San José, CA – On June 4, the Department of Labor reported that there were 431,000 more jobs in May than the month before. But almost all of these new jobs were temporary workers hired for the 2010 Census. Only 41,000 jobs were added by businesses, down sharply from the 218,000 private sector job gain in April. This number was far worse than the 150,000 new jobs that economists expected private businesses to add in May. And of these 41,000 new private sector jobs, 31,000 were temporary help service workers. Despite the job gains this year, the economy is still down some 8 million jobs since the recession began in December of 2007.
San Francisco, CA – El primero de mayo, miles de personas se juntaron en la Misión de la comunidad latina de San Francisco y marcharon al Centro Cívico. Un tema común fue la oposición a la nueva ley de Arizona, SB 1070. Organizaciones comunitarias de latinos y asiáticos, sindicatos y estudiantes universitarios se unieron con familias y con organizaciones religiosas, anti-bélicas y solidarias para la marcha. Se escucharon consignas de “Si se puede!” y “Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha!” Trabajadores latinos salieron de restaurantes, talleres y lavaderos para ver y apoyar la marcha.
San Francisco, CA – On May 1, thousands of people gathered in San Francisco’s Latino community in the Mission and marched to the Civic Center. A common theme was opposition to Arizona’s new law, SB1070.
San Bruno, CA – In March, 162,000 new jobs were created, according to a monthly survey of businesses taken by the Labor Department. This was the largest number of new jobs created in a month in three years. This positive report may be a sign that the labor market has finally turned a corner following the worst recession in 70 years.
San Francisco, CA – In what was the largest anti-war protest in over a year, thousands of people rallied and marched from San Francisco’s Civic Center to downtown and back again. Growing disillusionment with the war escalation in Afghanistan and economic crisis brought out a diverse crowd with the common demand of “End the war now!”
San Bruno, CA – Hundreds of Skyline College students left class and gathered on the campus quad for their Day of Action protest against budget cuts, on March 4. The action was organized by Skyline Against Cuts, which grew out of the students’ struggle against budget cuts last fall. After a short song, Skyline Against Cuts leader Michelle Araica led off the march. As student marshals held open doors, led chants and stopped traffic, nearly 500 students and a dozen or more faculty and staff supporters marched through almost all the buildings on campus, chanting “Hey hey! Ho ho! Budget cuts have got to go!”
San Bruno, CA – On Feb. 5 the Department of Labor released their report on the January 2010 job market. The good news in the report was that the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% in December to 9.7% in January. This is the biggest drop in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.
San Bruno, CA – On Nov. 18, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) announced that the state was facing budget deficits of $20 billion each year for five more years. Over the past fifteen months, California responded to a total budget deficit of $77 billion with a combination of cuts in spending, increases in taxes on working people, federal economic stimulus monies and accounting tricks.
