Don’t be Fooled by April 1 News Celebration; Joblessness Remains Crisis

By , on April 6th, 2011

To read mainstream media’s celebration of official unemployment rate dropping from 8.9% to 8.8%, you wouldn’t know that the jobs deficit remains dire for millions of Americans (not coincidentally,  corporate profits are going through the roof).

Let’s look through the hoopla:

  • Even if the number of jobs available continues to increase at the March pace of 215,000 per month, it will take at least six years to return to the pre-recession rate of joblessness – and many of those new jobs will pay far less than the jobs that were eliminated.
  • The official jobless rate for African-Americans actually increased to 15.5%,
  • The percent of underemployed rose slightly to 20.3% of all wokers.
  • Long-term unemployment is still a major problem, with almost half of all unemployed having been out of work for more than 27 weeks, and record numbers have exhausted all unemployment benefits.
  • Official unemployment statistics dramatically undercount the jobless numbers.  For example the 2.4 million persons that have been looking for work, but not actively in the past 4 weeks, are not counted as unemployed.
  • Compared to other ‘post-recession’ periods, current job growth numbers are Continue reading Don’t be Fooled by April 1 News Celebration; Joblessness Remains Crisis

    • April 6th, 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Campaigns, Economy | Comments are closed

    North Texas Activists Demand Action on Jobs

    By , on July 30th, 2010

    North Texas Jobs with Justice initiated a news conference on July 2, 2010, and a broad group of progressive leaders responded — progressive people and organizations are coming together for this fight.

    This crisis is immoral

    Among them were a faith leader, a community organizer, and several unionists. The Reverend Ed Middleton of First Community Church read scripture and interpreted Bible verses to show that people must become involved in the most just cause of today — survival!

    Stop the layoffs!

    Christopher Head of the Steelworkers union talked about the cuts hanging over the heads of Dallas City employees. He told the assembled reporters, including three television crews, that Keynesian economics should be used to rescue workers from the ravages of unemployment, just as it was used in the last great jobs crisis.

    Mickey Morris, Texas President of the National Association of Letter Carriers said that there is no reason for the post office to go through with plans to end Saturday mail service. It would cause more tens of thousands of layoffs and would diminish our ability to communicate through the mails.

    Join together

    Perry Forshee, who

    Continue reading North Texas Activists Demand Action on Jobs

    July 30th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Campaigns, Economy | Comments are closed