An adviser to President Obama explains that low consumer demand for goods and services is what’s responsible for the country’s high unemployment rates. In other words, because people aren’t spending money, other people don’t have jobs that would have been funded largely by that spending. And why aren’t people spending? One reason is that …
unemployment
Why Are Workers Happy with Fewer Benefits and Longer Hours?
To begin with, they know that such a position is better than having a job without benefits—or not having a job at all.
Hallelujah! Could It Actually Be Possible that Gas Prices WON’T Soar this Summer?
It’s become an annual tradition: As the temperature rises, so does the price of gasoline. But—dare to dream—this summer may different.
From Job Hopping to Career Monogamy
Not long ago, a job wasn’t expected to be much more than a fling—a mutually beneficial arrangement that lasted maybe a couple of years, if all was going well. Workers hopped from job to job in the ’90s and early ’00s like swingers hopped from bed to bed in the ’70s. In the era of the Great Recession, however, workers are eager to stay …
Caught Between a Late Fee and a Payday Loan
Payday loans are bashed by consumer watchdogs because of the loan shark-like interest rates involved, which can exceed 450% when annualized. Nonetheless, the payday loan business is thriving, especially as consumers realize that an actual job is not required. The day your unemployment check arrives also counts as a payday, so if you’re …
The Egg McMuffin-Unemployment Connection
It’s hard to justify a trip to the drive-thru first thing in the morning when you don’t have a job. Also, when you’re unemployed, “first thing in the morning” may occur sometime after fast food restaurants have already begun serving lunch.
No Job? 24 Quick Ways You Can Earn Some Cash
Sell your blood! Recycle scrap metal! Become an egg donor! Let your body be used in a clinical trial!
Rich people still have jobs, poor people don’t
Bob Herbert’s column in yesterday’s New York Times pointed out that the unemployment crisis is not hitting all parts of the income spectrum equally. I was pretty stunned by the numbers, which go like this:
| Range of incomes (by decile) | Unemployment rate |
| $12,160 or less | 30.8% |
| $12,160-$20,725 | 19.1% |
| $20,725-$29,680 | 19.7% |
…
Out of work? A temp job might not be your best bet
While I was out of town I missed this new paper (PDF) from MIT economist David Autor, which shows that people who are out of work and take a temporary gig until a full-time position comes along might be doing damage to their long-term earnings power.
Autor and Susan Houseman of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research studied a …
New column: The real jobless rate
I’ve got a column online and in the issue of TIME with the Year in Pictures on the cover. It’s about measuring unemployment. In it I cite a Bureau of Labor Statistics study that found that what people said about their interest in getting a job wasn’t all that predictive of whether they’d actually get one down the road. It’s here if you …
Odd Economic Indicator Round-up: More Jews Moving to Israel, More-Cramped Cubicles, More Smoking and Surfing Porn
Perhaps they’re not quite as odd as the Hot Waitress Index (a theory in which waitresses get increasingly more attractive as the economy gets worse), but these trends are still rather unusual—yet revealing—indicators of how the economy is faring.
The jobs report: You have to admit, it’s getting better
The unemployment rate is down to 10%. Payroll employment, a more reliable month-to-month indicator, was “essentially unchanged.” That’s Bureau of Labor Statistics lingo for 11,000 fewer jobs than the month before. So the number is still negative, but after 21 straight months of 100,000+ job losses, it’s pretty encouraging news.
Now for …