September, 16 2021, 11:09am EDT
Investigation Finds Hidden Disparities in the Post-Pandemic Labor Market Recovery
Who is and is not benefitting from this year’s extraordinary job growth and rapid declines in unemployment.
WASHINGTON
As the economy emerged from pandemic lockdown, over 4.2 million jobs were added in the first half of 2021, and the rate of job openings hit record highs. Yet, the transition from unemployment to employment is lower than expected. A new article published today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) investigates how different demographic groups are transitioning into jobs, as seen in the job opening rates.
The article's title, Black and Asian American Workers Falling Behind in Getting Back Jobs, by Julie Y. Cai and Dean Baker, reflects the biggest takeaway from their investigation. The current job transition rate for these workers was slower during the first half of 2021 than would be expected, given job openings rates seen in the last two decades.
Age was another factor in the rate of job transitions. In the first half of 2021, unemployed workers in their later prime-age appear to have a slightly lower rate of gaining jobs, while unemployed young workers, 16 to 19-years-old, transitioned into jobs at a higher rate than predicted.
"While we cannot directly determine the reason for gaps in transition rates from these data, it can be suggestive," explains co-author Cai. "Young unemployed workers may find it relatively easy to fill vacancies in the service or hospitality sectors."
"Clearly this is a labor market in which many workers are facing considerable hardship as well as discrimination, while others are seeing unusual possibilities," says co-author Baker.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.
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'The Last Thing We Need': Critics Decry US Government's OK of $31 Billion Railroad Merger
"The East Palestine disaster raised significant questions about rail safety," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in response to the approval of Canadian Pacific's acquisition of Kansas City Southern. "Allowing this merger is a mistake."
Mar 15, 2023
U.S. federal regulators on Wednesday approved the first major railroad merger in more than two decades, a move that follows the East Palestine rail disaster and that critics warned would reduce competition, raise prices, cost jobs, and threaten safety.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved Canadian Pacific Railway Limited's proposed $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern Railway Company, a merger that will create a single railroad linking Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The agency said the merger will take roughly 64,000 truckloads off the road and add more than 800 union jobs.
"The decision includes an unprecedented seven-year oversight period and contains many conditions designed to mitigate environmental impacts, preserve competition, protect railroad workers, and promote efficient passenger rail," STB said, adding that it "also anticipates the merger will result in improvements in safety and the reduction of carbon emissions."
"Shame on STB for disregarding both the administration and the rail workers who know all too well that corporate consolidation leads to a more dangerous rail industry."
However, opponents of the deal pointed to the East Palestine, Ohio disaster and other recent railroad accidents, which they said underscored the need for a more cautious approach to consolidation.
"The merger brings the total number of Class 1 railroads to six, down from over 100 just a few decades ago," the progressive news site More Perfect Unionnoted on Twitter. "Corporate consolidation in the railroad industry compromises safety and risks lives by prioritizing profits and cutting corners to reduce costs."
"Despite concerns from small towns and suburban Chicago cities, the STB ruled, based on data provided by industry, that the only community and environmental impacts of the merger would be an increase in noise," More Perfect Union continued.
"The Biden administration has taken a strong antitrust stance by blocking the $3.8 billion JetBlue-Spirit merger and urging the STB to do the same for Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern (CP-KCS), citing the need to promote competition in the railroad industry," the outlet said.
"Shame on STB for disregarding both the administration and the rail workers who know all too well that corporate consolidation leads to a more dangerous rail industry," More Perfect Union added. "The last thing we need is another merger right now."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—who earlier this month wrote to STB Chair Martin Oberman asking the agency to reject the merger—similarly tweeted that "we don't need another rail merger that'll crush competition, reduce safety, increase prices, and destroy jobs."
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who represents some Chicago suburbs through which the new international railway will run, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that "even before the disaster in Ohio, I had been warning about the threats to communities in my district that would come from a potential CP-KCS merger."
Itasca, Illinois Administrator Carie Anne Ergo—who chairs the Stop CPKCS Coalition—toldThe Washington Post that "the tragedy in Ohio is an illustration of what we've been talking about can happen."
"If what happened in East Palestine happened here in Itasca, the entire community would need to evacuate," she added. "It's terrifying."
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Reparations Demanded 20 Years After US Launched 'War-for-Profit' in Iraq
"We should not let the difficulty of securing justice deter us from seeking it—for Iraqis and for all others harmed by U.S. imperialism, exploitation, and genocide," said the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Mar 15, 2023
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the George W. Bush administration's illegal invasion of Iraq this weekend, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights on Wednesday renewed its call for reparations "for those harmed as a result of the U.S.'s unlawful act of aggression in its cruel, senseless, and baseless war-for-profit."
"Ten years ago, we teamed up with Iraqi civil society groups and U.S. service members to demand redress," the nonprofit explained, "and this need only becomes more urgent as the incalculable human toll of the war continues to grow: hundreds of thousands dead, some two million disabled, some nine million displaced, environmental devastation, countless people tortured, traumatized, or otherwise harmed in ways unseen, occupation and embrace of torture as policy in the so-called 'War on Terror,' and an entire generation that was born and raised in only war."
As Common Dreams reported earlier Wednesday, the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates that already, "the total costs of the war in Iraq and Syria are expected to exceed half a million human lives and $2.89 trillion" by 2050.
The project also said that "an estimated 300,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, while the reverberating effects of war continue to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands more."
