Results tagged “unemployment”

When once prominent lawyer Marc Dreier was arrested for a $700 million scam, the lawyers at his firm fled and the company collapsed . One of the employees, copy machine operator and trainer Carlton Palmer, is featured in a NY Times "Neediest Cases" profile: "He learned of his unemployment by e-mail, and is still owed $2,000 in back wages." Palmer has been looking for work via job listings websites ("I don’t like to get up in the morning and not work. I like a paycheck.") and embarked on training to be a dialysis technician. The Neediest Cases helped him out with some tuition money, but he need a job to complete 2,000 hours before he can get a certification, "Sometimes you feel the pressure, but you hope for the best. You hope for the phone to ring with a 212 number."

After the U.S. Department of Labor announced that October's unemployment rate was 10.2%, one thing that was left unsaid was the number of people who have been unemployed so long they've given up looking for work, not to mention the people who are working part-time but would rather be in full-time jobs. According to the NY Times, "In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982."

The U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment numbers, which have now finally hit the double digits and broken the "10% psychological barrier"—October's unemployment rate is 10.2%, the highest since April 1983, with employers cutting a "deeper-than-expected 190,000 jobs."

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill extending unemployment benefits 98-0. The House is expected to approve the bill and the President Obama is also expected to sign it. NY State, which has already extended unemployment benefits to 79 weeks for the longterm unemployed, would get another 20 weeks because its unemployment rate is higher than 8.5% (it was 8.9% in September; the NYC rate is 10.3%). The NY State Labor Dept.'s Twitter has been keeping followers apprised of the bill's progress.

While there was talk last week of the Senate passing an unemployment benefits extension for another 22 weeks, the Senate was unable to quickly approve the measure—which means that some New Yorkers will be hit hard. The NY Times reports, "That lapse will leave about 37,000 residents of the state...without benefits this week, and will force others to contemplate applying for food stamps or other forms of welfare that they had never considered."

Six months into her job at an NYC law firm, a woman who would only identify herself as "Karin" was terminated. She relocated to St. Louis, Mo., and began studying for the bar exam while staying busy with a food blog, STL Meal Deals. Money was tight; she was living on $405 a week from unemployment benefits from New York, so she thought she'd try generating a little side money by signing up for Google AdSense, which pays bloggers to host ads on their sites and sends checks when their earnings hit $100. It was a pittance that would cost her dearly.

With national unemployment at 9.8%—and NYC unemployment at 10.3%—many have been wondering if (and hoping that) unemployment benefits will be extended. Now it's reported that the Senate has reached a deal to continue benefits for another 13 weeks.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gave his predictions on the economy and unemployment: He thinks the economy will grow 3% in the third quarter (which is more than he previously thought)—and that unemployment will break through 10% and be there for a while.

Ugh, the economy. America lost 263,000 jobs in September, far more than analysts expected, and the national unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, according to the Labor Department's monthly report. (Last month it was announced that 10.3% of NYC is unemployed, the highest rate since the Dinkins administration.) State and local governments across the country slashed 47,000 jobs last month, and now the unemployment rate is at a 26-year high.

Federal Reserve Chairmand Ben Bernanke said that the recession is probably over but had a caveat: "From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point. It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time because many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was." He added in his remarks to the Brookings Institute, "Unfortunately, unemployment will be slow to come down. It will come down but it may take some time. Obviously, that's a very serious concern." Unemployment was 9.7% last month; it's expected to hit 10% by the end of the year.

The U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment figures, revealing that the unemployment rate rose to 9.7% in August, up from 9.4% in July, "The rate had been little changed in June and July, after increasing 0.4 or 0.5 percentage point in each month from December 2008 through May. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.8 percentage points." The possible good news: Employers cut 216,000 jobs last month, which is less than expected and the least since August 2008 (!). An economist told Bloomberg News, "What we’re learning is that the pace of job declines is subsiding. The economy is no longer detonating, but we are still losing jobs, and the unemployment rate is going up. It’s going to be a very tough environment for the consumer." Related: NY State, NYC unemployment figures for July.

