Private sector in U.S. added more jobs over the summer, By Motoko Rich, September 3, 2010, New York Times: “American businesses added more jobs in the last three months than originally estimated, but the wheels of the economic recovery are still spinning in place. The private sector added 67,000 jobs in August, according to the Labor Department. That was higher than consensus forecasts, and the government upwardly revised its numbers for June and July, suggesting that job creation was slightly stronger over the summer than originally reported. But the continuing wind-down of the 2010 Census, as well as state and local government layoffs, led to an overall loss of 54,000 jobs in August. With businesses adding about half the number of positions needed simply to accommodate population growth – much less dent the ranks of the jobless – the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent…”
Unemployment rate rises, in sign of weak growth, By Neil Irwin, September 3, 2020, Washington Post: “The unemployment rate edged up and private-sector job creation continued at a modest pace in August, the government said Friday, reflecting an economy that is treading water, neither accelerating into a robust recovery nor slipping into another recession. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent, the Labor Department said, as hundreds of thousands of people rejoined the labor force. Private employers, meanwhile, created a net of 67,000 jobs, better than expected but below the 107,000 positions they added to payrolls in July. Overall, the nation shed 54,000 positions, but that was driven by the elimination of temporary Census jobs, which was widely anticipated…”
Unemployment rate up to 9.6 percent, but private sector gains jobs, By Mark Trumbull, September 3, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “The number of jobs in the US economy fell by 54,000 in August, as declines in public-sector employment offset a small gain in private-sector jobs. America’s unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent, in part because more people came back into the labor force to look for work. Despite the economy’s overall loss of jobs, these numbers from the Labor Department were better than many forecasters had expected. The jobs news included positive revisions to prior months’ data. The economy lost 229,000 jobs in June and July combined, 123,000 fewer than had been reported previously…”
Health care program aims to cover uninsured children, By Patricia Anstett, September 3, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “As millions of children return to school, health leaders today launched an unprecedented national campaign to enroll 5 million uninsured children nationwide – including 172,000 in Michigan – in free or low-cost health insurance programs. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge was timed to coincide with the opening of schools because ‘no child should be unable to read a book because their vision was not checked’ or be unable to participate in school sports because he or she didn’t have affordable coverage to pay for a sports physical. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid is giving grants to states to help enroll more children in insurance programs…”
Participation in Children’s Health Insurance Program varies widely across country, By Phil Galewitz, September 3, 2010, Kaiser Health News: “The hunt for the nearly 5 million uninsured U.S. children who are eligible for free or low-cost coverage through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program just got a road map. A new study published today in Health Affairs shows that 39 percent of the uninsured but eligible kids live in three states: California, Texas and Florida. Another 22 percent live in Georgia, New York, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. That’s not a big surprise, because those states have more than half of all children in the country, according to the researchers at the Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington. The study’s real value was showing that the states with the lowest participation rates in Medicaid and CHIP were largely in the Rocky Mountain region and Florida. While the national participation rate in Medicaid/CHIP was 82 percent, five states had participation rates below 70 percent: Nevada (55.4 percent), Utah (66.2 percent), Colorado (68.9 percent), Montana (69.3 percent) and Florida (69.8 percent). In contrast, the study showed the states with highest participation rates are Massachusetts (95 percent), Vermont (94 percent) and Maine (92 percent)…”
Social class affects white pupils’ exam results more than those of ethnic minorities – study, By Jessica Shepherd, September 3, 2010, The Guardian: “A child’s social class is more likely to determine how well they perform in school if they are white than if they come from an ethnic minority, researchers have discovered. The gap between the proportion of working-class pupils and middle-class pupils who achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE is largest among white pupils, academics found. They analysed official data showing thousands of teenagers’ grades between 2003 and 2007. Some 31% of white pupils on free school meals – a key indicator of poverty – achieve five A* to Cs, compared with 63% of white pupils not eligible for free school meals, they found. This gap between social classes – of 32 percentage points – is far higher for white pupils than for other ethnic groups…”
White British school children ‘worst hit’ by poverty, By Richard Garner, September 3, 2010, The Independent: “Poverty has a far greater influence on the performance of white British pupils at school than any other ethnic group, according to research published today. Figures show a 31 percentage point gap between rich and poor white British pupils obtaining five A* to C grade passes at GCSE compared with just five percentage points for Chinese pupils and seven percentage points for Bangladeshi youngsters. The findings will be unveiled at the British Educational Research Association conference at Warwick University later this morning…”
