San José, CA – San Jose police backed up by county sheriffs attacked protesters as they tried to rally at City Hall on Friday, May 29. 1000 people, mainly young, had gathered to protest the killing of George Floyd and other African Americans by police. They took to the streets and blocked a freeway with signs reading “Black lives matter” and speakers condemning President Trump. But when the protest tried to march to the City Hall plaza, which is a traditional site for political rallies, they were blocked by a line of police who unleashed tear gas. When protesters resisted, the police used flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and batons to try to break up the demonstration.
Initial wave of layoffs ebbs even as new job cuts grow
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 28, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were 2.1 million new claims for state unemployment insurance in the previous week ending May 23. This was down from 2.4 million new claims the week before, showing that the wave of layoffs from the pandemic and efforts to control it is going down. At the same time this is still more than ten times the pre-recession level and brings the total number of new applications to 40 million in the last ten weeks.
Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i see unemployment rates above 20% in April
San José, CA – On Friday, May 22, the monthly report on state-level labor markets saw the – unemployment rate for three states – Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i – all soar to more than 20%, levels unseen since the worst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Actual job losses, reported by business, came to almost 20% between March and April in Vermont and New York, along with Hawai’i.
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 21, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 2.4 million more people have applied for state unemployment insurance, or UI, in the week ending May 16. In addition, about 1.2 million people applied for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, set up by the recent CARES act for the self-employed. This increase of 3.6 million applications for unemployment benefits means that a total of more than 47 million people have lost their livelihood in the last eight weeks.
Part of effort to place the burden of the economic crisis on workers
San José, CA – On May 14, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom laid out his plan to deal with a projected $54 billion budget deficit for the state of California. Included in the plan was to save almost $3 billion by cutting state workers’ pay by 10%.
Over the last 8 weeks more than 40 million have lost their livelihood
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 14, the Labor Department reported more bad news, saying that almost 3 million people applied for unemployment insurance in the previous week ending May 9. This means that over the last eight weeks more than 36 million people applied after losing jobs and income. Another 3.5 million are collecting the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, which goes to the self-employed. This brings the total number of recently unemployed people to about 40 million.
San José, CA – On Friday, May 8, the U.S. Department of Labor released their monthly Employment Report for the month of April. The report said that the official unemployment rate soared from 4.4% in March to 14.7% in April, a jump of more than 10% in just one month. This is the highest monthly unemployment rate on records going back to 1948, and the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s when unemployment peaked at about 25%.
Trump and Republican governors try to force workers back to unsafe jobs
San José, CA – On Thursday, April 30, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that more than 3.8 million new claims for unemployment insurance or UI were filed in the previous week ending April 25. This means that over the last six weeks more than 30 million claims have been filed. This means that the actual unemployment rate is about 25%, a level similar to the worst of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
New claims for Unemployment Insurance now total 27 million over the last 5 weeks
San José, CA – More than 4 million more Americans filed for Unemployment Insurance, or UI, benefits last week according to the latest Labor Department report on Thursday, April 23. This brings the total number of new claims over the last five weeks to 27 million.
San José, CA – Earlier in the day, I glanced at oil prices and saw that they were down 40% for the day at about $10 a barrel. Pretty bad, I thought. Then after financial markets closed, I got a call about it. I looked and saw that the closing price was negative $37.63 and let out an f-bomb, the first of about a half a dozen in my three minute conversation.
