Labor Force Participation Rate drops to 35 year low
San José, CA – On Sept. 6, the Labor Department announced that the official unemployment rate dropped to 7.3% in August, down from 7.4% in July. But even though 110,000 fewer people were working in August than July, 310,000 people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. The Labor Force Participation Rate, or the fraction of the adult population who are either working or looking for work, fell to 63.2%, the lowest since August 1978.
San José, CA – On Jan. 4, the U.S. Department of Labor released its report on the labor market for December 2012. The overall official unemployment rate stayed the same as in November, at 7.8%, and 155,000 new jobs were added. But the unemployment rate for adult women (20 years and older), increased from 7.0% in November to 7.3% in December, rising above the unemployment rate for adult men, which stayed the same at 7.2%.
San José, CA – Early New Year’s Day, the U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to pass a compromise bill to put off the so-called ‘fiscal cliff.’ The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where Republicans are likely to try to get even more tax breaks for the rich.
Millones de personas se encuentran sin trabajo. Aquellos que dieron de baja están siendo evacuados de sus hogares porque sus hipotecas están siendo ejecutadas, perdieron seguros de salud y luchan cada vez mas duro para sobrevivir. El desempleo entre la juventud esta muy alto. Incluso los graduados universitarios se ven forzados a vivir en la casa de sus padres. Muchos no pueden hacer mensualidades a los préstamos universitarios. Millones de inmigrantes, ambos documentados e indocumentados, son dados de baja y sin poder trabajar, se ven obligados a abandonar el país después de haber trabajado años en los EU.
San José, CA – On July 6, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that only 80,000 net new jobs were created in June. This was less than most mainstream economists predicted and far less than what is needed to put the millions of unemployed back to work. So it was no surprise that the official unemployment rate stayed the same from May to June, at 8.2%.
San José, CA – On June 9, Spain and the European Union made an agreement to bail out Spain’s troubled banking sector. This agreement means Spain is the fourth country (along with Portugal, Ireland and Greece) in the eurozone to have to take a bailout.
San José, CA – On June 1, the Department of Labor released its monthly report on unemployment and employment for May, 2012. The report said that only 69,000 jobs were added in the U.S. economy in May, less than half of what professional economists had been predicting. Even worse, the report revised earlier estimates of job growth in March and April down by another 49,000 jobs.
San José, CA – In the first five months of this year, more than 400,000 jobless workers have been cut from collecting unemployment insurance benefits under the Federal Extended Benefits (EB) program. Another 100,000 will also lose their benefits when the EB program ends at the end of May, bringing the total to more than a half million unemployed who will be losing their benefits.
San José, CA – On Feb. 29, federal Extended Unemployment Insurance benefits will end unless Congress agrees to continue the program. Republicans in Congress are threatening to block the extension unless they are able to cut benefits and make federal workers pay for the cost of the program.
San José, CA – On Dec. 22, the leadership of the Republicans in the House of Representatives said that they would sign on to a bipartisan compromise to renew federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. This compromise had passed the Senate by an 89-10 vote earlier in the week. The House Republican action came after intense pressure from the unemployed, Democratic politicians and even Republican Senators after the House of Representatives had voted down the compromise bill on a 229-193 vote on Dec. 20.