The State Department of Labor released July unemployment numbers yesterday and it was slightly better news for the state, not very good news for the city: "New York State's unemployment rate, after seasonal adjustment, decreased from 8.7 percent in June to 8.6 percent in July 2009," but "New York City's rate increased from 9.4 percent in June 2009 to 9.6 percent in July 2009." And NY State-not- including- NYC unemployment decreased from 8.2% in June to 7.9% last month. National unemployment fell from 9.5% in June to 9.4% in July. A state Labor Department economist said, "Although the national economy is showing signs of bottoming out, the outlook for the city’s economy remains weak into 2010.”

Sigh. As unemployment benefits will be drying up by the end of the year, we get this news: Eleven NY State prisoners managed to collect $30,000 in unemployment insurance. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced that after an audit, the payments were discovered and his office was able to stop another $18,000 to the "unemployed" inmates. The Daily News reports, "In some cases, inmates were using the names and Social Security numbers of people on the outside to get benefits." DiNapoli states the obvious, "Convicted criminals should not be collecting unemployment benefits when they are in jail. Taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for this kind of outrageous scam. The Department of Labor and the Department of Corrections took immediate action when our audit findings were brought to their attention and are fully cooperating with us to ensure this does not happen again." The investigation is continuing, but DiNapoli suggested the labor and corrections departments work together to make sure there isn't any overlap with inmate and unemployment lists.

The U.S. Department of Labor revealed that the unemployment rate for July was 9.4%—which is actually down from June's 9.5% rate. Bloomberg News writes, "The pace of U.S. job losses slowed more than forecast last month and the unemployment rate dropped for the first time since April 2008, the clearest signs yet that the worst recession since the Great Depression is easing." (About 2.7 million jobs have been lost since December 2007.) Many analysts had expected the rate to hit 9.6%, so the news is unexpectedly pleasant, though unemployment is still a huge problem. Additionally, the Labor Department reports, "The average monthly job loss for May through July (-331,000) was about half the average decline for November through April (-645,000)," and here are some other unemployment rate stats: "Adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), teenagers (23.8 percent), whites (8.6 percent), blacks (14.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.3 percent) were little changed in July. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted."

One recent college grad in The Bronx is taking the well-trodden path of looking for a paycheck from her alma mater in the face of a job market that has quickly revealed how little a bachelor's degree actually qualifies you for. Except for 27-year-old Trina Thompson, she's not simply hitting up Monroe College for her first post-collegiate job—she's suing them to get her tuition back, saying that they have not done enough to help her find work. Thompson is suing Monroe for $70,000, claiming that the staff members at their career services department "have not tried hard enough to help me" since she graduated in April with an Information Technology degree. Thompson's mother told the Post that she supports the suit. She said, "She's angry...She put all her faith in them, and so did I. They're not making an effort...We're going to be homeless, and we'll still have a student loan to pay." A spokesman for the school laughed off the lawsuit, saying it "is completely without merit" and "does not deserve further consideration."

City Comptroller Bill Thompson is releasing some economic data and it's grim. Here are some stats from his press release: "New York City unemployment rate is likely to reach 9.5% by early 2010," "More than one in seven New Yorkers were unemployed or underemployed in the first quarter of 2009," and "Overall unemployment rose by 72% between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009, but unemployment in the African-American community swelled by 167%. The unemployment rate among African-Americans during the first quarter of this year rose to 14.7% - four times faster than with other ethnic groups." The NY Times dives into African-American unemployment figures; one man who lost his customer service job said, "My department was mostly black and Hispanic. Management was mostly white and they didn’t get let go. You would think they would trim the fat from the top, not the bottom, because it’s the lower-wage workers that do the bulk of the work."

