South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Job Openings In November 2011

From the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of the November version of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) …

The fact that we have had a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1 for 152 weeks underscores the crucial need for continuing extended unemployment insurance benefits, which now last a maximum of 99 weeks. There are currently 5.6 million people in this country who have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007.  As the job-seekers ratio shows, what’s happening is not that millions of workers have become lazy, unskilled, or unproductive; it is that there are not enough jobs available. With the Congressional Budget Office projecting an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent at the end of this year, continuing federally funded unemployment insurance benefit extensions through 2012 would extend a lifeline to the families of millions of long-term unemployed workers, and generate spending that would support well over half a million jobs.

Around The Dial – January 11, 2012

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

• Robert Kuttner writes about “Obama’s populism.”
• Bruce Bartlett thinks about “the tax gap.”
• Off the Charts looks at the state of state budgets.
• The Wall St. Journal reports on Mitt Romney’s investment career.
• James Surowiecki describes the “year of the yo-yo.”

Wage Theft In North Carolina

The N.C Budget and Tax Center reports that state investigators substantiated 1,651 allegations of “wage theft”  involving $4.7 million in earned wages that were not paid to employees during fiscal year 2011. From the analysis …

The concentration of wage‐theft complaints by industry in North Carolina aligns with national trends. Wage theft complaints are more likely to occur in low‐wage industries. Importantly, those industries with the highest incidence of wage theft – retail and home health‐care services –are also among the industries with the strongest job growth in North Carolina.
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As North Carolina’s economic recovery and projected job growth remain concentrated in industries and occupations where the most complaints of wage violations are made, the need for monitoring and enforcement of wage and hour laws will grow.

Minimum Wage Beneficiaries

The Economic Policy Institute points out that most people who will benefit from recent hikes in state minimum wages are at least 20 years old.

Around The Dial – January 10, 2012

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

• Martin Wolf worries about the 2012 recovery.
• The Nation points out five lessons about poverty learned in 2011.
• The NY Times revisits “the myth of Japan’s failure.”
• Free Exchange points out problems with job stats.
• Naked Capitalism takes on “the TARP made money” claim.