Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Unemployment Holds Steady At 9.7%. Temp. Hirings Up March Job Figures (Politico)
President Barack Obama got the first unequivocally good news on the nation’s employment picture Friday, as new government figures showed the nation gained 162,000 jobs in the month of March.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. That’s the first time the nation has gained, rather than lost, in jobs since late 2007, with the [...]
AND WHILE YOU WERE BEING DISTRACTED BY HEALTH CARE: Mr. Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010 (DailyFinance.com)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic officials in the Obama administration say that, while they expect some improvement this spring, 2010 will probably remain a rough year for Americans looking for work.
In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Geithner read a joint statement — which he prepared with Christina Romer, [...]
Jobless Claims Down, But Economy Stilled Mixed (USA Today)
New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week in a sign that layoffs may be easing as the economy slowly recovers, but economic reports are mixed.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000. That nearly matches estimates of 470,000.
Still, improvement in the job market is [...]
DIAPPEARING JOBS: 10 Businesses In Trouble (Yahoo!)
People in almost every profession may feel like jobs are scarce right now. For many industries, this is a temporary situation. But jobs in some fields are expected to continue disappearing even after the economy picks up.
Is your industry on the decline? The federal government projects that a number of industries will lose jobs from [...]
Senator Scott Brown Breaks Ranks With GOP To Help Block Jobs Bill Filibuster (L. A. Times)
Reporting from Washington – Senate Democrats leaped a key hurdle toward passing a scaled-down jobs bill Monday, gaining support from several Republicans — including the newest GOP senator, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
The 62-30 vote to block a filibuster represented a victory for beleaguered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who gambled that a handful of [...]
MIDDLE CLASS UPDATE: Despite Signs Of Recovery, Millions Face Years Of Unemployment (New York Times)
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.
Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in [...]
Obama Declares Stimulus A Success (Yahoo!/AP)
President Barack Obama hailed Wednesday’s one-year-old economic stimulus law as an accomplishment that staved off another Great Depression and kept up to 2 million people on the job.
Still, with millions still out of work and losing patience, Obama acknowledged that to them, “It doesn’t yet feel like much of a recovery.”
Marking the anniversary of the [...]
Labor Unions Are Becoming Increasingly Dissatisfied with Obama (Washington Post)
Looks like organized labor has joined the increasingly crowded ranks of the folks most unhappy these days with President Obama. The latest cause for their disaffection was a statement Obama put out late Thursday after the Senate confirmed 27 of some 63 nominees Republicans had blocked.
In the statement, Obama said he told Senate Minority Leader [...]
Obama Betting On Nuclear Power, U.S. Backing New Reactors (New York Times)
President Obama, speaking to an enthusiastic audience of union officials in Lanham, Md., on Tuesday, underscored his embrace of nuclear power as a clean energy source, announcing that the Energy Department had approved financial help for the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia.
If the project goes forward, the reactors would be the first begun [...]
JOBS UPDATE: Temp Jobs No Longer Lead To Permanent Hirings (Yahoo!/AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not the signal it used to be.
When employers hire temporary staff after a recession, it’s long been seen as a sign they’ll soon hire permanent workers.
Not these days.
Companies have hired more temps for four straight months. Yet they remain reluctant to make permanent hires because of doubts about the recovery’s durability.
Even [...]
