As the August jobs report on Friday indicated, U.S. employers still aren’t hiring tons of employees on a consistent basis. Recent data from Sageworks, a financial information company, also suggest companies may have less incentive to absorb some of the slack in the labor market that Federal Reserve officials have highlighted in recent weeks. Privately held … Continue reading
Changes in demographics are an important determinant of economic growth, and although most people focus on the aging of the “baby boomer” generation, the movement of younger cohorts into the prime working age is another key story in coming years. Here is a graph of the prime working age population (this is population, not the … Continue reading
Observers have followed the Beveridge curve during the recession and the recovery to glean some insight into potential structural changes in the labor market. Whether or not a shift implies an actual structural change—specifically, a decline in the matching efficiency of the labor market—is still debatable. However, one thing is clear: there is no shift … Continue reading
A study released on Tuesday by two researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York concludes the opposite is true: The value of a bachelor’s degree is near an all-time high. The researchers, Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz, found that despite some “alarming trends,” a bachelor’s degree for a 2013 graduate was worth $272,693, … Continue reading
Even before the recession, there was a huge range in unemployment rates among states. Most of the dozen states that have seen their unemployment rates fall since before the recession have benefited from the recent boom in the oil and gas business. Many of the states where the unemployment rate is much higher than it … Continue reading
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care. Household Survey Data In August, both the unemployment rate (6.1 percent) and the number of unemployed … Continue reading
Unemployment “trickles down” to America’s poorest and most vulnerable because, during recessions, higher-income workers with more education take jobs that are below their qualification level, according to new research. Such underemployment, in turn, leaves fewer job openings for which the so-called lower-skilled workers are qualified. “Some high-skill workers move down the occupational ladder in order … Continue reading
Compare unemployment rates, and America’s job market looks much stronger than Europe’s. The U.S. rate for August, being released Friday, is expected to be a near-normal 6.1 percent. In the 18 countries that use the euro currency, by contrast, it’s a collective 11.5 percent. Yet by some measures, Europe is doing better. It’s been more … Continue reading
A new US Census Bureau report shows that the median household’s net worth fell from $106,591 to $68,839 from 2005 to 2011: Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Middle class households’ wealth fell 35 percent from 2005 to 2011 – Vox.
Perez said the plight of the long-term unemployed – or those without work for at least 27 weeks — is the one issue that has caused him to lose sleep. He has met with many such workers since becoming Labor Secretary about a year ago. “It keeps me up at night because their stories are … Continue reading
More than 3 million U.S. workers remain among the long-term unemployed – those who have been jobless for 27 or more weeks. Their numbers have been falling as the economy picks up, but experts say getting back to work has been tougher in the wake of the most recent recession than it was following the economic … Continue reading
Increasing numbers of Americans use social media both on and off the job. Recently, some employers have asked employees to turn over their usernames or passwords for their personal accounts. Some employers argue that access to personal accounts is needed to protect proprietary information or trade secrets, to comply with federal financial regulations, or to prevent … Continue reading
The employment rate corresponds to the percentage of the working-age population that is employed. It allows the interpretation of employment growth in relation to population growth. Employment growth that is greater than population growth can be indicative of an improvement in the state of the labour market. The employment rate increases (decreases) when employment growth … Continue reading
[The National Employment Law Project has] calculated the percentage change in real median hourly wages from 2009 to 2013 for 785 occupations, which were grouped into quintiles, each representing approximately one-fifth of total employment in 2013. The labels in Figure 1 show the 2013 median hourly wage for the lowest- and highest-paid occupations within each … Continue reading
Six years after being struck by economic crisis, Europe is facing a fresh downturn, with few new ideas on the table for reigniting growth and deepening political divisions over the austerity policies that many blame for worsening the malaise… “Europe is at risk of secular stagnation,” said Lawrence H. Summers, a former United States Treasury … Continue reading