The American middle class is in trouble. The middle-class share of national income has fallen, middle-class wages are stagnant, and the middle class in the United States is no longer the world’s wealthiest. But income is only one side of the story. The cost of being in the middle class—and of maintaining a middle-class standard … Continue reading
This paper describes the creation of a database providing estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints for 6 million US households over the period 2008-2012. The database allows analysis of footprints for 52 types of consumption (e.g. electricity, gasoline, apparel, beef, air travel, etc.) within and across geographic regions as small as individual census tracts. Potential research … Continue reading
In the week ending October 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 283,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 264,000 to 266,000. The 4-week moving average was 281,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised average. … Continue reading
Wells Fargo did as much as it could to soft-pedal the findings of its fifth-annual Middle Class Retirement Survey, released Wednesday, but the horrific numbers speak for themselves.A formidable challenge? No kidding. More than a third of middle-class families aren’t saving anything in a 401(k), IRA or other vehicle, the survey found. For those 50 … Continue reading
The National Communication Association (NCA) performs an annual analysis of college and university searches to fill academic positions in Communication. We collect job postings from three different outlets: the NCA Career Center, CRTNET, and Spectra. CRTNET is a disciplinary listserv where employers may post position announcements. Spectra is the NCA magazine. If a job was … Continue reading
About three in 10 Americans say now is a good time to find a quality job, essentially unchanged from September. The percentage of U.S. adults who say it is a good time to find a job remains at one of the highest levels measured since the 2008 financial crisis. Although the 31% of Americans with … Continue reading
During the 2008-2009 recession, U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) benefits were extended to unprecedented levels, with UI duration increasing from 26 weeks—the regular duration—to as much as 99 weeks in some states, prompting a lively debate in policy and academic circles about the adverse effects of such extensions on the search behavior of job seekers and … Continue reading
This issue brief examines the use of public assistance programs by low-wage workers and assesses how raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 over three years—as proposed by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2014, a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.)—could affect utilization rates, benefit amounts, and government … Continue reading
Mike Roth, the vice president of North America operations, Amazon.com, said, “So far this year, we have converted more than 10,000 seasonal employees in the US into regular, full-time roles and we’re looking forward to converting thousands more across our growing network of fulfillment and sortation centers after this holiday season.” “We’re excited to be … Continue reading
Federal Reserve policy makers are missing a key element as they assess the health of the labor market: data that includes whether those who are employed are overqualified for their job or would like to work more hours. As a result, the “significant underutilization of labor resources” that Fed officials highlighted last month as they … Continue reading
Midterm elections often end up serving as a referendum on the president’s performance. Given this, I’ve been surprised not to hear Democrats more aggressively trumpeting the improving economy. After all, the unemployment rate has fallen by two percentage points since the last election, and at 5.9 percentage points it is far lower than many had … Continue reading
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 248,000 in September, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care. Household Survey Data In September, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.9 percent. The number … Continue reading
In 2013, 45.3 million people were counted as poor in the United States under the official poverty measure—a number statistically unchanged from the 46.5 million people estimated as poor in 2012. The poverty rate, or percent of the population considered poor under the official definition, was reported at 14.5% in 2013, a statistically significant drop … Continue reading
American employees put in longer workweeks than Europeans. They are also more likely to work at undesirable times, such as nights and weekends. This column argues that the phenomena of long hours and strange hours are related. One possibility for this is cultural – Americans simply enjoy working at strange times. Another, more probable explanation, … Continue reading
Private sector employment increased by 213,000 jobs from August to September according to the September ADP National Employment Report®. Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by ADP®, a leading global provider of Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, … Continue reading