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White House: 650,000 Jobs Exist Because of Stimulus
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2009 Comment (4)White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein has been reporting the highlights of new data on stimulus job savings/creation in advance of this afternoon's report, and the magic number is 650,000. Considering that that number, however, accounts for less than half of the spending through the reporting date, the White House estimates the number is actually more like 1 million jobs created or saved so far.
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Unemployment Extension to Get Senate's Attention Next Week
Tweet Share on Facebook October 23, 2009 Comment (217)With nearly 1.5 million Americans expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of the year, the stakes are high for a federally funded benefits extension that has been delayed in the Senate. While the House earlier passed a version of the bill by a wide margin, the Senate expanded the reach of the House bill by offering additional weeks of paid benefits to all states, rather than only those with the highest unemployment rates. While the Senate bill doesn't lack support, Republicans have objected to its funding and have been interested in adding amendments that don't have much favor among Democrats.
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Why a Hiring Tax Credit May Not Help
Tweet Share on Facebook October 21, 2009 Comment (3)Here's a startling fact about the job market: Between August and September, New York lost 82,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported today. Texas lost 45,000 jobs. California lost 39,000, and Wisconsin lost 22,000—roughly as many as Michigan lost.
It is remarkable that this far into a recession, employers are still slashing payrolls. Not a single state registered a statistically significant increase in employment over the month. Millions of job seekers well into their job searches are wondering when companies will stop cutting jobs and start hiring again. Lawmakers in Washington are looking at options to encourage hiring, but those incentives may have little impact on the real issues keeping employers from adding to payrolls.
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How Long Will Unemployment Outweigh Deficit Concerns?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2009 Comment (13)Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is calling for the U.S. government to begin addressing the nation's budget deficit. But with a jobless rate that continues to rise and a nation of employers still reluctant to hire, most lawmakers appear to be more interested in finding the right spending tools to address unemployment.
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Congress Talks Unemployment Extensions and Hiring Tax Credit
Tweet Share on Facebook October 7, 2009 Comment (196)As early as tomorrow, the Senate is expected to begin debating a measure that would provide an extension of unemployment benefits to all states. The House recently passed an extension, but it provided for aid only to the jobless in states with high unemployment rates. The Senate bill was introduced by Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, where the unemployment rate is just 6.6 percent, compared to 9.8 percent nationwide. If Montana looks good, however—with just a little over 33,000 unemployed workers in September—keep in mind that the number of unemployed has jumped by 75 percent since the start of the recession.
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Jobs Index Increases For First Time in 20 Months
Tweet Share on Facebook October 5, 2009 CommentGood news about the job market is rare these days, but here comes something to savor: The Conference Board Employment Trends Index increased by a slim margin in September. This was, listen up, the first increase in the index since January 2008, or very nearly the start of the recession. The index serves as a leading indicator for the labor market.
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