News
Politico | Senate unemployment debate returns
A group of deal-seeking Republicans introduced legislation Thursday evening that would extend expired unemployment benefits for five months, serving as a counteroffer to a Democratic bill that revives long-term jobless aid for six months, GOP Senate sources said.
Bloomberg | Payrolls in U.S. Rise 175,000; Unemployment Rate Climbs
Employers added more workers than projected in February, indicating the U.S. economy is starting to bounce back from a weather-induced setback. The jobless rate unexpectedly climbed from a five-year low.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Fortune | Five ways to fix the U.S. job market
Many Americans still aren't working. Friday's monthly jobs report for February is better than most expected. On a deeper level, it underscores a lot of what we've seen in previous months: An ever-smaller share of able-bodied, working-age Americans have jobs. The 2008 financial crisis dented demand for labor, but this decline in employment started years earlier. The U.S. employment-population ratio peaked in the late 1990s and has slid downward ever since.
Blogs
WSJ | Don’t Sweat the Rise in the Unemployment Rate
The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7% but a broader measure of joblessness actually fell 0.1 percentage point to 12.6%, offering a hint of positive news.
Heritage Foundation | Some Recovery: Two Million Fewer Americans Are Employed Than Were a Year Ago
Since this recovery began, job growth has maintained an underwhelming pace of half the employment growth of the average recovery. If the number of jobs had just kept pace with the growth of food stamps recipients, we would have at least 2 million more Americans working today. If the economy were where Obama promised it would be when he signed his stimulus bill, we would have at least 3 million more jobs and an unemployment rate of 5 percent.
WSJ | Jobs Report Highlights: From Bad to Merely Sluggish
Workers’ incomes climbed at a healthy clip. Average hourly earnings for all employees climbed 9 cents to $24.31. Earnings were up 52 cents from a year earlier, or 2.2%.
