Articles tagged with: jobs

The big news today is neither new nor unexpected: Big job losses. Another 650,000 in February, on top of 600,000 in January. That puts total job losses at more than 4.4 million since December 2007. The unemployment rate is now 8.1 percent, which is higher than its been in more than 25 years. The numbers [...]

Some questions about President Obama’s budget, regarding each item and expenditure: Who benefits? Who, specifically, is getting our taxpayer money? Is that appropriate and cost-effective? Those are fairly obvious, though often not asked, and the answers typically come in a cloud of conventional assumptions and rhetoric. Here’s a fourth: Would that still make sense if [...]

The numbers have been the lead in many news reports over the past day — 598,000 jobs lost in January. The unemployment rate now 7.6 percent, a one-month jump from the already high 7.2 percent. Reading and listening to the news, it’s interesting to note the abstract, passive language. One formulation I like is “The [...]

Here’s some data from The Associated Press: “The country has seen sizable layoffs during the current recession, which began in December 2007. A net total of about 2.6 million jobs were lost last year.” “In another report, the government said that new jobless claims jumped far more than expected last week in an already dismal [...]

From Barack Obama on down, politicians, economists, pundits, and journalists are obsessed with creating and saving jobs. Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan would save or create three million to four million jobs at a cost of $775 billion. If it’s three million jobs, that’s $260,000 a job. Four million jobs would be $194,000 each. These [...]