The city is gearing up for more families to enter the shelter system: The NY Times reports, "Because the homeless population this spring was up more than 20 percent over last spring, possibly because of higher unemployment, officials are girding for an all-time high in the number of families in shelters at once, expecting close to 10,000. Already, the number has reached 9,420...In New York, the number of homeless families applying for shelter in the summer has been 28 percent higher than the rest of the year the last three years." Some families wait till the summer to enter the shelter system, so their children can at least finish the school year, after they decided to leave terrible apartment situations (one family's fight with their landlord left them without gas or electricity for months) or when their relatives kick them. One woman said, "My sister said we couldn’t stay with her anymore. I said once [my daughter is] done with school, we’d get out." The Bloomberg administration says it's ready, and will use some not-quite full shelters and vacant apartment buildings.

Yesterday, This Week With George Stephanopoulos aired an interview with Vice President Joe Biden. Pointing out that unemployment is now 9.5%, Stephanopoulos said, "When the president and you all were selling the stimulus package, you predicted at the beginning that, to get this package in place, unemployment will peak at about 8 percent. So, either you misread the economy, or the stimulus package is too slow and to small." To which Biden replied, "The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there. so the truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited...It's now our responsibility. So the second question becomes, did the economic package we put in place, including the Recovery Act, is it the right package given the circumstances we're in? And we believe it is the right package given the circumstances we're in.... We are now only about 120 days into the recovery package. The truth of the matter was, no one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having to distribute the bulk of money." Full transcript here—and in other news, stock futures are down on concerns about the economy.

A bill to raise New York's unemployment benefits, which allow a maximum payout of $430/week ($150 less than states like NJ and Connecticut), has died on the vine. Despite support from Governor Paterson, labor leaders and many lawmakers, the highly dysfunctional Senate seems incapable of passing the bill, which would have raised maximum weekly jobless benefits on July 1st to $625, and close the gap in the state’s unemployment trust fund. According to the Times, it's as good as dead, because apparently the Assembly is not currently scheduled to convene until January. Meanwhile, the state’s Labor Department reports that more New Yorkers were out of work than at any time in more than 30 years; last month the jobless rate hit 7.8% (in NYC, the rate is 8.1%). Advocate for the unemployed Andrew Stettner says, "It’s a big problem that we’ve fallen so short in terms of not doing this. What was nice about this legislation was it got the benefits out during the recession and it had a plan for paying back the fund over several years. It was a smart approach." Ah, but Albany doesn't really do smart approaches.

Yesterday, the NY State Department of Labor revealed that statewide unemployment rose from 7.7% in April to 8.2% in May, while NYC unemployment hit 9.0% in May, after being at 8.0% in April: "The state's private sector job count has now dropped for nine consecutive months. Since the state's private sector job count peaked in August 2008, New York has lost 212,200 private sector jobs, erasing more than half of the 400,000 jobs added during the state's last economic expansion from 2003 to 2008."

Even though the Department of Labor revealed that 345,000 jobs had been lost in May, it was still the least in the past 8 months. Bloomberg News says economists it survery had predicted "a decrease of 520,000 jobs"—which is why the markets (so far) have perked up. An economist at T. Rowe Price told the NY Times, "It supports the idea that before the end of the year and maybe even by late summer we could be at flat employment,” meaning no more net job losses. During the course of next year, we’ll probably start to feel better," but another at High Frequency Economics said, "These are still terrible numbers. We’re a million miles away from a recovery.”

With the state jobless rate at, by the latest numbers, 7.8% (in NYC, the rate is 8.1%) and prospects of an economic recovery slow at best, the NY Times reports, "Lawmakers in Albany agreed on Tuesday to change the state’s unemployment insurance system in order to prevent more than 100,000 New Yorkers from running out of jobless benefits starting later this month." The State Legislature must vote on the changes which "are intended to make New York eligible to collect $645 million in federal stimulus money for its unemployment insurance system. Most of that money — $370 million — would extend benefits to people who have been collecting unemployment pay for more than a year. The rest would go toward closing a gap in the state’s insolvent unemployment fund." Apparently Albany has given up on trying to revamp the entire system (which gives a max of $430/week in benefits, $150 less than states like NJ and Connecticut) in order to at least get the benefits extension done.

