Unemployment Reaches 10.2 Percent

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Unemployment increased to 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate since 1983, leaving Americans with 190,000 less jobs, Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commission Keith Hall told Congress in a Joint Economic Committee hearing Friday.

“The declines are much smaller and less widespread than they were last Fall and Winter,” Hall said. “Nevertheless, some industries are still experiencing notable employment decline.”

Hall told the committee that in October the heavy construction, manufacturing and retail industries have had a particularly significant decline in employment losing a combined total of 163,000 jobs.

However, he added that some industries have seen an increase in employment. Health care and help services are among the few that have added jobs, with a much smaller figure of 63,000 combined jobs.

Hall said since the recession began the number of unemployed has more than doubled to 15.7 million.

“The number of long-term unemployed remained high in October,” Hall said. “5.6 million workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or more.”

He said the increasing number of people who have become discouraged in looking for work and therefore remained unemployed have added to the problem. In October there was a reported 808,000 discouraged workers, a figure up from 484,000 last year.

“These are individuals are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them,” Hall said.

Committee members on both side of the aisle agreed that in terms of job creation, the economy is not where it needs to be. Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said she believes the nation is on track to recovery, while Republicans argued that the Obama administration has not done enough to facilitate employment growth.

July Statistics Indicate Unemployment Moderation, A “Good Sign,” Says Labor Bureau Commissioner

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

Keith Hall, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released data to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee Friday that indicated a moderation in unemployment, a “good sign” for economic improvement, he said.

According to the Bureau’s statistics, the unemployment rate remained relatively consistent at 9.4% in July. Job losses in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing and financial activities industries continued, while losses in the hardest hit sectors, construction and manufacturing, increased. Employment in leisure and hospitality remained steady and health care employment increased, growing in line with the 2009 trend thus far.

Additional findings in the report show that minorities and the uneducated continue to suffer the most job losses, a trend that parallels unemployment statistics prior to the recession. “The trend is pretty much the same,” Hall said, “so when the overall unemployment rate goes up, it goes up by more for the minorities.”

Despite continued job loss, Hall said that the moderation in the past three months is a “good sign.” “While I would say we’re not in recovery yet, this is the path that we have to go through to get to recovery. We expect to see moderation first before we start actually getting improvement in the labor market,” he said.

Unemployment high in March, Officials say

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

A day after President Barack Obama's budget was passed by a Congress boiling with partisanship, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing unemployment at its highest since 1983. There are now 13.2 million Americans out of work.

The pouring rain in Washington mirrored the sobered mood in the room, as the Joint Economic Committee heard the testimony of Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

March was one of the worst Months on record for unemployment, and when asked outright, Hall told the committee that there were no "bright spots" in the report.

National unemployment climbed to 8.5 percent in March, rising from the level of 8.1 percent in February and 7.6 percent in January.

Hall said that two-thirds of the job loss has happened in the past 5 months. Every state is in recession for the first time in 30 years, according to Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Official unemployment numbers do not encompass underemployed Americans or those who have officially left the workforce. It is reported that 16 percent of the country is out of work or underemployed. One in four of those unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, and of those, half have been looking for work for over a year, Hall said.

Maloney highlighted that last month, 8,000 jobs were lost in the news publishing industry. Those losses total 70,000 job cuts since Dec. 2007, Hall said, adding that most job losses have been see in the manufacturing, construction, and temporary services industries. The only area to see any growth in March was the Healthcare industry, Hall said.

Ranking Committee member Senator Sam Brownback (R-KA) noted that the impact of the ongoing recession was not severe for almost a year after it began in December 2007. Brownback attributed recent dramatic jumps in job losses over the past five months to the lockup in the credit markets and the government bailouts that followed.

The Federal Reserve believes that unemployment will peak at 8.8 percent this year, but Ranking House Committee Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) said that the unemployment rate is already higher than what the administration anticipated for 2009. Brady said that the Obama Administration's "optimistic assumptions" would not get the country out of its current mess.

President Obama’s Economic Stimulus package was passed by Congress earlier this year, and saw an unprecedented amount of money placed into public works meant to put people back to work. Obama has pledged the legislation will save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years.

Read the report here: Bureau of Labor Statistics Report

Chairman Obey: A rising tide has raised only all yachts

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“Loosely speaking, rich dumb kids are more likely to make it through college than poor smart kids, and that’s telling you that we are a society in which whatever we may like to imagine we are not a society that has anything like equality of opportunity,” said Paul Krugman, a Professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and Nobel Prize-winner.

Today at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services hearing, witnesses expressed their thoughts on the economy, healthcare and inequality. Krugman said that one major reason why a growing economy has failed to deliver to ordinary Americans is because of inequality. “Many of the gains in income went to a small minority of very well-off people, with most workers seeing little rise in real wage,” he said. Krugman said that the secondary reason for the failure of economic growth is the dysfunctional health care system. “We are unique among advanced countries in not having some form of universal coverage, yet we spend far more to cover 85 percent of our population than our counterparts spend to cover everyone, with no evidence that we receive correspondingly better care,” Krugman said.

Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, had something different to say about healthcare. Hall said that since the start of the recession in December 2007, 4.4. million payroll jobs have been lost, and the unemployment rate has increased from 4.9 to 8.1 percent. But Hall said “employment has grown only in healthcare, private education, and government.”

“We first need to measure the stimulus package against the current needs of the economy.... The package as it now stands is mitigating. It’s not even enough to prevent us from having a very severe recession.... If we respond to concern about the size of the package by scaling back other government spending we’re undoing the effects of the stimulus package, making it even more inadequate,” concluded Krugman.

Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) concluded the hearing by stating that he believes that we can strengthen the safety net for those who aren’t doing well in the economy through actions like universal healthcare and pension protection. “The problem is that it has been said by others in the past, at some times in our recent history it appears that a rising tide has raised only all yachts.”

Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA) addresses the minority unemployment rate

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA) and Keith Hall, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics address the minority unemployment rate today at a Joint Economic Committee hearing. The unemployment rates for African-Americans and Latino's rise by more than any other race. The hearing was held to address today's statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor which released the rise in the unemployment rate which has risen from 7.2 to 7.6 percent. (3:01)