “large and growing labour shortages.” Hence moves to bring in even more temporary foreign workers at lower than average wages, and to push EI claimants into supposedly available jobs. Not that the … Continue reading
The European Central Bank has stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalized, the ECB said on Wednesday, confirming news earlier reported exclusively by Reuters. The news sent the euro lower against the dollar, fanning concerns among investors and in Greece that the country may have to leave the … Continue reading
In August 2005, Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, predicted the financial crisis. And he did it at possibly the least friendly of venues: a conference of high-powered economists who had convened in part to honor Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Rajan presented a paper titled “Has Financial … Continue reading
Vice Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Gi-gwon and Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen held a bilateral meeting between the two Ministries in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 23rd. At the meeting, they signed a Letter of Arrangement between both countries concerning the provision of policy advice on the … Continue reading
From the anti-austerity firebrands of Greece’s imminent elections to the corruption crusaders in Prague, from the Pirates of Berlin to the populists who scored well in France’s presidential election, a new wave of anti-establishment parties are on the rise across Europe, posing a threat to the political elite. Their causes vary – some are from … Continue reading