N.J. Democrats to push for paid sick time
TRENTON – New Jersey Democrats and labor activists are pushing to require private employers to provide paid leave for workers who are sick or who need to attend to loved ones with an illness. About 38 percent of the state’s private-sector workforce, or 1.2 million employees, do not have access to earned sick leave, according to a 2013 study by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work. (Seidman/The Philadelphia Inquirer)
https://www.philly.com/philly/
Group questions Christie’s tax breaks for business
Bloomberg reported “Since February 2010, New Jersey companies have regained 125,700 jobs, about half the number lost during the slump. New York got back all the jobs it shed by 2012.” The report said eight of New Jersey’s 10 largest subsidies have come since 2010, including $210.8 million for Newark-based Prudential Financial Inc. to build a new office a few blocks away from its old one. Panasonic Corp. was awarded $102.4 million to move its North American headquarters to Newark from Secaucus after the company threatened to leave New Jersey. (Ingle/The Asbury Park Press)
https://www.app.com/story/news/
37.2%: Percentage Not in Labor Force Remains at 36-Year High
June 6, 2014 – 8:05 AM
(CNSNews.com) – The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who do not have a job and are not actively seeking one remained at a 36-year high in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In December, April, and now May, the labor force participation rate has been 62.8 percent. That means that 37.2 percent were not participating in the labor force during those months.
Before December, the last time the labor force participation rate sunk as low as 62.8 percent was February 1978, when it was also 62.8 percent. At that time, Jimmy Carter was president.
In April, the number of those not in the labor force hit a record high of 92,018,000. In May, that number declined by 9,000 to 92,009,000. Yet, the participation rate remained the same from April to May at 62.8 percent.
The labor force, according to BLS, is that part of the civilian noninstitutional population that either has a job or has actively sought one in the last four weeks. The civilian noninstitutional population consists of people 16 or older, who are not on active duty in the military or in an institution such as a prison, nursing home, or mental hospital.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/372-percentage-not-labor-force-remains-36-year-high
The American Dream is out of reach
By Tami Luhby
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The American Dream is impossible to achieve in this country.
So say nearly 6 in 10 people who responded to CNNMoney’s American Dream Poll, conducted by ORC International. They feel the dream — however they define it — is out of reach.
Young adults, age 18 to 34, are most likely to feel the dream is unattainable, with 63% saying it’s impossible. This age group has suffered in the wake of the Great Recession, finding it hard to get good jobs.
Younger Americans are a cause of great concern. Many respondents said they are worried about the next generation’s ability to prosper.
Some 63% of all Americans said most children in the U.S. won’t be better off than their parents. This dour view comes despite most respondents, 54%, feeling they are better off than their own parents.
The downbeat mood is not surprising, say economic mobility experts.
“The pessimism is reflective of the financial realities a lot of families are facing,” said Erin Currier, the director of the Economic Mobility Project at Pew Charitable Trusts. “They are treading water, but their income is not translating into solid financial security.”
https://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/economy/american-dream/index.html
Summertime Blues: Teen Unemployment in Major U.S. Cities Tops 50 Percent
June 2, 2014 – 4:16 PM
By Penny Starr
(CNSNews.com) – A new analysisby the Employment Policy Institute (EPI) shows that unemployment among teens without a high school diploma is more than 50 percent in two of the largest U.S. cities.
Using U.S. Census Bureau data from May 2013 to April 2014, the analysis reveals that in Riverside-San Bernardino area of Southern California, the unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 years old who don’t have a high school diploma is 54.2 percent.
In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore., metropolitan area, the unemployment rate from that population is 53.8 percent.
“These numbers are staggering,” Michael Saltsman, director of research at EPI told CNSNews.com. “Teens across the country this summer are missing out on valuable work experience as they continue to suffer through an extended period of high unemployment and difficult job prospects.”
https://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/summertime-blues-teen-unemployment-major-us-cities-tops-50-percent
Thomas Piketty (Photo: IBO/SIPA/Newscom)
Piketty’s Questionable Data
Salim Furth, Ph.D
May 27, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Thomas Piketty made some questionable choices in adjusting and presenting the data that underlies his bestselling economics tome, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” Chris Giles, economics editor of the Financial Times newspaper, published a detailed list of apparent fudges in Piketty’s data.
Giles’ most explosive accusation is that Piketty chose data sources that were friendliest to his own preconceived ideas. For example, both the United States and the United Kingdom have two potential data sources for wealth: estate tax records and surveys of living households. In the U.S., Piketty uses the household survey, which showed rising wealth concentration. But in the U.K., he chose to use the inferior-quality estate tax data, which also showed rising wealth concentration. If he’d flipped both choices, he would have found falling inequality in the U.K. and steady inequality in the U.S. Giles is correct when he says, “Choices matter.” Giles’ estimates of U.K. wealth inequality in recent ecades are much lower than Piketty’s, and Piketty will need to defend his choices if we are to believe that U.K. wealth inequality has been rising.
Piketty presents data showing that wealth inequality rose slightly in Sweden from 2000 to 2010. But his “2000” data point actually is 2004 data, and his “2010” data point actually is an average of 2005 and 2006. When Giles used the data from 2000, he found that inequality actually fell slightly from 2000 to 2006 (the last year available). Perhaps Piketty had a good reason to use the years he did, but he has not offered an explanation.
These questionable choices have been reported as “errors” or “mistakes,” but the questions about Piketty’s data pertain to the choices he made, not the minor goofs. Historian Phillip Magness presents Piketty’s summary data on U.S. wealth inequality alongside its pre-1970 source. The graphs tell very different stories. Perhaps Piketty’s adjustments were valuable and moved the data in the right direction. But it is incumbent on Piketty to explain those adjustments, and it is incumbent on the reader to understand that the data was uncertain and incomplete to begin with and then was adjusted as the author believed necessary.
Even the best data on wealth distributions is uncertain. One of Piketty’s central ideas is that the amount and concentration of wealth has been rising steadily since 1980. He contends that the same economic forces are at work now and he projects the recent changes into the future. But if there is substantial uncertainty about each estimate and disagreement among data sources, then “trends” are highly subjective. As Yogi Berra may have said, “Predictions are hard to make, especially about the future.”
So how should we read Piketty? As others have noted, Capital can be divided into three components: history, prediction and prescription. One can believe the history without agreeing with Piketty’s predictions about the future. And if Piketty’s predictions are correct, he’s still wrong to prescribe brutal, confiscatory taxation, because that would increase poverty and lower wages, especially in poor countries.
What is at stake in Giles’ critique is Piketty’s account of history. Piketty’s story makes broad claims about global trends in the 19th and 20th centuries. If the trends turn out to depend on making specific choices, interpolations and adjustments in his collection of data, then we might have to conclude that predictions are hard to make, even about the past.
https://blog.heritage.org/2014/05/27/pikettys-questionable-data/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Christie Embraces Irresponsible Spending says credit agencies are the ‘same group of folks who allowed the financial crisis to occur’
TRENTON – Don’t put too much stock in those Wall Street rating agency downgrades, says Gov. Chris Christie.
The governor, whose administration has been at the helm during six credit rating downgrades over the course of his tenure to date, says he’s not worried about additional downgrades. Christie said he finds it interesting they “continue to downgrade the people who try to act responsibly,” but added he doesn’t live in fear of rating agencies.
“No, I don’t fear it,” he said Wednesday during a Statehouse news conference.
“This is the same group of folks who allowed the financial crisis to occur,” he said, arguing they “sat on their hands collecting huge fees” from clients during the financial collapse and essentially got paid “to look the other way,” he said.
“I don’t know how much credibility these places have,” Christie said. (Arco/PolitickerNJ)
What science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) Shortage?
The sector isn’t seeing wage growth and has more graduates than jobs.
By Steven Camarota
The idea that we need to allow in more workers with science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) background is an article of faith among American business and political elite.
