The new reality of old age in America, By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, September 30, 2017, Washington Post: “Richard Dever had swabbed the campground shower stalls and emptied 20 garbage cans, and now he climbed slowly onto a John Deere mower to cut a couple acres of grass. ‘I’m going to work until I die, if I can, because I need the money,’ said Dever, 74, who drove 1,400 miles to this Maine campground from his home in Indiana to take a temporary job that pays $10 an hour. Dever shifted gently in the tractor seat, a rubber cushion carefully positioned to ease the bursitis in his hip — a snapshot of the new reality of old age in America. People are living longer, more expensive lives, often without much of a safety net. As a result, record numbers of Americans older than 65 are working — now nearly 1 in 5. That proportion has risen steadily over the past decade, and at a far faster rate than any other age group. Today, 9 million senior citizens work, compared with 4 million in 2000…”
Category: Employment
Income Inequality – Wisconsin
Report shows income inequality rising in Wisconsin, Associated Press, September 5, 2017, Wisconsin State Journal: “A report from the Wisconsin Budget Project and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy says the state is seeing a growing income gap between its top earners and the average worker…”
August 2017 US Unemployment Rate
- U.S. employers add 156,000 jobs in August; unemployment rate edges up to 4.4%, By Don Lee, September 1, 2017, Los Angeles Times: “August was a good month for blue-collar jobs, but hiring on the whole tailed off from earlier in the summer and there was no indication of an upturn in wage growth, which has been missing in the nation’s long economic recovery…”
- Jobs report: Hiring slowed in August, as U.S. added 156,000 positions, By Nelson D. Schwartz, September 1, 2017, New York Times: “The Labor Department on Friday released the August figures on hiring and unemployment. This is the latest official snapshot of the state of the American economy…”