Jobs report shows persistent economic growth, By Catherine Rampell, November 2, 2012, New York Times: “The economy may have some more underlying strength than earlier believed, according to the final job market report released before Tuesday’s presidential election. The nation’s employers added 171,000 positions in October, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and more jobs than initially estimated in both August and September. Hiring was broad-based, with just about every industry except state government adding at least a handful of jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9 percent in October, from 7.8 percent in September, but for a good reason: more workers joined the labor force and so officially counted as unemployed…”
Job growth, unemployment rate rose in October as workers re-entered labor force, By Neil Irwin, November 2, 2012, Washington Post: “Businesses picked up their pace of hiring in October and the unemployment rate rose as more people started looking for work, according to new government data that offer a glimmer of optimism for the long-ailing job market on the eve of the presidential election. Employers reported adding 171,000 jobs in October, beating both analysts’ expectations (125,000 jobs added) and September’s job creation (a revised 148,000). The unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent, up from 7.8 percent, but the reason behind the uptick also points to an improved job market…”
Americans in poverty at greater risk for chronic health problems, By Danielle Kurtzleben, October 30, 2012, U.S. News & World Report: “Poverty doesn’t just mean trouble making ends meet and having few assets. According to data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Americans in poverty are more likely to suffer from a variety of chronic health problems, both psychological and physical. Of the illnesses tracked in a Gallup report on the data, depression has the greatest gap between those in poverty and not in poverty. Nearly 31 percent of adults who lived below the poverty line in 2011 said they had been diagnosed with depression at some point, almost twice as high as the rate for those not in poverty — 15.8 percent. The share of adults in poverty with asthma (17.1 percent) or obesity (31.8 percent) was also roughly 6 percentage points higher in each case than the share of adults not in poverty. The study also showed that diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks were slightly more likely to afflict those in poverty than those who are not…”
Study: When resources are scarce, most people forfeit the future, By Mark Roth, November 2, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Poor people are often criticized for self-defeating behaviors, from taking out high-interest payday loans as a way of getting through the week, to not putting aside money for the future. But a new study published today in Science magazine suggests that most of us are likely to behave that way when we are faced with a shortage of resources…”
