- For jobless, little hope of restoring better days, By Motoko Rich, December 1, 2011, New York Times: “People across the working spectrum suffered job losses in recent years: bricklayers and bookkeepers as well as workers in manufacturing and marketing. But only a select few workers have fully regained their footing during the slow recovery…”
- U.S. unemployment rate falls to 8.6% in November, raising hopes for growth, By Neil Irwin, Washington Post: “The unemployment rate plummeted to its lowest level in more than two years in November, as employers hired at a steady clip, according to new report that offers hope for the job market entering the holiday season. The jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, from 9 percent in October, the lowest level since the economic free-fall of March 2009, the Labor Department reported Friday morning. But the improvement in the job market was not quite as strong as that drop would suggest: About half the decline was attributed to people dropping out of the labor force, no longer counting themselves as even looking for work…”
- Signs of hope in jobs report; unemployment drops to 8.6%, By Catherine Rampell, December 2, 2011, New York Times: “Somehow the American economy appears to be getting better, even as the rest of the world is looking worse. In the midst of the European debt crisis, lingering instability in the oil-rich Middle East and concerns about a Chinese economic slowdown, the American unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped last month to 8.6 percent, its lowest level in two and a half years. The nation’s employers modestly increased their hiring, too, the Labor Department said Friday. The figures come just a few months after economists were warning that the economy’s prospects were waning…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty