Mitt Romney no doubt appreciates the million bucks his former Bain Capital protégé Edward Conard has donated to his election SuperPAC. He may not appreciate quite as much the shout-out he gets in the acknowledgements of Conard’s forthcoming book on economic inequality, and why we need more of it — a book that one observer suggests could well become “the most hated book of the year.”
The economic-news meme of 2011 was the “jobless recovery,” a term used to describe a U.S. economy that began growing again in the third quarter of 2009 even as unemployment remained stubbornly high. Of late, however, the roles are reversed: GDP growth has slowed in recent months, even though we’ve seen robust job growth. So what gives?
Economy watchers talk often about the economic recoveries requiring a “virtuous circle.” In such a scenario, job growth leads to higher wages and increased consumer demand, which in turn lead to more job growth. Does the Labor Departments announcement that the U.S. economy added 227,000 new jobs mean we’ve reached such a point?
U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in February to complete three of the best months of hiring since the recession began. The unemployment rate was unchanged, largely because more people streamed into the work force.
In his fiscal 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has suggested a temporary 10% tax credit designed to spur job creation and wage growth among small businesses. It’s a fine idea with a long pedigree — just the ticket if you’re in the market for small-bore economic policies that sound cool but don’t do much.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits headed higher last week—not a good sign for the strength of the economic recovery. Or should I say “recovery”? The Department of Labor numbers, out this morning, mark the fourth increase in the past five weeks and the highest rate of claims in nine months. Another set of government [...]
Health care reform passed. Now it looks like financial re-regulation will, too. For a long time, businesses have been complaining that they can’t hire and they can’t invest because of all the uncertainty the Obama Administration has injected into the system. Who can make plans when no one knows what the American health care system [...]
Richard Florida’s recent piece in the FT, “America needs to make its bad jobs better,” presents a pretty interesting argument, one that a nation so focused on job creation might want to keep in mind. Florida points out, as plenty of others have before, that the sorts of service-sector jobs the U.S. is on track [...]
I’ve gone on and on about how not to create jobs. In the cover story of this week’s Time, I explain what will work. The piece begins: Later this year, a marketing manager will sit down for his first day of work at HomeAway, a company that helps people rent their vacation homes online. In [...]
From the LA Times: The Senate today passed by a 68-29 margin a $17.6-billion measure intended to spur hiring nationwide, sending the bill to the White House for the president’s expected signature… The bill would grant employers an exemption from their 6.2% Social Security payroll contribution for every new employee hired through the rest of the [...]