"Justice also entails accountability for the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, including those responsible for the torture."
Such figures have fueled calls from groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which asserted that "reparations are rooted in precedent and international law, as well as a strong tradition of justice-based organizing by civil rights movements, and we should not let the difficulty of securing justice deter us from seeking it—for Iraqis and for all others harmed by U.S. imperialism, exploitation, and genocide."
"Justice also entails accountability for the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, including those responsible for the torture" in Iraq and beyond, argued the center—which since 2004 has filed three lawsuits against U.S-based military contractors on behalf of Iraqis tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison and also sued Erik Prince and his company Blackwater over the Nisour Square massacre
"Legal efforts against high-level political and military leaders for the invasion itself and the many crimes committed in the 'War on Terror' pose a different set of challenges, as demonstrated by our efforts to hold high-level Bush-administration officials accountable at the International Criminal Court for crimes in or arising out of the war in Afghanistan or under universal jurisdiction," CCR noted. "Those of us pursuing accountability can draw inspiration from activists in other countries like Argentina and Guatemala who waged successful campaigns over several decades."
Highlighting that "Congress continues its overbroad authorizations for use of military force," the center argued that "such authorizations must be repealed, and the unlawful policies of endless war and militarization must be replaced with international-law-based, rights-respecting policies and practices."
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Thursday to repeal both the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq. While the measure's sponsor, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), has been publicly optimistic about passage, it would then need approval from the GOP-controlled House of Representatives before being sent to President Joe Biden's desk for signature.
In a move decried by progressives as "madness," the president last week proposed a budget for fiscal year 2024 featuring a historic $886.4 billion in military spending, including $397.5 million to fight what is left of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, as CCR pointed out Wednesday, "just this month, the House voted 414-2 to maintain unilateral sanctions on Syria even though—or because—they have caused widespread suffering and hindered earthquake relief efforts. The U.S. has imposed similar deadly sanctions on Cuba for decades. Such manifestations of imperialism differ from the war on Iraq only in degree. Indeed, deadly sanctions on Iraq were a precursor to the U.S. invasion."
In its lengthy statement, the center also said that "as we call for justice for Iraqis, we stand in solidarity with all people who live in countries targeted by U.S. imperialism, and in particular, in Afghanistan, whose civilians have been subjected to endless war and destruction, politicization, and then abandonment of human rights protections, and state-facilitated humanitarian suffering."
"They include not only those killed and maimed by the U.S. military and its proxies but also those harmed by U.S. sanctions and coups, corporate plunder and extraction, and austerity regimes imposed by U.S.-dominated colonial institutions," the center added, pointing to the International Monetary Fund. "It also includes Palestinians, who are subjugated by Israel, a U.S. imperial outpost."
"U.S. warmaking has long fed fascism at home," the group continued, calling out police violence, immigration restrictions, racial and religious profiling, and mass surveillance. "The trillions of dollars spent on militarism and criminalization abroad and in the U.S. must be reallocated to address the material needs and fulfill the human rights of our most marginalized communities."
"On this ignominious anniversary," CCR concluded, "we recommit to our vision of a world in which revolutionary movements across countries and continents struggle together for liberation from U.S. imperialism and all other oppressive systems of power."
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Iraq War Costs Could Hit Nearly $3 Trillion by 2050: Report
The Costs of War Project said the U.S.-led invasion and occupation "caused massive death, destruction, and political instability," killing hundreds of thousands of people while displacing millions more.
Mar 15, 2023
As the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq approaches, a leading research institute on Wednesday said that "the total costs of the war in Iraq and Syria are expected to exceed half a million human lives and $2.89 trillion" by 2050.
The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs said that "this budgetary figure includes costs to date, estimated at about $1.79 trillion, and the costs of veterans' care through 2050."
According to the project:
March 19-20, 2023 marks 20 years since United States forces invaded Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, under the false claim that his regime was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. The ensuing war, in which U.S. ground presence peaked in 2007 with over 170,000 soldiers, caused massive death, destruction, and political instability in Iraq. Among the consequences was the increase of sectarian politics, widespread violence, and the rise of the Islamic State militant group with its terror attacks throughout the Middle East.
Though the U.S. government officially ended its Iraq War in 2011, the repercussions of the invasion and occupation as well as subsequent and ongoing military interventions have had an enormous human, social, economic, and environmental toll. An estimated 300,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, while the reverberating effects of war continue to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands more.
The new report includes estimates for Syria, which the United States began bombing during the Obama administration after Islamic State militants rose to power amid the destabilization and power vacuum caused by the Iraq invasion and Syrian civil war. Including Syria, the Costs of War Project says between 550,000-580,000 people have been killed since March 2003, and "several times as many may have died due to indirect causes such as preventable diseases."
"More than 7 million people from Iraq and Syria are currently refugees, and nearly 8 million people are internally displaced in the two countries," the publication notes.
University of Oxford professor and Costs of War Project co-director Neta C. Crawford, who authored the report, said in a statement that "the Bush administration was convinced and assured the American people and the world that the war would have few casualties of all kinds—civilian and military—and would lead to quick victory."
"As the Costs of War Project has documented consistently, these optimistic assumptions are confronted by a record of death, high and ongoing costs, and regional devastation," she added.
Those ongoing costs include a recent $397.5 million budget request from the Biden administration to fight what's left of Islamic State.
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