South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Putting Unemployment Rates In Context

Mike Konczal of Rortybomb points out that the nation’s high, overall unemployment rate is at the same as the unemployment rate among African-American workers prior to the recession. Writes Konczal:

One interesting thing to note is that the number in between 8.7 percent and 8.5 percent, a threshold the country just crossed, was the average unemployment rate for African Americans going into the recession. The rate from 2006-2007 for African American men and women over 16 was 8.6 percent….
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Total African American unemployment is currently at 15.8 percent and has been hovering around 16 percent for three years now. All the other major employment health indicators are down as well. For instance, the employment-to-population ratio is down to 51 percent from 60 percent in 2001. Nearly half of all African Americans aren’t working.
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The economy is terrible for all Americans right now and we desperately need action to both expand the economy and repeal attempts to contract it. But it is worth remembering that the unemployment misery all Americans are experiencing right now is equal to what it was like during the best two years of the 21st century for African Americans.

Around The Dial – May 16, 2012

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• The News & Record reports on the gender pay gap in North Carolina.
• Economix points out the lack of a clear definition of “the welfare state.”
• Paul Krugman explains “why we regulate.”
• Andrew Leonard of Salon argues why “tuition is too damn high.”

Learning From The Mistakes Of The Eurocrisis

(Via Naked Capitalism) …  Michael Hudson of the University of Missouri-Kansas City explains what the United States can learn from the Eurocrisis.

Falling Federal Tax Rates

An economic snapshot prepared by the Economic Policy Institute graphs changes in effective federal tax rates by income group between 1995 and 2007. No surprise, but the richest households have fared the best.

Around The Dial – May 15, 2012

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• Dean Baker and Kevin Hassett worry about “the human disaster of unemployment.”
• Suzy Khimm looks into the debate over the American Community Survey.
• Off the Charts rounds about data about Social Security’s finances.
• Rortybomb debunks the latest crop of structural unemployment arguments.