Labor & Economic News Blog

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Germany asks: Should we have a minimum wage?

Germany asks: Should we have a minimum wage?
As the federal minimum wage has become a big topic of debate in the U.S., German politicians are in their own heated dispute over whether to have a minimum wage at all.

 

If inflation is zero, why does my paycheck feel like it's shrinking?

If inflation is zero, why does my paycheck feel like it's shrinking?
Accordingto the current Consumer Price Index, the inflation rate is zero percent. But for many people, their cost of living doesn't reflect the data's averages.

 

Working From Home: The End Of Productivity Or The Future Of Work?

Working From Home: The End Of Productivity Or The Future Of Work?
The decision by Yahoo to stop its remote work policy seems to fly in the face of recent trends that allow more working-from-home, not less.

 

Technology Upends Another Industry: Homebuilding

Technology Upends Another Industry: Homebuilding 

The recession forced Mid-Atlantic Builders Executive Vice President Stephen Paul to cut the company's staffing. But he says the firm is being efficient with half the original number of employees. A Maryland building firm automated its home design process, and now it's looking to use another company to assemble houses on-site from parts. The firm has half as many workers as before the recession.

 

States in Recovery: Manufacturing

States in Recovery: Manufacturing
President Obama wants to spark a national competition to create a network of manufacturing “innovation institutes.” It is part of his plan to jumpstart a sector that still needs to add 1.5 million jobs to make up for those lost during the recession, but critics say it’s the wrong role for the federal government.

 

Income and Wealth in America Across Generations

Explore How Income and Wealth Changes Across Generations
This interactive tool by Pew's Economic Mobility Project displays not only which Americans are more likely to exceed or fall short of the income

 

Restored Payroll Tax Pinches Those Who Earn the Least

Restored Payroll Tax Pinches Those Who Earn the Least
At street level, the pain from the expiration of a two-percentage-point break in Social Security taxes in 2011 and 2012 is evident.<

 

Poland grows into major outsourcing hub, even attracting workers from ailing Western countries

Poland grows into major outsourcing hub, even attracting workers from ailing Western countries
Poland’s poverty and political oppression once drove its people abroad in droves. Now, with 21 straight years of economic growth and European Union membership, fewer Poles are leaving. Poland is even attracting workers from Western Europe.

 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Fact Sheet: The President’s Plan to Reward Work by Raising the Minimum Wage

Fact Sheet: The President’s Plan to Reward Work by Raising the Minimum Wage
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/13/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-reward-work-raising-minimum-wage

 

Growth isn’t enough to help the middle class

Growth isn’t enough to help the middle class
Two kinds of middle-class Americans are struggling today — people who can’t find any work or enough work, and full-timers who can’t seem to get ahead. Democrats and Republicans prescribe economic growtt to help both groups. There was a time that would have been enough. But not today.

 

North Carolina’s ‘self-inflicted wound’: Jobless to face double whammy

North Carolina’s ‘self-inflicted wound’: Jobless to face double whammy
An estimated 170,000 unemployed will be thrown off the state’s benefit rolls in July. And N.C. is not alone.

 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

UNION MEMBERS – 2012

UNION MEMBERS – 2012 [23 January 2013]
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
or
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf

In 2012, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union--was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also declined over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers.

The data on union membership were collected as part of the Current Population Survey(CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population ages 16 and over. For more information, see the Technical Note.

 

Austerity: Kind of a drag

Austerity: Kind of a drag
“Start with a basic point: Slashing government spending destroys jobs and causes the economy to shrink.” –from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (2/8/13).
Krugman, I and others have cautioned against austerity for years. It simply never made any sense to make an already weak economy weaker by slashing government spending …

 

Highest unemployment in US: Rhode Island agency is overwhelmed, prompting delays, frustration

Highest unemployment in US: Rhode Island agency is overwhelmed, prompting delays, frustration
Mark Simmons began dialing Rhode Island’s unemployment call center at 8 a.m. on a recent Monday. He got a busy signal. He tried 67 more times before the automated system picked up and told him that because of heavy call volume, he should try back another time.

 

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Workers of the World, Sit Tight

Workers of the World, Sit Tight
A union resurgence is taking place. Is that enough to save organized labor?

 

In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn’t Better ... It’s Brutal

In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn’t Better ... It’s Brutal
Recent data present a strong case for baby boomers as the greatest victims of the recession and its grim aftermath.

 

Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era

Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era
Five years into the devastating Great Recession and its aftershocks, millions of Americans are still badly and perhaps permanently damaged financially and deeply pessimistic about near- and long-term prospects for the U.S. economy, according to a new nationwide survey from the Heldrich Center. Six in ten Americans believe that the nation’s economy has undergone a permanent change. More than half say that the economy will take at least six years to fully recover from the Great Recession, with 29% saying the economy will never fully recover. Only one in five are confident that job and career opportunities will be better for the next generation of American workers.

 

Justice(s) At Work

Justice(s) At Work
A Supreme Court decision raises concerns about the future of labor law in the hands of an anti-union conservative majority.

 

Higher Payroll Tax Pinches Those With Least to Spare

Higher Payroll Tax Pinches Those With Least to Spare
A two-year reprieve from full Social Security taxes ended at the beginning of January, and the pain being felt by lower-income Americans is plain to see.

 

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