Jobs

It's Time to Stop Paying Attention to Inflation

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The October report of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed an increase of one tenth of one percent in the general price level from August to September. Publishing a monthly index provides several ways to look at price changes and inflation. The monthly CPI can be compared with [...]

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How the Minimum Wage Increase Really Affects Job Numbers

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The minimum wage went up to $7.25 an hour on July 24th, a 10.7% increase over last year, as the last of a three-year planned increase passed by Congress. Since inflation is reported at 3.8% for the year the real wage — actual buying power of the minimum wage — went up for 2009. The [...]

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The Recovery Can't Come Without Job Creation

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Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled "More Signs Point to Economic Recovery" where it reported that "[an] expansion of manufacturing growth in consumer spending and improved home sales indicated Thursday that the U.S. economy is on the mend." While spending is up, the claim that the economy is on the mend ignores [...]

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Can a National Risk Pool Save Health Insurance?

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President Obama, in a prime time address to Congress, pledged to reform health care in America. All types of insurance are supposed to let people pay premiums into a risk pool that generates a reserve fund to pay losses. Insurance companies employ mathematicians to analyze actuarial data on mortality — accidents, sickness, disability, retirement and [...]

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To Create Jobs, Industries Must Transform

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The decline of the American Textile industry is well documented. In 1990, there were 928,000 people working in just the apparel industry; by 2008 it was down to 198,000. The decline is more than double the jobs lost in the automobile industry. Most of us see our clothes marked "Made in China" or some far [...]

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Green Jobs Bring Both Benefits and Costs

As part of the Reinvestment and Recovery Act passed earlier this spring, President Obama announced plans to create green jobs. "A green, renewable-energy economy isn't some pie-in-the-sky, far-off future. It is now. It is creating jobs now," he said. The new law provides money and development programs for adopting environmental technologies and helping to expand [...]

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Weekend Linkage: Smart Women, Unemployment and South Park

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Hopefully you're enjoying the day with a BBQ, family and some fireworks. Today's Weekend Linkage will be a bit shorter, so you can read a few great stories and then get back to your day. Liz Pulliam Weston, writing at MSN Money, wonders Do smart women marry money? I have [...]

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