If you lost your job last year, you're not alone. There are now 15.3 million Americans who are officially unemployed, up from 7.5 million in December 2007. A record 40% have been unemployed for more than six months.
Wisconsin's unemployment rate surged to 8.7% in December from 8.2% in November.
The state lost a total of 163,000 jobs in 2009, more than 26,000 in December alone.
The four-county metro Milwaukee area has been particularly hard hit losing 48,200 jobs (5.7% of total employment), the third-deepest percentage loss in the nation. Only Las Vegas, where employment levels fell 7.4% and Detroit, which fell 6.2%, lost a greater percentage of their jobs .
The employment picture is even worse than the official data suggests.
In the past year 82,840 workers dropped out of the Wisconsin labor market, 13,400 in December alone.
If discouraged workers are counted, Wisconsin's unemployment rate jumps to 11.4%. And if you include people who are working part-time only because they cannot find full-time employment the rate jumps 13.2%.
Wisconsin's working people are hurting. Job loss is undermining families and communities across the state.
Bankruptcies have soared, 30% last year, following a 35% increase the year before contributing to a record number foreclosure filings as job cuts make it difficult for homeowners to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments.
Preliminary figures show there were 30,624 foreclosure filings in the state last year, up almost 20% from a record 25,541 in 2008, Madison-based ForeclosureAlarm.com, which tracks foreclosures through court documents, reported. Milwaukee leads the way with more than 5,800 foreclosure filings.
The Wisconsin Senate Republican response to these alarming numbers is to propose more of the very same policies-reducing regulations and taxes - that caused the Great Recession.
Their press release says nothing they haven't said for the past thirty years. No matter what ails the economy and despite all the evidence, including massive job loss and declining real wages, Wisconsin's Republican leadership prescribes the same failed medicine.
Their tax cut proposals, like eliminating capital gains, corporate taxes and combined reporting, are the least effective form of economic stimulus. Upper income, capital gains and dividend tax cuts were the centerpiece of the Bush administration's economic agenda. The result-anemic growth, no net job creation, the most unequal distribution of income since 1929 and soaring deficits.
Republican insistence that tax cuts be one third of the $787 billion stimulus package and President Obama's acquiescence significantly undermined its effectiveness according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report .
The report notes that the February 2009 economic stimulus package included $286 billion in tax cuts, many directed towards business. It concludes that "the evidence ... suggests that a business tax subsidy may not necessarily be the best choice for fiscal stimulus" because "product demand appears to be the primary determinant of hiring."
When firms are saddled with excess capacity which is currently a low 72%, investment tax credits will not stimulate investment.
Businesses and their advocacy organizations like the MMAC and WMC will always seek taxpayer subsidies, and apparently the Wisconsin's Republican Party will always help them, because profit margins increase when taxes are reduced. But these taxpayer funded subsidies do not create jobs.
Unfortunately, the state's Democratic leadership hasn't offered much help to the Wisconsin's workers either. It recently passed legislation that includes a post secondary education tax credit for businesses, higher annual limits on angel investment tax credits and other provisions, but nothing that will help put the Wisconsin's 251,000 unemployed workers back to work.
The Obama administration's failure to enact a stimulus package large enough and targeted to create jobs led to the Democrats stunning defeat in Massachusetts.
Wisconsin workers need work. Is anybody listening?
Showing posts with label uenmployment rate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uenmployment rate. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Friday, September 4, 2009
Joblessness rises to 26 year high
The latest jobs report from the Department of Labor is a glass half full and half empty.
While job loss was the smallest in the past year, the nation’s employers still shed more than 200,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 9.7%, its highest in 26 years. The fact that losing 216,000 jobs is seen as progress indicates how deep this recession has been and how far the economy has to climb
The recession has eliminated a net total of 6.9 million jobs since it began in December 2007.
There are now 14.9 million Americans unemployed. The recession has wiped out all of the jobs created during the Administration of President George W. Bush. We have lost so many jobs that we have less than we did before the 2001 recession.
