News
Bloomberg | U.S. Job Prospects at Three-Year High
A measure of job prospects in the U.S. climbed in November to a three-year high, helped by growth in the world’s largest economy.
CNN Money | Men best women in scramble for new jobs
The government's latest jobs report Friday showed a surprisingly large split between men and women. The unemployment rate fell for both groups, but for very different reasons.
USA Today | Millennial entrepreneurs bypass the unemployment line
Mehdi Farsi, Reza Farsi and Eric Ferguson didn't send out resumes seeking a corporate job after they graduated from Arizona State University a few years ago.
WSJ | Farmers Contest Child-Labor Rules
Some farmers are opposing new rules proposed by the federal government that would restrict the chores children can be hired to perform in the nation's fields, including driving tractors and rounding up cattle in corrals on horseback.
Econ Comments
WSJ | Below 9%
There are still six million fewer Americans working today than before the financial meltdown, making this by far the worst jobs recovery in modern times.
Market Watch | Job-creation ideas both parties can agree on
There are a handful of job-creation ideas that could appeal to those at both ends of the political spectrum if the will is there among lawmakers, economists say.
Blogs
Calculated Risk | Employment Summary, Part Time Workers, and Unemployed over 26 Weeks
Through the first ten months of 2011, the economy has added 1.448 million total non-farm jobs or just 131 thousand per month.
American: Enterprise Blog | November jobs report: 7 reasons why it’s better but still terrible
When the U.S. economy grows as slowly as this one has for the past year, history suggests there’s a 70 percent chance of recession happening in the upcoming year.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Unexpected Unemployment Progress Muddies Fed Outlook
Over recent weeks, the comments of a key group of Federal Reserve officials have been leading financial markets to increase their expectations the central bank will provide additional stimulus to the economy at some point.
The Money Illusion | Two anecdotes and a complaint.
In the long run we should reform UI to give workers more “skin in the game”…
Political Calculations | A Four Year Milestone for U.S. Jobs
Four years ago, the number of employed Americans peaked at 146,584,000 in November 2007, just ahead of the U.S. economy itself peaking in December 2007, which marked the starting point for the nation's most recent economic recession.
Calculated Risk | Seasonal Retail Hiring, Duration of Unemployment, Unemployment by Education and Diffusion Indexes
According to the BLS employment report, retailers hired seasonal workers at close to the pre-crisis pace in November.
EconLog | Are These Recessions All the Same?
Here are some data on job losses in each recession since 1970 (I grouped together the two recessions in 1980-1982). I look at total losses in nonfarm payroll employment and losses in employment in the durable goods sector.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Economists React: Something Good Stirring in the Economy?
Economists and others weigh in onthe increase in nonfarm payrolls and the drop in the unemployment rate.
Calculated Risk | Comments on the Employment-Population Ratio
...if the unemployment rate stayed steady, the employment-population ratio would follow the participation rate. This is important because the participation rate is impacted by changes in demographics…
Marginal Revolution | How much do unions matter?
The estimates suggest that about one quarter of the increase in the variance of log earnings from 1979 to 2009 can be accounted for by falling U.S. private sector unionization rates, a larger fraction than earlier studies have found.
American: Enterprise Blog | Why the plunging unemployment rate could mean the U.S. economy is broken
If trend GDP growth is 2.5 percent, and over the past year the economy grew at a 1.5 percent clip, then Okun’s Law predicts the unemployment rate would rise about half a percentage point.
WSJ: Real Time Economics | Did Economy Create Nearly 500,000 Jobs in November?
According to one little-followed measure, the economy created about 500,000 jobs last month — more than four times as many as the government’s official figure of 120,000.
Mercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | Requiring Volunteer Work for Unemployment Benefits
Georgia’s historically high unemployment rate coupled with the fact that its unemployment trust fund has recently reached insolvency, has led law makers to reconsider the structure of their state’s unemployment system.
Reports
Heritage Foundation | Heritage Employment Report: November Jobs Not Quite a Feast
The sharp drop in the unemployment rate was a result of solid job growth in the household survey and also, worryingly, a large exodus of people from the workforce.
