A 7.5 Percent Jobless Rate Means the McRecovery Continues
The U.S. economy appears to have added just enough jobs in April to keep pace with population growth, and the new positions are low wage and mostly nonunion.
The U.S. economy appears to have added just enough jobs in April to keep pace with population growth, and the new positions are low wage and mostly nonunion. And once again, the new unemployment figure of 7.5 percent excludes people who have given up looking for work, so the actual rate is much higher.
Roughly a third of all jobs added over the last month were in the retail and hospitality industries, reports Ned Resnikoff at All In With Chris Hayes. Those sectors have come to replace manufacturing as the heart of American industry.
The construction field — which offers relatively high wages and union membership rates — lost jobs. The public sector fared poorly too. The sequestration’s across-the-board cuts have shaved more positions off a government workforce that has long been shrinking due in large part to weak tax revenues.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Your support matters…Ned Resnikoff at All In With Chris Hayes:
[T]he overall trend appears to be away from employment in traditionally stable, relatively unionized, decently paying industries, and toward growth in precarious labor in “business services” like fast food work, retail, housekeeping, and janitorial services. As this trend develops, we’re seeing a commensurate drop in full-time work: While the number of people on non-farm payrolls rose by 165,000 last month, the number of involuntary part-time workers—that is, people who would prefer full-time employment but were only able to find part-time jobs—rose by 278,000. Meanwhile, the average work week decreased from 34.6 to 34.4 hours.
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
When it comes to critical economic and social issues, the mainstream media have left the general population dangerously ill-informed.
Despite 9 million Americans remaining out of work, economists hailed the drop of the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest level since 2008 on Friday.
New federal statistics show a jobs market still far below pre-recession levels, despite record profits by corporations sitting on record levels of cash. What does it all mean? People want to work, but companies don't want to hire.
The 179,000 jobs created in May and boasted about by the Obama administration are no more than "the usual lowly paid non-exportable domestic service jobs -- the jobs of a third world country," former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts writes.
Roughly 150 Americans die on a daily basis as a result of their jobs, a new study from the AFL-CIO has found.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.