High jobless rates could last years, O.E.C.D. warns, By Matthew Saltmarsh, September 16, 2009, New York Times: “Unless government programs for the unemployed are refined, there is a danger that high jobless rates will persist beyond 2010 in advanced economies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Wednesday. ‘A recovery may be in sight,’ the group said in its annual employment outlook, referring to economic output. ‘But the short-term employment outlook is grim.’ The international organization said that unemployment among its 30 member nations would rise to nearly 10 percent by the end of 2010, above its previous post-1970 peak of 7.5 percent during the second quarter of 1993. Disadvantaged groups, like youths and immigrants as well as low-skilled and temporary workers, will bear the brunt of the increase…”
Day: September 16, 2009
ERS Report: Rural America at a Glance
Recession in rural America by the numbers, September 13, 2009, Daily Yonder: “Once a year the folks at the Economic Research Service publish a report on rural America. It’s called Rural America at a Glance and this year’s edition focuses on the recession. No surprise there. Friday we learned that the recession has ‘plunged 2.6 million more Americans into poverty, wiped out the household income gains of an entire decade and pushed the number of people without health insurance up to 46.3 million,’ according to the Washington Post. These latest Census Bureau figures don’t tell us whether the recession is better or worse in rural America. That’s what the ERS tries to do. Here are some excerpts from the full report…”
Housing First Program – Seattle, WA
Seattle’s 1811 Eastlake project puts housing first, saves lives and money, By Kim Horner, September 13, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “An attractive blue and gray apartment building with views of the Space Needle saved taxpayers $4 million in one year – simply by giving hardcore homeless alcoholics a place to live. This home for the homeless has attracted visitors from across the country – including Dallas – looking for ways to move the most seriously ill off the streets and cut costs. But it has detractors because it doesn’t require residents to stop drinking. The $11 million project is one of the country’s best-known examples of housing first, an approach to combating chronic homelessness by providing homes upfront and offering help for illnesses and addictions. The concept turns the traditional model, which typically requires sobriety before a person can get housing, upside down….”