unemployment

GM Layoffs will Boost Unemployment Through the Roof

I just has a truly frightening experience. During a conversation about the auto industry one of my colleagues who researches the auto industry told me that according to his calculations, the GM shutdown is going to send 250,000 off the job in Ohio.

This includes only the multiplier effect at auto suppliers, not any macro economic effect. For example, job losses at retail stores resulting from drops in spending are not included, nor are any further drops from other problems.

As it stands now Ohio unemployment stands at 9.7%.

Overall, the Ohio labor force stands at 5.95 million.

Currently, 578,000 are out of work, up from 409,000 in October of 2008.

Adding another 250,000 to those out of work, bumps the total number of unemployed to 838,000.

Divide this number by the labor force, and you get an unemployment rate of 13.9%, a 44% increase over the present rate.

We Need a Revolution..... A Labor Rights Revolution

Help is on the way. Or so we've been told.

The stimulus legislation also extends the social safety net for those who are already unemployed by extending and improving unemployment benefits.

Under the terms of the deal, laid-off workers are eligible for as much as 33 weeks of extended unemployment benefits, including a $25 increase in weekly benefits.

Weekly Audit: Welfare, Work and the Bailout Bonanza

by Zach Carter, Media Consortium MediaWire Blogger

The U.S. economy lost nearly 600,000 jobs in January, bringing total losses in the past three months over 1.5 million—more than the entire population of Philadelphia. If there ever was a good time to mend the tattered U.S. social safety net, it's now. While unemployment benefits and food stamps remain relatively uncontroversial, basic welfare continues to be neglected by the general media and vilified by the right. And as of this moment, a responsible welfare program is needed more than at any point since the 1930s.

The Very Bad Year is Just the Beginning

Submitted by on

Anyone in denial about the United States and the economy should now get over it.

The unemployment numbers for December came in and it ain't pretty.

The unemployment rate is now 7.2%. This is the largest unemployment jump since 1945, The massive job hemorrhage shows the economy is in free fall.

 

Also the Congressional Budget Office released it's Budget 2009 Outlook report and it ain't pretty either.

  • CBO projects that the deficit this year will total $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP
  • CBO expects federal revenues to decline by $166 billion, or 6.6 percent, from the amount in 2008
  • An unemployment rate that will exceed 9 percent early in 2010
  • CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II

Detroit Bailout

One topic no one mentions in the Detroit Bailout controversy is all the offshoring that has been, and still continues, in the auto industry.  GM just announced new plants in Brazil, Russia and India, coinciding with plant closings in America.
 
Guess where the bailout money will go?

 

Story


General Motors to invest $1 bn in Brazil plant

Wed, Nov 19 11:49 AM

NEWSFLASH: Unemployment hits above 6%!!!

Today the latest figures of unemployment were released, and folks things are continuing to not look good.

Payrolls across the economy has dropped this month...again! Officially, the unemployment rate now stands at 6.1%. Consensus was the rate would be within 5.6-5.8%, north of the previous month's 5.5%. What we got was far above that.

The nitty gritty part is that we lost another 84,000 jobs for August. I say another, because the previous month the US economy jettisoned 51,000 jobs in July and 100,000 jobs in June. From manufacturing to the services sector, saw major losses. I don't have the exact figure before my, but CNN is right now saying that for the year we have lost 600,000 jobs! That, my friend is the Bush-McCain/Palin economy for you!

unemployment rate, manufacturing

Job Losses, Wages Worsened - No End in Sight

Submitted by on

Loss of jobs and real wages worsened in May with no end in sight; an ominous sign for financially strapped households.

 

Today’s BLS jobs report revises down their previous estimate of the number of jobs in March and April (by a total of -15k) and shows another loss of -49k jobs in May. Indeed, local governments kept adding jobs in May while the number of private sector jobs fell by -66k.

Widespread local government budget shortfalls for the fiscal year ahead will soon eliminate this much-needed, tax-payer-dependent source of job growth. 

 Over the past 12 months, the private sector has added only 16k jobs despite the fact that bars and restaurants added 227k and private education and health services added another 577k jobs. That is, excluding bars, restaurants and private education and health care, the private sector in the US has lost roughly 800k jobs over the past year.

DHS CIS Circumvents Congress - Extends F-1 OPT

Tuesday April 8, DHS CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) issued a Final Interim Rule to extend F-1 foreign student OPT time limits to 29 months without public comment and without Congressional review. Public comment was requested, after enactment, as a slap in the face. CIS has grown accustomed to re-writing immigration law without due process - last year an additional 20,000 H-1B visas were handed out in this manner.

Here is my comment in the Federal Register.

DHS CIS F-1 OPT Final Interim Rule (.pdf)

April 9, 2008

Dana Rothrock comments on:

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
8 CFR Part 214

DHS NO. ICEB-2008-0002

ICE NO. 2124-08 RIN 1653-AA56

AGENCY: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; DHS.

ACTION: Interim final rule with request for comments.

Do you Want Fries with That?

Submitted by on

4th consecutive monthly loss of private sector jobs in March; virtually ALL new private jobs yr/yr are in bars and restaurants.

Today’s BLS report shows the economy lost -80,000 jobs in March as the private sector lost another -98,000 while 18,000 more government jobs were added – almost entirely in state/local governments for public schools and prisons. This is the 4th consecutive monthly loss of private sector jobs that now total -300,000 since November.

 

Over the past 12 months the private sector added just 292,000 jobs and 188,000 of these were in restaurants and bars – “food services and eating establishments.” As has been the unique pattern for the past seven years, over the past year the private sector added “Non-supervisory/production” jobs (608,000) while eliminating (-406,000) supervisory/non-production jobs.

 

Pages