San Jose, CA – More than 80 people gathered at the San Jose Buddhist Church Oct. 22 to learn about U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehrin Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. Lieutenant Watada’s father, Bob Watada, and his wife, Rosa Sakanishi, explained the Lieutenant’s opposition to the war, which is both illegal and unjust. Also in the program were Reverend Gerald Sakamoto of the San Jose Buddhist Church, Dennis Kyne, a veteran of the first invasion of Iraq in 1991, the singing group Anne and the Vets and Reverend Motoe Yamada of the Wesley United Methodist Church.
San José, CA – On July 22 the House of Representatives voted 272-152 to extend the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs and President Obama signed the extension into law. This came the day after the Senate passed the extension by a 59-39 vote.
_Senate Democrats Promise an Extension Next Week But Nothing is Said About 99ers _
San José, CA – On July 15, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that another 250,000 unemployed were cut from federal unemployment insurance rolls. In the last three weeks alone, almost one million unemployed people were cut from the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs. These programs provide benefits for people out of work for more than six month who can no longer collect state unemployment insurance benefits.
San José, CA – On July 8, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that almost 350,000 unemployed were dropped from federal unemployment insurance rolls. This is the second week in a row that the number of Americans collecting Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) has dropped by more than 300,000. Funding for these programs has run out, and Republicans in the Senate have blocked a vote to provide moneys for federal unemployment insurance benefits. As a result, jobless workers are getting cut off of their federal unemployment insurance benefits by the hundreds of thousands each week.
Weak Employment Report Adds to Fears of “Double-Dip” Recession
San José, CA – On Friday, July 2, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 125,000 jobs were lost in June. While the official unemployment rate fell from 9.7% in May to 9.5% in June, this was due to the 650,000 people that gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. These signs of weakness in the labor market followed reports that housing and car sales were also weak in June. Altogether these reports increase the danger that the economy could slide back into a “double-dip” recession.
_Republicans in Senate Block Extension for Third Week in a Row _
San José, CA. On June 24, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people receiving Federal Extended Benefits fell by 375,000 in a single week. Between June 5 and June 12, more than 150,000 people stopped getting Federal Extended Benefits (EB), and another 200,000 stopped getting the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC). While some of these people were able to find jobs, the majority were dropped as funding for the Federal extended unemployment insurance ran out.
San José, CA – On June 24, Republican Senators, along with Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson blocked a vote on extending Federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. After the 57-41 vote to end debate (60 votes are needed in the Senate to stop arguing and start voting), Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada pronounced the measure dead.
San José, CA – On June 18, a Republican filibuster, aided by pro-war independent Joe Lieberman and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, blocked an extension of federal unemployment benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that more than 900,000 laid-off workers will have had their unemployment benefit checks cut off as of June 19.
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 José, CA – On Friday, Jan. 15, the Department of Labor released reports on inflation and real earnings (wages adjusted for inflation) for 2009. The rate of increases in prices for workers who live in cities was moderate, at 3.4%. This figure was higher than the official inflation rate of 2.7%. However wages failed to keep up with the rise in prices, so weekly real earnings, or the purchasing power of workers' weekly wages, fell by 1.6% in 2009. This fall in wages was mainly because the average increase in hourly wages was less than the rise in prices. This reflected the lack of raises and spreading wage cuts last year. Cuts in workers' hours, which also reduced weekly pay, also played a role.
