What to Watch on Jobs Day: A 2015 Wrap Up
With the last jobs report for 2015 coming out tomorrow, let’s step back and put it in the context of the entire year—and of the recovery as a whole. If December’s numbers come in as expected (analysts...
View ArticleRecovery is still in full swing for African American workers
The 2015 job market ended on a high note after trailing the pace of monthly job growth in 2014 for much of the year. The economy averaged net job growth of 284,000 in the last quarter of 2015, adding...
View ArticleThe labor market is still moving in the right direction, but has a ways to go...
The top line numbers from this morning’s jobs report suggest that the economy is moving in the right direction, but we need to see a whole lot more movement before we reach full employment. It’s hard...
View ArticleAn honest discussion of how to reduce poverty: strengthen the safety net and...
I’m afraid Speaker Paul Ryan’s poverty forum will fall short of coming up with solutions that will truly help lift the poor out of poverty. Real solutions should expand policies that have already been...
View ArticleNational Association of Manufacturers’ criticisms of the Obama overtime...
Last September, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) filed comments in opposition to the Labor Department’s proposed rule on overtime pay for salaried workers, which would raise the salary...
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The road to full employment is long, but we are moving in the right direction
The labor market ended the year on a positive note, adding an additional 292,000 jobs in December. Of course, all economic woes are not solved. It’s clear from the data that we are still far from a...
View ArticleFriedrichs case threatens to push down wages for workers beyond the public...
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that could profoundly affect the economy and the ability of millions of workers to improve...
View ArticleAn annotated reading of Obama’s flawed framing of wage and income problems in...
Having closely followed all of President Obama’s speeches on income inequality, I’ve noticed a significant move forward, from an abstract discussion to one that focused on the key underlying issue—the...
View ArticleThe lead crisis in Flint will affect the city for years to come
By now, the story of what’s happening in Flint is well known. The city has been struggling since the decline of its automobile industry. Its financial troubles were severe enough that the city went...
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14 states raised their minimum wage at the beginning of 2016, lifting the...
At the beginning of the year, 14 states raised their minimum wages, lifting wages for over 4.6 million workers in states across the country. Unlike last year’s increases, the majority of these...
View ArticleThe Lilly Ledbetter Act is part of a more ambitious women’s economic agenda
This Friday is the anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a reminder that a significant pay gap still exists between men and women in the United States. At the median, hourly pay for...
View ArticleThe Obama administration pushes for a better response to unemployment
President Obama has announced a package of reforms to repair some of the damage done in recent years to the unemployment insurance system and to provide more help to workers at risk of losing...
View ArticleThe labor rights of four million migrants hang in the balance at the Supreme...
The Supreme Court deserves praise for agreeing to review United States v. Texas, a case that will determine the fate of the most significant of the executive immigration actions announced by the...
View ArticleNPR report reveals the real reason why agricultural employers prefer...
A recent story from NPR’s Dan Charles titled “Guest Workers, Legal Yet Not Quite Free, Pick Florida’s Oranges,” provides a crucial glimpse into what it’s like being a guestworker in the United States....
View ArticleWhat to Watch on Jobs Day: Will we finally reach full employment in 2016?
We’ve seen solid growth in employment over the past couple of years, and the unemployment rate has come down dramatically, but by any reasonable definition we are still not that close to genuine full...
View ArticleShould we care about slow nominal wage growth when price inflation is slow? YES.
Nominal wages for American workers rose by 2.6 percent in the 12 months ending in December 2015. Over the same time, prices have risen just under 0.7 percent (held down mostly by falling oil prices)....
View ArticleDespite seemingly stable U.S. trade balance, rapidly growing trade deficits...
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the annual U.S. trade deficit in goods and services increased from $508.3 billion to $531.5 billion from 2014 to 2015, an increase of $23.2 billion (4.6 percent)....
View ArticleWhen quitting is a good thing
This morning’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report came in pretty much in line with other economic indicators that suggested a solid finish the 2015 labor market. Most notably, the...
View ArticleThe Fed shouldn’t accept the “new normal” without a fight
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is testifying before Congress today and tomorrow, where she will be fielding questions about the state of the economy following the Fed’s recent rate hike. Despite...
View ArticleWorkers, and honest employers, need a strong OSHA
Every day, events remind us why Congress created and continues to fund the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Cranes collapsing in New York and Cincinnati, mill explosions in...
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