Even these numbers undercount the lack of employment because the nation needs to add 150,000 jobs a month simply to absorb the new workers entering the labor market. By that measure in August we fell 350,000 jobs short.
If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs (discouraged workers) are included, the so-called underemployment rate reached 16.8 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.
Another disturbing sign is that the number of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more is at a record level. The long term unemployed are starting to run out of unemployment benefits, extended benefits and even their emergency payments from the government. If Congress does not act to extend their benefits again, their decline in income will act as a drag on the economy.
Job cuts remain widespread across many sectors. The construction industry lost 65,00 jobs. Factories cut 63,000, while retailers pared 9,600 positions. The financial sector eliminated 28,000 jobs, while professional and business services dropped 22,000. Even the government lost 18,000 jobs, as the U.S. Postal Service cut 8,500 positions. These figures offer few signs that employers who have slashed their payrolls to conserve money were ready to hire again. Economists say employers must create 300,000 to 400,000 jobs a month to bring unemployment rates back to pre-recession levels
Health care and educational services were the only bright spot, adding 52,000 jobs.
The fact that jobs loss has moderated reflects the impact of the Obama administration’s $877 million stimulus package which has begun to impact the economy and the efforts of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to shore up the nation’s financial system.
Public spending including the now ended "Cash for Clunkers” program have had their intended effect of increasing demand and stimulating production and sales. But employers are clearly reluctant to hire and consumers to spend. Since consumer spending is 70% of the economy, it is hard to see a revival of economic growth until unemployment declines and wages grow. The concern now is whether the federal stimulus is large enough to effectively jump start the economy or whether the current signs of growth and slow down in job loss are a temporary blip that will fad as the stimulus dollars work their way through the economy.
While job loss was the smallest in the past year, the nation’s employers still shed more than 200,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 9.7%, its highest in 26 years. The fact that losing 216,000 jobs is seen as progress indicates how deep this recession has been and how far the economy has to climb
The recession has eliminated a net total of 6.9 million jobs since it began in December 2007.
There are now 14.9 million Americans unemployed. The recession has wiped out all of the jobs created during the Administration of President George W. Bush. We have lost so many jobs that we have less than we did before the 2001 recession.
Even these numbers undercount the lack of employment because the nation needs to add 150,000 jobs a month simply to absorb the new workers entering the labor market. By that measure in August we fell 350,000 jobs short.
If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs (discouraged workers) are included, the so-called underemployment rate reached 16.8 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.
Another disturbing sign is that the number of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more is at a record level. The long term unemployed are starting to run out of unemployment benefits, extended benefits and even their emergency payments from the government. If Congress does not act to extend their benefits again, their decline in income will act as a drag on the economy.
Job cuts remain widespread across many sectors. The construction industry lost 65,00 jobs. Factories cut 63,000, while retailers pared 9,600 positions. The financial sector eliminated 28,000 jobs, while professional and business services dropped 22,000. Even the government lost 18,000 jobs, as the U.S. Postal Service cut 8,500 positions. These figures offer few signs that employers who have slashed their payrolls to conserve money were ready to hire again. Economists say employers must create 300,000 to 400,000 jobs a month to bring unemployment rates back to pre-recession levels
Health care and educational services were the only bright spot, adding 52,000 jobs.
The fact that jobs loss has moderated reflects the impact of the Obama administration’s $877 million stimulus package which has begun to impact the economy and the efforts of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to shore up the nation’s financial system.
Public spending including the now ended "Cash for Clunkers” program have had their intended effect of increasing demand and stimulating production and sales. But employers are clearly reluctant to hire and consumers to spend. Since consumer spending is 70% of the economy, it is hard to see a revival of economic growth until unemployment declines and wages grow. The concern now is whether the federal stimulus is large enough to effectively jump start the economy or whether the current signs of growth and slow down in job loss are a temporary blip that will fad as the stimulus dollars work their way through the economy.
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