More U.S. small-business owners report letting employees go than hiring them on average over the past year, for a net hiring index of -12 in April, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey. This is on par with -10 in January and -9 in April 2012. These results are from the quarterly Wells … Continue reading
This graph shows the change in private sector payroll jobs from when each president took office until the end of their term(s). President George H.W. Bush only served one term, and President Obama has just started his second term. Mr. G.W. Bush (red) took office following the bursting of the stock market bubble, and left during the bursting of … Continue reading
The amount of money spent per public school student fell in 2011 for the first time since the Census Bureau began keeping records more than three decades earlier, as economic woes finally caught up with educational realities. “This is clearly the fallout from the Great Recession,” said Michael Petrilli, executive vice president of The Thomas … Continue reading
Today’s top professionals and recent graduates expect their careers to provide more than just an income, a survey released by Philips North America found. The Philips Work/Life Survey examined key factors of Americans’ job happiness, with a particular focus on their ability to bring personal interests to their workplace career as a way to create … Continue reading
In the U.S. non-federal sector, older workers are more likely than younger counterparts to report being able to put their best skills to use, a survey says. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index involving 115,000 U.S. adults — including 8,000 who identified themselves as federal workers — was conducted Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2012. About 85 percent of … Continue reading
Computers are an important part of modern education, yet many schoolchildren lack access to a computer at home » write Robert W. Fairlie and Jonathan Robinson in Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Home Computers on Academic Achievement among Schoolchildren (Adapted chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow). In the United States, schools spend more than … Continue reading
The following table is an estimate of the unemployment rate in December 2013 and December 2014 assuming the LFPR stays close to the current level of 63.3% (I looked at 63.0%, 63.3% and 63.6%). The current unemployment rate is 7.5%. Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor via Calculated Risk: Labor Force Participation Rate Sensitivity. Related … Continue reading
The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time, according to a new review of international labor laws by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). As a result, almost 1-in-4 Americans do not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays, trailing far behind most … Continue reading
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending May 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 340,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 363,000. The 4-week moving average was 339,500, a decrease of 500 from the previous week’s revised average of 340,000. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment … Continue reading
Since 1994, the unemployment rate for foreign-born workers has generally increased when the unemployment rate for native-born workers has increased and decreased when the rate for native-born workers has decreased. However, the unemployment rate for foreign-born workers has fluctuated more widely than the rate for native-born workers, and workers born in Mexico or Central America … Continue reading
America has a youth unemployment problem, and it’s not just the kids who are suffering. The nation is poised to lose $18 billion in wages over the next decade due to high youth unemployment, according to a Bloomberg Brief from Bloomberg Senior Economist Joseph Brusuelas. Brusuelas estimated that about 1.3 million 16- to 24-year-olds have … Continue reading
Poverty is growing faster in the suburbs than anywhere else in the United States, soaring 64% over the past decade. That was more than twice the growth rate of the urban poor population, according to the Brookings Institution, which has released Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. There are now almost 16.4 million suburban residents living … Continue reading
A top ranking member of the United States Federal Reserve cautioned economists this week that growing inequality within the US was worsening the odds of a quick return to the conditions of the pre-recession days. Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin was in Washington, DC on Thursday, and during an address before the … Continue reading
Traditionally, unemployment benefits can go to any laid-off employee not guilty of “misconduct.” By law, simple failure to meet production quotas, for example, cannot be deemed misconduct unless it represents a “willful and wanton” refusal. In the past two years, however, four states have rewritten their laws to vastly expand the definition of misconduct. In … Continue reading
What we did have was a wage-price spiral: workers demanding large wage increases (those were the days when workers actually could make demands) because they expected lots of inflation, firms raising prices because of rising costs, all exacerbated by big oil shocks. It was mainly a case of self-fulfilling expectations, and the problem was to … Continue reading