But in a new report, my Center for Immigration Studies colleague Karen Zeigler and I analyze the latest government data and find what other researchers have found: The country has well more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. Also consistent with other research, we find only modest levels of wage growth for such workers for more than a decade. Both employment and wage data indicate that such workers are not in short supply.
Reports by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the RAND Corporation, the Urban Institute, and the National Research Council have all found no evidence that STEM workers are in short supply. PBS even published an opinion piece based on the EPI study entitled, “The Bogus High-Tech Worker Shortage: How Guest Workers Lower U.S. Wages.” This is PBS, mind you, which is as likely to publish something skeptical of immigration as it is to publish something skeptical of taxpayer subsidies for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
https://www.nationalreview.com/article/378334/what-stem-shortage-steven-camarota
American Dynamism Dimmed
Historians may see this as the point at which American supremacy in the business sphere ended https://econ.st/1nrewyl
We have long written on this blog about the “Failure Generation” and their Millennial offspring , so what are your thoughts , temporary phenomenon or the beginning of the end ?
US: Two Views of Declining Labor Force Participation
Ridgewood NJ, Here is an interesting economics view of the US labor force participation decline from head economist at Citi.
The interesting thing is that there are quite a few forces at work; older population, kids staying in school longer or going for higher degrees, women opting out, etc. Most important is the last point, the BLS projects it will continue to decline for another 10 years.
US: Two Views of Declining Labor Force Participation
1●It’s Temporary. Drop in labor force participation (LFPR) since 2007 reveals cyclical effect of unemployment previously masked by dominant demographics and too brief recessions.
–Downturn in LFPR associated with surge in long-term unemployed
–Correlation at state level between rising unemployment and falling LFPR.
–Large increase in discouraged workers, non-participants who want a job.
–Job-finding rates fell proportionately for recent and long-term jobless.
●Delayed response (increase) to falling unemployment implies that LFPR will rise strongly for several years after the economy reaches full employment.
2-●No, it’s Permanent. Major part of LFPR drop reflects mix of demographic, structural and other policy effects that may be only partially reversed over only a very long period.
–Population shifting to less-attached cohorts, including older, still prime-age workers.
–LFPR among prime-age women falling since 2000, high marginal tax rates at low incomes.
–Rising education enrollment.
–Accelerating trend in disabilities suggests more permanent hysteresis effect.
–Recent declines in discouraged workers and ‘not in labor force who want a job’
BLS projects that LFPR will decline another 1.5 percentage points by 2022.
Cuomo announces start of Goethals Bridge replacement project
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced the start of construction of a new Goethals Bridge, a $1.5 billion project to replace the aging and congested span that links Linden and Staten Island across the Arthur Kill.
Preliminary work began in December after more than a decade of planning and environmental reviews. A contract was awarded in April 2013 to a consortium known as NYNJ Link Partnership.
Under a public-private partnership, the agreement calls for the group to invest $100 million to build the bridge and maintain it for 40 years. Nearly $1 billion of the cost will come from bonds and low-cost federal loans. (Strunsky/Star-Ledger)
Labor Force Participation Rate for 25-29 Year Olds Hits Record Low
May 6, 2014 – 5:18 PM
By Ali Meyer
(CNSNews.com) — The labor force participation rate in April 2014 for Americans ages 25 to 29 hit the lowest level recorded since 1982, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started tracking such data.
The labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population who participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one, hit a record low in April 2014 of 79.8%.
In January 1982, when the data were first collected, the labor force participation rate for this group was 80.7%.
The actual number of Americans, ages 25 to 29, not participating in the labor force hit a record high in April 2014 as well, with 4,280,000 not working.
Those classified as not in the labor force means that they are included in the civilian non-institutional population but did not have a job, and they did not actively seek one in the last four weeks.
https://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/labor-force-participation-rate-25-29-year-olds-hits-record-low
Youth Unemployment at 15.5% in April
Washington, DC – (5/2/14) – Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan youth advocacy organization, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for April 2014. The data is non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) and is specific to 18-29 year olds:
The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds, which adjusts for labor force participation by including those who have given up looking for work, is 15.5 percent (NSA). The (U-3) unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds is 9.1 percent (NSA).
