AFPBusiness.com: Unemployment holds at 9.7 percent

Edited by Chris Graham
AFPBusiness.com
  

The unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction and information, while temporary help services added jobs.
  

Read more on AFPBusiness.com.

Unemployment rate takes unexpected dip

 
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net

Don’t get too excited, but the nation’s unemploynent rate made a move in the right direction in January, falling to 9.7 percent from 10.0 percent in December.

“It is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and replace job losses with robust job gains,” said Christina Romer, the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, in a statement on the numbers released Friday.

There are still likely to be “bumps in the road ahead,” Romer warned, and the good news today itself came with some of the bumps, the most noticeable being the revised estimate that has the economy losing more than 1 million more jobs due to the recession than had previously been estimated.

But even slightly good news is good news in an economy that was in freefall for months since the start of the recession in December 2007. Today’s figures show employment in manufacturing in general and motor-vehicle manufacturing in particular on the increase for the first time since January 2007, and the unemployment rate that includes all persons marginally attached to the labor force and workers working part-time for economic reasons falling by a full percentage point.

Local officials back jobs program

  
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

As U.S. mayors gathered in Washington this week to meet with the Obama administration about unemployment and the economy, Virginia local government officials and community leaders are calling for the creation of a Community Jobs program.

The jobs program would provide funding to localities across the country to create 1 million temporary public and private sector jobs. Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota has introduced HR 4268, The Put America to Work Act of 2009, in the U.S. House of Representatives to authorize a Community Jobs Program. The bill has 52 co-sponsors. Community groups and local government officials are working with partners around the country to organize in support of this bill, and to ensure that it becomes law.

Advocates for the legislation stress the urgency in creating new jobs. Since December 2007, when the recession began, the economy has shed 7.2 million jobs. In December 2009, the national unemployment rate was at a staggering 10 percent. Read more

Looking up

  
Column by David Reynolds
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Now let’s see if I’ve got this right. We are just into the new year and the sky has not yet fallen. Yes, I know, no one actually predicted that the clouds would fall. Nevertheless, there were those who kept saying that whatever keeps the human race on a solid footing - be it good manners or gravity - may have left us.

So they set the stage. While the sky did not fall - they said that everything else would. First, let’s go back to March 6 of last year. The pessimists, those who make a living predicting every year the return of the Great Depression, were looking pretty good. They predicted bad tidings, except for Christmas day when the markets are closed. Of course, the pessimists were wrong. On the last day of 2009 it was the bulls with the smiles. The bears? Well, you know what bears look like.

Another example on the economic front. Following World War II there were the same fears as today. Therefore Congress passed The Full Employment Act of 1946, cosponsored by my favorite Democrat, the happy warrior, Sen. Hubert Horatio Humphrey. In 1978 when the economy was again looking down and unemployment was an unacceptable 6.1 percent the goal was to reach full employment - defined as 4.0 percent unemployment - not zero! Read more

Fifth District Report

Column by Tom Perriello

I want to update Virginians on some of the efforts I am undertaking in Congress to get our economy back on track.

You may recall in the Sept. 28 edition of this newsletter, I wrote that the U.S. House voted to extend unemployment benefits only in states where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or higher. Virginia, which has an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent, was not one of the states that would benefit from this bill, so I voted against it. At the same time, I continued to work for solutions for regions like Southside Virginia, which still face local unemployment rates that are unacceptably high. I lobbied congressional leaders and introduced legislation to extend unemployment benefits in all states, including Virginia. Read more

Forbes votes for unemployment-benefits extension

Congressman Randy Forbes (R-4th) announced today that he voted in favor of H.R. 3548, to allow workers to draw an additional 14 weeks of federal unemployment benefits after exhausting their regular 26 weeks of state compensation. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the bill is revenue neutral and paid for through a number of offsets. Read more

Webb pushes unemployment-benefits extension

Sen. Jim Webb today called on the Senate to pass a comprehensive proposal, which he cosponsored, to extend unemployment insurance by up to 14 additional weeks for jobless workers in all 50 states. Nearly two million out-of-work Americans face expiring benefits by the end of the year.

The critical measure was stalled last week by Republican leadership but is expected to more forward in the Senate in the coming weeks. In a competing House proposal, only states with jobless rates above 8.5 percent would qualify for a 13-week extension in benefits for the unemployed, which would exclude Virginia and twenty-two other states from receiving federal funds. Read more

Unemployment rate up nationally

The employment situation in Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley is looking a bit better. The situation nationally - not so much.

The national unemployment rate inched up from 9.7 percent in August to 9.8 percent in September, according to a report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read more

Employment numbers continue to improve

The state unemployment rate dropped in August to three percentage points below the national average, and the rate also dipped locally in the Central Shenandoah Valley.

The state rate was at 6.5 percent in August, down from 6.9 percent in July and 7.3 percent in June, according to data on the Virginia Employment Commission updated Wednesday. Read more

Perriello working on unemployment-benefits issue

Congressman Tom Perriello is fighting to extend unemployment benefits in Virginia after the U.S. House passed a bill that did not benefit Virginia workers.

Last week, the U.S. House passed H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, which only applied to states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher (Virginia’s is currently at 6.5 percent). Prior to the vote, Perriello wrote to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer asking that regional considerations be made to account for areas like Southern Virginia with high unemployment rates. Because the bill would not benefit Virginians, Rep. Perriello broke with his party and voted against the bill. Yesterday, he sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman urging short- and long-term solutions for regions like Southern Virginia. Read more

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