job loss

Americans, Their Smiley-Face Facade, and Reality

Whenever I think of the smiley-face icon, I think of Wal-Mart because of its once-ubiquitous ad campaign. And when I think of Wal-Mart, I think of crappy wages and insecure employees who probably live paycheck to paycheck. That metaphor -- the happy face fronting a world of worry -- is the subject of a new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America , by social commentator Barbara Ehrenreich.

The Secret About Jobs Military Contractors Don't Want You to Know

We've all seen the dismal reports of this recession in the papers. We all probably know someone who's personally felt its effects. Job losses in September reached 263,000, the worst in 26 years, and the real economy shows few signs of a near recovery.

Obama Must Get Going on Jobs

Five days before taking the oath of office, Barack Obama called on the millions of people who had actively campaigned for him to be the engine for real change in America: "I don't want them to just sit around and wait for me to do something. I want them to be pushing their agendas."

He asked for it, so let's shove this agenda into his line of vision: jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future. Jobs doing useful work that contributes to American progress and the common good. Lots and lots of those jobs.

Whose Economic Recovery?

President Obama's highly anticipated health care speech started on a totally different subject: The economy.

"When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," he told Congress and the people at home. "We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse."

Want to Stimulate the Economy? Lower the Retirement Age to 55 Now!

One of the most powerful forms of stimulus we could apply to our economy right now would be to lower the current Social Security retirement age from the current 65-67 to 55, and increase the benefits back to where they were in inflation-adjusted 1960s dollars by raising them between 10 to 20 percent (so people could actually live, albeit modestly, on Social Security).

Use Jobless Time to Build Better World

In most parts of the world, mass unemployment brings the specter of mass social unrest. Not in the U.S., though, where 13 million people have accepted joblessness with nary a peep of protest.

Many reasons -- from Prozac to Pentecostalism -- have been cited to explain American passivity in the face of economic violence. But the truth might be far simpler: In America, being unemployed doesn't mean you have nothing to do but run around burning police cars. Unemployment has been reconfigured as a new form of work.

The Secret War Against American Workers

Juanita Borden, 39 and jobless, patiently waits as her résumé methodically works its way, line by line, through a fax machine at a state-run job center in downtown Philadelphia. Lying open before her on a round conference table is a neatly organized folder. "This is my résumé and everywhere I've been faxing to. This is how I keep track of what day I've sent them on, so I can call and check back," she says, leafing through pages of fax cover sheets.

Posted in job loss, labor

Behind the Curve

President Obama's plan to stimulate the economy was "massive," "giant," "enormous." So the American people were told, especially by TV news, during the run-up to the stimulus vote. Watching the news, you might have thought that the only question was whether the plan was too big, too ambitious.

Yet many economists, myself included, actually argued that the plan was too small and too cautious. The latest data confirm those worries - and suggest that the Obama administration's economic policies are already falling behind the curve.

For Ex-Offenders, Older Workers, Uneducated, Jobs Even Harder to Find

Dwayne Speller, 22, waits to talk to a counselor at the Nevada Jobconnect Career Center in Las Vegas, Friday, March 6, 2009. The number of new jobless claims and the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits both dropped more than expected last week, though they remain at elevated levels and are unlikely to fall substantially in the coming months. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

WASHINGTON - Julie Sizemore can only imagine what employers think when her resume crosses their desks.

After all, the Danville, Ky., native is an ex-convict trying to re-enter the workforce during a severe recession after having spent several years at home caring for her three children. Hardly the type of credentials that would ordinarily help her rise above the throngs of recent college graduates and middle managers with MBAs all clamoring for the same jobs as baristas or restaurant greeters.

Posted in job loss

Farewell to Jobs

According to a recently released AP-GfK poll, 32% of Americans are crazy.

Oh, sorry. The poll actually revealed that 47% of those asked worry "a lot" or "some" about the possibility of losing their jobs. True, that's nearly twice as many as the same poll detected in February 2008, when only 28% of Americans polled raised their hands and acknowledged anxiety.

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