The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.932 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.
The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americansis 23.3 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 16.6 percent (NSA).
The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics is 16.1 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 9.5 percent (NSA).
The effective (U-6) unemployment rate for 18-29 year old women is 13.1 percent (NSA); the (U-3) unemployment rate is 8.3 percent (NSA).
Patrice Lee, Director of Outreach at Generation Opportunity, issued the following statement:
“False promises mean very little when we are faced with unemployment numbers in the double digits and crippling student debt. We don’t want slogans, we want jobs.”
“Only 37 percent of young people approve of the president’s handling of the economy. Thirty-one percent approve of his handling of the federal budget deficit. We recognize that our unsustainable deficits and skyrocketing national debt hurt our ability to grow the economy and create opportunity.”
On Tuesday, Harvard’s Institute of Politics released a new poll of 18-29 year olds:
Just 47% of 18-29 year olds approve of President Obama’s job performance, the lowest approval rating recorded during his entire presidency
Only 39% approve of the president’s job performance on healthcare
More than twice as many young people believe that, generally speaking, the nation is on the wrong track rather than the right direction
Self-identified conservatives are 10 points more likely to vote in the 2014 midterm elections than self-identified liberals
Generation Opportunity is also issuing a revision for March’s Millennial Jobs Report. The overall U-3 unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds for March 2014 was 10.9%, two points higher than previously reported.
Generation Opportunity is a national, non-partisan organization advocating for economic opportunity for young people through less government and more freedom.
China poised to pass US as world’s leading economic power this year
By Chris Giles, Economics Editor
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d79ffff8-cfb7-11e3-9b2b-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz30MANB8ou
The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.
The US has been the global leader since overtaking the UK in 1872. Most economists previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019.
https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d79ffff8-cfb7-11e3-9b2b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz30MADL0WC
Agreement between American Dream developers and North Jersey labor unions announced
APRIL 28, 2014, 8:10 AM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014, 10:55 PM
BY JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
More than three years after Governor Christie came to the Meadowlands Sports Complex to trumpet a new vision for the stalled McGreevey Xanadu shopping and entertainment project, he returned on Monday to unveil revised plans with officials from Triple Five, the new developer of the revamped project now dubbed American Dream Meadowlands.
The latest announcement came with plenty of new details, including a revised opening date target of fall 2016; the unveiling of a planned 20-story “drop ride” billed as the world’s tallest; and renderings of the proposed 639,000-square-foot indoor amusement park and water park that will feature 80-foot-high glass walls that allow drivers on nearby highways to see in — and park revelers to see out.
Joining Christie were countless construction workers, including more than 100 who stood behind the governor as he promised to make sure that Triple Five will prioritize “getting that ugly outside [color scheme] the hell off the building.”
The features
Key components of American Dream Meadowlands, according to the project developer’s website and previous announcements this year:
More than 400 retailers, restaurants, and services, including “global retail |influenced by high streets from Bond Street to La Rambla to Soho”
639,000-square-foot indoor amusement park and water park complex
Indoor ski and snowboard park |12 stories high and 800 feet long
Observation wheel similar to the |London Eye
200-foot “drop ride” similar to |bungee jumping
Performing arts center that seats 2,400 to 3,000
National Hockey League-sized |ice rink
180,000-square-foot movie complex with more than 5,000 seats |(700 of them VIP)
Aquarium featuring more than 10,000 “sea creatures”
18-hole miniature golf course
The event provided Christie with an opportunity to come through on a pledge he made to construction workers when they endorsed his reelection last year: to put them back on the job. The Republican governor secured the support of many unions, including Laborers International Union of North America, which had backed Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine four years earlier. The unions cited Christie’s vocal support of American Dream and other developments as well as his signing of the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act, which offers corporate tax breaks to companies that create and retain jobs in the state. Many Laborers’ Union workers were noticeable in the audience, clad in orange T-shirts.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/agreement-between-american-dream-developers-and-north-jersey-labor-unions-announced-1.1004344#sthash.NBJJ48lc.dpuf
