More than 9,000 Wisconsin residents have not received any unemployment benefits for several weeks because of a backlog at the state Department of Workforce Development. The department’s backlog consists of 9,357 claims dating to late July. It could take as long as March to clear it up because each claim has to be reviewed and … Continue reading
The Federal Reserve has reiterated that the US economy is only growing slowly, and that the country’s unemployment rate “remains elevated”. Yet it added that the housing market had “shown some further signs of improvement”. The comments came as the US central bank kept interest rates on hold at between zero and 0.25%, as had … Continue reading
After last week announcement of an increase of 34,000, DOL says that Unemployment Inssurrance Claims dropped by 23,000. The real job market coudn’t be that volatile. But it shows how incertain is the job market outlook. -*- SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending October 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 369,000, a … Continue reading
Unemployment is arguably the most important, but least well measured, factor in China’s economy. Low unemployment and rising wages signal economic health, making it less likely that the government will rush to pump up growth. The reverse – mass layoffs and stagnant income – have China’s decision makers lunging for the stimulus button. The official … Continue reading
Job creation, smooth transition from school to work, open access to an inclusive labour market and EU solidarity in terms of funding are some of the main challenges EU and member states policy makers are faced with when it comes to successfully tackling youth unemployment. These were the key challenges outlined by head of the … Continue reading
A STAGGERING 24,000 Scots families are living in extreme poverty, a report claims. A combination of factors including no qualifications, overcrowding, ill health and unemployment contribute to the grim statistic. Think tank Demos found Glasgow is the worst affected with more than one in 10 families (11 per cent) facing severe disadvantage – almost three … Continue reading
“After reaching record highs month after month, the typical length of time a jobless worker in the United States has been unemployed finally fell in April’ 2011, to “only” 38.3 weeks. But the outlook is looking bleaker for the nation’s older workers.” wrote Catherine Rampell in Older Workers Without Jobs Face Longest Time Out of … Continue reading
Some people — notably Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney — have argued that to get the “real” unemployment rate, we should add back all the people who have left the labor force and consider them unemployed. Doing that gives an unemployment rate of around 11%, depending on what month you choose for a baseline. But … Continue reading
“The empirical literature on the relationship between job mobility and earnings dynamics emphasize two distinctly different patterns. On the one hand are findings that job mobility yields increases in earnings for workers” write Bruce Fallick, John Haltiwanger, and Erika McEntarfer in Job-to-Job Flows and the Consequences of Job Separations (Choosen excerpts by JMM to follow) This view emphasizes that, … Continue reading
So, in principle, yesterday’s rise in Scottish unemployment should be explained by differential movements between Scotland and the UK in one or more of the following: GDP, productivity, and labour supply. Specifically, weaker GDP growth, faster productivity growth, and a faster growth in the supply of labour should, severally, or collectively, account for the relative … Continue reading
An Interview with ILO Economist Sara Elder
“In this economic climate, with such high rates of graduate unemployment, should school leavers give far greater consideration to vocational qualifications?” asks Jane Scott Paul in Are vocational qualifications a better option than university? on guardian.co.uk. “Sadly though, youth unemployment is hardly limited to unqualified school leavers: it now extends to many of Britain’s brightest … Continue reading
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending October 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 388,000, an increase of 46,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 342,000. The 4-week moving average was 365,500, an increase of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 364,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent … Continue reading
TeliaSonera AB (TLSN) yesterday became the latest in a string of Swedish companies to announce mass job cuts, prompting economists and unions to question the government’s forecast that unemployment will fall next year. TeliaSonera, Sweden’s biggest phone company, said it will eliminate 2,000 jobs as growth stalls, declining to say how many cuts will be … Continue reading
When workers get laid off, they typically pay a large economic price. This is true even for those lucky enough to find a new job, because most tend to earn wages substantially lower than what they earned previously. The figure below, from The State of Working America, 12th Edition, shows the average weekly earnings loss of … Continue reading