Unemployment falls in a majority of US cities, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), April 28, 2010, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell or remained level in three-quarters of the 372 largest metropolitan areas, a sign that the economic recovery is widespread. The Labor Department said Wednesday the jobless rate dropped in 69 percent of metro areas last month from February. It rose in 24 percent of large cities and remained the same in the rest. That’s an improvement from February, when the unemployment rate decreased in 51 percent of metro areas and increased in one-third. The report follows other recent encouraging news about jobs. Employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the government said earlier this month, the most significant gain in three years. Still, the growth wasn’t enough to bring down the unemployment rate, which remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month…”
Month: April 2010
Earned Income Tax Credit – California
Free money left on table, By Armand Emamdjomeh, April 29, 2010, New York Times: “What if residents of California – a state reeling from unemployment, a sagging economy and a gaping budget hole – had access to more than $1 billion, but did not use it? What if Alameda County residents had access to $29 million and failed to take it out of the federal treasury? That is exactly what they have been doing, according to a new report, ‘Left on the Table,’ by two professors at California State University, Fresno, which was published by the New America Foundation. An estimated 800,000 California residents will fail to claim a total of $1.2 billion in 2009 earned-income tax credit refunds, the report says. California has the highest rate of unclaimed earned-income tax credits nationally, with nearly a quarter of qualified residents failing to claim the credit when they file their taxes, according to studies by both the Internal Revenue Service and the Government Accountability Office…”
Report: Latino Child Well-Being
Study: Md., Va. Latino kids fare better than peers elsewhere, still face hurdles, By Tara Bahrampour, April 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Latino children in Maryland and Virginia are faring better than their counterparts in many areas of the country but still face significant hurdles to integration and success, according to a report released Wednesday by the Population Reference Bureau and the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights organization. The report found that a disproportionate number of Latino children in the United States live in poverty, drop out of school, lack health insurance and end up in the juvenile justice system. Its authors stressed the ‘urgency’ of the situation and recommended swift intervention to reverse the trends…”