LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 62

Congressional Republican leaders have been trying to cram items on a right-wing wish-list into annual year-end budgetary sausage-making. If one rider loosening restrictions on campaign donations is an indication, some of these eleventh hour insertions have come as a surprise, even to some on the right. “That’s a provision I’m going to have to look at in more detail,” Senate Appropriations Committee member John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said of the proposed rules Wednesday morning on C-SPAN. “Some of these negotiations came right down to the wire.” Hoeven… Keep Reading

A government report released Tuesday throws cold water on claims that fracking could solve America’s labor market woes–and the findings didn’t even account for the possibility of environmental catastrophes. The Congressional Budget Office predicted that the exploitation of so-called shale resources will only increase Gross Domestic Product 0.66 percent by the end of the decade and 1 percent by 2040. It also said that fracking should increase federal tax revenues 0.75 percent by 2020 and 1 percent twenty years after that. In an appendix, the… Keep Reading

Improving long-term labor market conditions could see workers with a greater bargaining chip at the negotiating table, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ratio of unemployed workers per job opening fell to about 2 in October–down from 3.1 on a year-over-year basis and a post-recession high of 7.7 in October 2009. The measure also fell on a monthly basis by 0.2, from 2.2 in September. The number of job-seekers per vacancy has not been this low since Jan. 2008,… Keep Reading

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors said on Tuesday that it was accepting public comment on a rule that would require the eight biggest banks in the country to shore up their capital positions to prevent another potential worldwide financial meltdown. If enacted, the proposal would affect Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation, and Wells Fargo. It would force these banks, the largest and most interconnected American financial institutions, to identify as a… Keep Reading

In a move bound to upset powerful lobbyist, the Supreme Court dismissed a motion by oil giant BP to block further payments related to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As is often customary, the Supreme Court didn’t offer details as to why BP’s review was denied. But the decision on Monday dealt a serious blow to the oil giant’s very public efforts to discredit a settlement it agreed to in 2012. The US Chamber of Commerce warned in a friend of… Keep Reading

A right wing think tank accused climate change activists of pushing a “disastrous” agenda, one week after receiving a briefing from a non-partisan government agency that whitewashed the economic impacts of a rapidly warming planet. The Hoover Institute, a Stanford University think tank, released a report this week that lent credence to science denialism and promoted a “balanced approach” to climate change. It decried “global-warming alarmists” who want “to precipitously abort our use of fossil fuels.” “Doing so,” the report claims, “would be economically disastrous”… Keep Reading

While the unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent in November, austerity measures appear to be holding back the labor market recovery, according to a pair of government reports. The employment report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 321,000 jobs were added to payrolls in November. However, for the second straight month, the public sector increased payrolls by only 7,000 jobs–down from 22,000 in September. A separate analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit was reduced in October and November… Keep Reading

Young American adults are more educated, multilingual, and diverse today than three decades ago, according to the results of a Census Bureau study published Thursday. And they’re more likely to be destitute. About one in five young adults, or 13.5 million people aged 18-34–the so-called millennial generation–are living in poverty, the report found. In 1980, one in seven young adults from the Baby Boomer generation were living below the poverty line. This trend has occurred despite the fact that millennials aren’t much less likely to… Keep Reading

Americans suffered fewer injuries on the job in 2013, according to government statistics published Thursday. The incidence of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses in the private sector fell last year to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private sector industries with injury rates above the average were manufacturing, trade and transportation, education and healthcare, and leisure and hospitality. The rate of occupational injuries for all workers, including state and local public sector employees, was 3.5 percent. Workers… Keep Reading

Workers have been paid far less this year than previously believed, according to revised Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday. Hourly compensation in non-agricultural businesses actually shrank by 0.9 percent in the second quarter, while the same statistic only grew by 1.3 percent in the third quarter. Labor Department data had previously shown that the wages grew by 2.3 percent in both quarters. More complete information released by BLS also showed that productivity increased in the third quarter by more than stated in November’s… Keep Reading