State-by-State Unemployment Data Show Economy Still Hurting
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The latest state-by-state jobs and unemployment numbers are out, and as the experts at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) note we have a long way to go before we can say this recession is over.
Nationally, the economy lost 5.2 percent of all jobs since December 2007. In many states, the story is even more grim: Arizona has lost 10 percent of its jobs, Michigan has lost 9.8 percent and Nevada has lost 8.5 percent.
The official unemployment rate is at a 26-year high, at 9.8 percent, with states like Michigan, California and South Carolina even more severely affected. And the official unemployment rate doesn’t take into account the workers who have been discouraged due to long-term absence from the job market; it’s estimated that counting these discouraged, some 26 million people are out of work.
This is no time to play political games with unemployment insurance, as Republican Sens. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) are doing. Unemployment insurance must be extended so the U.S. economy isn’t further weakened. As Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) noted in Huffington Post, the failure to provide unemployment insurance in this devastating recession doesn’t just hurt the unemployed, it hurts families, small businesses and communities:
Without an extension…about a million of our long-term unemployed nationwide will lose benefits by the end of the year. We must not allow this to happen, especially as the holidays approach. As our economic recovery continues to take shape, it’s crucial that we not forget about those families who are hurting the most, still struggling to find work in a very difficult job market.
USW Tells China to Stop Treading on U.S. Tire Makers
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Chinese tire makers are treading on the U.S. tire industry, dumping more than 46 million low-cost tires into this country last year alone to be sold in stores like Wal-Mart, among others. The result, unfortunately, is all too familiar: Cheap imports = lost jobs and shattered communities.
The United Steelworkers (USW), which represents most of the U.S. tire workers, is demanding that the Obama administration act forcefully to restore a balanced trading field. The union wants the administration to impose tough tariffs on Chinese tires for at least three years.
Last month, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled in favor of a USW petition filed under Section 421 of the Trade Act of 1974. The USITC found that tariff relief was needed to urgently reduce those tire imports. Evidence showed that more than 5,100 domestic consumer tire production jobs were lost between 2004 and 2008 by the flood of Chinese tire imports that undersold producers in the United States. Domestic tire companies have announced they will close more plants and eliminate another 3,000 jobs by the end of this year.
SMWIA Member Gets Missouri Labor Post; N.Y. State AFL-CIO Endorses Candidate with Union Background
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Carla Buschjost, a member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 36, in St. Louis, is the new director of the Division of Labor Standards in the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR). Meanwhile in New York, Scott Murphy, a candidate in the special election for the 20th Congressional District seat, won the backing of the New York State AFL-CIO this weekend. Murphy is the son of a postal worker and a teacher.
Appointed late last month, Buschjost will oversee the division’s worker safety sections as well as the state’s child labor and prevailing wage laws. Says Buschjost:
I am passionate about stronger enforcement of laws that create stronger and safer workplaces.
Sen.-Designate Gillibrand Supports Employee Free Choice Act
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Former New York senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has been confirmed as secretary of state, and tomorrow, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand will take the oath of office as New York’s newest senator.
With Clinton, New York’s working families had a strong advocate for good jobs and the freedom to form unions and bargain, so Gillibrand has big shoes to fill. Although she hasn’t been in Congress long, she’s been a strong supporter of the needs of working families.
In her first term in Congress, Gillibrand signed on as a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and voted to pass it in March 2007.
In addition to her support for the Employee Free Choice Act, Gillibrand earned a 98 percent rating from the AFL-CIO in 2007 and 2008, backing working families with her votes on children’s health care, fair pay, unemployment benefits, workplace safety and other critical issues. At the press conference where Gov. David Paterson announced Gillibrand’s appointment Friday, she was introduced by New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, who said he looked forward to working with Gillibrand in the Senate.
