From the WSJ.com:
The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2% in June but a broader measure rose to 14.9% as the ranks of the underemployed grew.
The jobless rate was unchanged even at the number of people who consider themselves employed jumped by 128,000...
Meanwhile, the broader unemployment rate, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, was up even higher in June. The U-6 figure includes everyone in the official rate plus “marginally attached workers” — those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that’s all they could find....
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Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/07/06/broader-jobless-rate-ticks-up-to-14-9/
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs
From Investor's Business Daily online:
More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.
The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration....
Other indicators show that the three-year-old economic recovery isn't producing jobs in adequate numbers:
The unemployment rate has been above 8% for 41 consecutive months. In the previous 60 years, the jobless topped 8% in a total of only 39 months.
The number of people with jobs is still nearly 5 million below its pre-recession peak.
The number of long-term unemployed — those out of work 27 weeks or more — is still 5.4 million — almost 1 million higher than when the recovery began...
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Link: http://news.investors.com/article/617233/201207061636/disability-climbs-faster-than-jobs-under-obama.htm?p=full
More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.
The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration....
Other indicators show that the three-year-old economic recovery isn't producing jobs in adequate numbers:
The unemployment rate has been above 8% for 41 consecutive months. In the previous 60 years, the jobless topped 8% in a total of only 39 months.
The number of people with jobs is still nearly 5 million below its pre-recession peak.
The number of long-term unemployed — those out of work 27 weeks or more — is still 5.4 million — almost 1 million higher than when the recovery began...
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Link: http://news.investors.com/article/617233/201207061636/disability-climbs-faster-than-jobs-under-obama.htm?p=full
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Sluggish Economy Plagues Europe
From the WSJ.com:
Euro-zone manufacturing activity contracted sharply in June and unemployment hit a record, in the latest sign that Europe's economic problems are worsening amid the region's debt crisis and a broader global slowdown.
The data put added pressure on the European Central Bank to reduce its key interest rate when it meets Thursday, a move that would bring the euro bloc's monetary policy into expansionary territory unmatched even in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008....
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Link: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-economy.html
Euro-zone manufacturing activity contracted sharply in June and unemployment hit a record, in the latest sign that Europe's economic problems are worsening amid the region's debt crisis and a broader global slowdown.
The data put added pressure on the European Central Bank to reduce its key interest rate when it meets Thursday, a move that would bring the euro bloc's monetary policy into expansionary territory unmatched even in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008....
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Link: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-economy.html
Monday, July 2, 2012
Manufacturing shrinks: first time in three years
From Reuters.com:
U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years as new orders plummeted, one measure of the sector that showed the starkest sign yet of the extent of the slowdown in the economy....
It was the first time since July 2009 that the index has fallen below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. That was shortly after the U.S. economy emerged from recession.
Manufacturing has been one of the drivers of the U.S. economic recovery, which now appears to be losing momentum over fears about the euro zone's debt crisis, a slowdown in China and uncertainty over domestic fiscal policy.
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Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-usa-economy-manufacturing-idUSBRE8610QT20120702
U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly three years as new orders plummeted, one measure of the sector that showed the starkest sign yet of the extent of the slowdown in the economy....
It was the first time since July 2009 that the index has fallen below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. That was shortly after the U.S. economy emerged from recession.
Manufacturing has been one of the drivers of the U.S. economic recovery, which now appears to be losing momentum over fears about the euro zone's debt crisis, a slowdown in China and uncertainty over domestic fiscal policy.
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Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-usa-economy-manufacturing-idUSBRE8610QT20120702
U.S. hires Private Lawyers to grab Bank Account of 1st Grade teacher for loan default
From Bloomberg.com:
Lawyers drained Linda Brice’s bank account and seized a quarter of her take-home pay, or more than $900 a month. Brice, a first-grade teacher and Coast Guard veteran, begged for mercy, saying she couldn’t afford food, gas or utilities.
Brice’s transgression: she defaulted on $3,100 she had borrowed more than 30 years ago to pay for college. The chief federal judge in Los Angeles took her side, ruling that Brice should pay only $25 a month. The law firm of Goldsmith & Hull -- representing the federal government -- then withdrew $2,496 from her bank account.
“I am at the end of my rope,” Brice wrote in a May 2009 court filing. “I apologize for taking the court’s time, but I simply do not know what to do....”
When the U.S. Education Department fails to get repaid, the agency can turn borrowers’ names over to federal prosecutors. In turn, U.S. attorneys are hiring private law firms to retrieve money for taxpayers -- after the firms keep a cut for themselves....
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Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/teacher-s-wages-garnished-as-u-s-goes-after-loan-default.html
Lawyers drained Linda Brice’s bank account and seized a quarter of her take-home pay, or more than $900 a month. Brice, a first-grade teacher and Coast Guard veteran, begged for mercy, saying she couldn’t afford food, gas or utilities.
Brice’s transgression: she defaulted on $3,100 she had borrowed more than 30 years ago to pay for college. The chief federal judge in Los Angeles took her side, ruling that Brice should pay only $25 a month. The law firm of Goldsmith & Hull -- representing the federal government -- then withdrew $2,496 from her bank account.
“I am at the end of my rope,” Brice wrote in a May 2009 court filing. “I apologize for taking the court’s time, but I simply do not know what to do....”
When the U.S. Education Department fails to get repaid, the agency can turn borrowers’ names over to federal prosecutors. In turn, U.S. attorneys are hiring private law firms to retrieve money for taxpayers -- after the firms keep a cut for themselves....
----------------
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/teacher-s-wages-garnished-as-u-s-goes-after-loan-default.html
Factory slump in Asia - more to come?
From Reuters.com:
A factory slump in Asia's two biggest exporters China and Japan deepened in June as crumbling orders from abroad dragged activity to seven-month lows, heightening worries that the health of the global economy is deteriorating.
...The data increases the risk that the economies of major demand centers Europe and the United States may be weaker than previously thought. Purchasing managers' reports on the two regions are due to be published later on Monday.
The latest sign that China's economy is struggling came on Monday with a private purchasing managers' index (PMI) showing factory activity shrank at its fastest pace in seven months in June....
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Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-global-economy-idUSBRE86107X20120702
A factory slump in Asia's two biggest exporters China and Japan deepened in June as crumbling orders from abroad dragged activity to seven-month lows, heightening worries that the health of the global economy is deteriorating.
...The data increases the risk that the economies of major demand centers Europe and the United States may be weaker than previously thought. Purchasing managers' reports on the two regions are due to be published later on Monday.
The latest sign that China's economy is struggling came on Monday with a private purchasing managers' index (PMI) showing factory activity shrank at its fastest pace in seven months in June....
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Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-global-economy-idUSBRE86107X20120702
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