Job Market Monitor
United States
US vs OECD / Minimum Wage Is Relatively Low
President Barack Obama proposed last night that the United States raise the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour. While that may seem like a massive raise for low earners — the current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour — we learned that when accounting for the impact of inflation this would be far from the … Continue reading
US / It is a Long-Term Unemployment Crisis
The rate of short-term unemployment—six months or less—is almost back to normal. In January it was 4.9 percent of the labor force. That’s only 0.7 percentage point above its 2001-07 average. But the rate of long-term unemployment, 3 percent in January, is precisely triple its 2001-07 average, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek calculation based on Bureau of Labor … Continue reading
US / There is no evidence that job losses were larger in states where businesses more worried about government regulation and taxes
What explains the sharp decline in U.S. employment from 2007 to 2009? Why has employment remained stubbornly low? Survey data from the National Federation of Independent Businesses show that the decline in state-level employment is strongly correlated with the increase in the percentage of businesses complaining about lack of demand. While business concerns about government … Continue reading
Fed / Aggressive easing needed says Yellen in an address to AFL-CIO
The Federal Reserve’s aggressive easing of monetary policy is warranted given the still-battered state of the U.S. labor market, Fed Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen said on Monday. In an address to the politically influential AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor group, Yellen, a potential successor to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke next year, bemoaned the unusually weak … Continue reading
New York City Suburb / The Highest Concentration of High-Income Households
The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., metropolitan area, near New York City, had the highest percentage of households with high income in the nation at 17.9 percent, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. At the other end of the spectrum are two metro areas named Danville — in Virginia and Illinois — each … Continue reading
Jobless Americans in their 50s and 60s apply their talent and experience on toughest problems
The plight of jobless Americans in their 50s and 60s is well documented, and it deserves attention. But there’s a different, more optimistic story unfolding. A small army of baby boomers is hitting midlife eager to apply their talent and experience to solving some of our country’s — and the world’s — toughest problems, from … Continue reading
US / The moment of truth for the job market too
There’s a growing meme that the market and the economy are about to have a date with destiny. The thinking is this: Markets have surged all year like there’s not a care in the world. On the other hand, the economy has already been buffeted by one major headwind (the end of the payroll tax … Continue reading
US Jobs Recovery / Middle-aged women doing particularly poorly
SINCE the job market in the United States hit bottom more than three years ago, men have benefited from the recovery far more than woman have, with middle-aged women doing particularly poorly. From December 2009 through last month, the economy added 5.3 million jobs, according to the Labor Department’s monthly survey of households. Only 30 … Continue reading
US / The number of Americans with marathon commutes is on the rise
The number of Americans with marathon commutes is on the rise, particularly following a debilitating recession that has pummeled employment and the housing sector, a recent report on the nation’s “super commuting” trend finds. “What’s really driving this is the economy,” says Mitchell Moss, director of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation and co-author … Continue reading
US / Born children of immigrants are substantially better off than immigrants themselves
Second-generation Americans—the 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants—are substantially better off than immigrants themselves on key measures of socioeconomic attainment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. They have higher incomes; more are college graduates and homeowners; and fewer live in poverty. In all of these measures, their … Continue reading
US / Academic Library / Hiring
If you do the math, academic librarianship is a growing field. Therese Triumph, Reference Librarian at Rutgers University, and Penny Beile, Associate Director of Information Services at University of Central Florida, did just that, analyzing positions advertised in 2011 on the ALA JobList, ARL Job Announcements, and in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Triumph and … Continue reading
US / The Middle Class Retirement Crisis
Retirement security for those currently or recently in the middle class is no sure thing. 49% of the private work force has neither defined benefit (traditional pensions) or defined contribution (401(k)) retirement plans, while public sector pensions are coming under increasing attack. The United States has the highest elder poverty rate, 25% (measured as 50% … Continue reading
US Skills Gap / What if these assumptions are all wrong?
It is conventional wisdom that the United States is suffering from a severe skills shortage, for which low-performing public schools and inadequate teachers must shoulder part of the blame (see here and here, for example). Employers complain that they cannot fill open slots because there are no Americans skilled enough to fill them, while pundits … Continue reading
US / Unemployment Benefits / Down Only Slightly
Job Market Monitor: Two out of three employment-related reports were positive and only 28,000 persons were saying they have a job in the latest monthly labor market report . Latest claims data reflect those weaknesses for three weeks in a row. There are down only slightly, reflecting a very moderate growth in hiring. The Report SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In … Continue reading
US / Nearly one-quarter (23%) of workers laid off during and 4 years after the Great Recession study finds
“Nearly one-quarter (23%) of all survey respondents report being laid off from either a full-time or part-time job during and after the recession (over the past four years)” write Mark Szeltner Carl Van Horn, Ph.D. Cliff Zukin, Ph.D. of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development in Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America … Continue reading
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