              

This is not your grandfather's bread line. The first ever Unemployment Olympics was held yesterday afternoon in Tompkins Square Park. Organizer Nick Goddard, who's been unemployed from computer programming since February, said his goal was simply to cheer up his fellow layabouts and give them shot at the gold with gift certificates from local businesses. And because the press photographers and reporters often outnumbered the participants, we're guessing the local merchants were delighted with the exposure.

The New York State Department of Labor released their monthly unemployment numbers today and the city's jobless rate had its biggest jump since records began being tallied in 1976. Over the last ten years, the city adds an average of just under 19,000 jobs in February—this year it lost 3,600. An analyst with the Labor Department told the Times, “The city’s economy continues to weaken month-by-month with over-the-year losses widening dramatically." Meanwhile national claims rose by 5.5 million in February, the highest number in over 40 years, and much worse than economists predicted. Over the last few months, the city has been losing jobs at a higher rate than the rest of the nation.

Yesterday, the NY State Department of Labor revealed the state unemployment rate climbed to 7% in January, up from 6.6% in December. More troubling, 25% of the 400,000 jobs added between July 2003 (the state's last decline) and August 2008 were lost in the final months of 2008. Division of Research and Statistics. director Peter Neenan said the data "continue to underscore the severity of the steadily deepening recession in New York State." There are almost 500,000 New Yorkers collecting unemployment right now.

The U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment numbers: The unemployment rate was 8.1% in February, with 651,000 jobs slashed during the month. Reuters reports the 8.1% figure "was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent." This continues a trend of massive layoffs across the country since last year: 533,000 jobs were lost in November, 681,000 in December, and 655,000 in January.

Today, Monster.com is kicking off its "Keep America Working" tour with a job fair at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square (it's at 1535 Broadway, at 46th Street, on the 5th floor), which starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. WCBS 2 reports that over 90 employers will be at the job fair and thousands of job seekers are expected. In a small bit of less-depressing- than-the-usual news, jobless claims fell 31,000 from the original estimate of 670,000 claims for the week ending February 28. Of course, 639,000 jobless claims is no fun and the number of people continuing to stay on unemployment is 5.11 million (for the week ending February 21). Reuters says, "That number remains near record highs, indicating that the harsh economic environment is making it tough to find new jobs."

The U.S. Department of Labor just released the latest revised unemployment figures, and for the week ending February 21, jobless claims were 667,000. This is the highest reading since since October 1982 (back then, claims were 695,000). Reuters adds, "The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of assistance increased by 114,000 to a 5.112 million in the week ended Feb. 14, the most recent week for which data is available. The so-called continued claims topped every estimate in a Reuters poll of 15 economists, which had a consensus forecast of 5.00 million."

NY State has been borrowing money from the federal government in order to pay the unemployment claims of New Yorkers since the beginning of the year, and now the state will kick in more money for the overall unemployment budget. The NY Times reports, "state lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to authorize paying out an additional $2 billion this year to the unemployed," and explains that the original budget was $3 billion for unemployment benefits but "state officials now estimate those payouts will rise to $4.6 billion as the recession grinds on." Per the latest (December 2008) numbers, the NY State unemployment is now 7%, but it's 7.4% in NYC. More food for thought: The max unemployment NYers can draw is $405/week; in NJ it's $584, in CT it's $576, and in Massachusetts it's $628.

President Barack Obama stressed the importance of his $800 billion economic stimulus package during his first prime time press conference. Before taking questions from the media, he explained why the package was important by mentioning his visit to Elkhart, Indiana, where the unemployment rate has tripled from 4.7% to 15.4% in the past year—"The single most important part of this Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs. Because that is what America needs most right now." He also added, after mentioning the plan has support, input and compromises from both parties:

Despite all of this, the plan is not perfect. No plan is. I can’t tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans. My administration inherited a deficit of over $1 trillion, but because we also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression, doing too little or nothing at all will result in an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes; and confidence. That is a deficit that could turn a crisis into a catastrophe. And I refuse to let that happen. As long as I hold this office, I will do whatever it takes to put this country back to work.