Rise By 15,000 Attributed To Layoffs Connected To School Year Ending (click title to entry - thank you)
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2009
(AP) The government says the number of people filing first-time claims for jobless benefits increased last week, partly due to layoffs related to the end of the school year. The Labor Department says new jobless claims rose by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000. Economists expected a drop to 600,000 claims, according to Thomson Reuters. A department analyst says that states reported more claims than expected from teachers, cafeteria workers and other school employees. The number of people continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 29,000 to 6.74 million, slightly above analysts' estimates of 6.7 million.
County unemployment climbs to 13.7 percent in May (click here)
By Jim Faile
Published: June 24, 2009
Darlington County’s (South Carolina) unemployment rate reached its highest level in nearly 16 years in May at 13.7 percent, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over April’s 12.5 percent, the S.C. Employment Security Commission reported Friday.
That is the highest monthly jobless level reported since September of 1993 when the county reported unemployment at a rate of 13.9 percent.
As recently as March the county reported a jobless rate of 13.5 percent.
The news comes as the commission reported South Carolina’s jobless rate for May at a record level of 12.1 percent, up 0.7 of a percent from April.
Chesterfield County’s rate for the month remained virtually unchanged at 17.1 percent versus 17 percent in April, according to the commission’s unadjusted figures.
Despite the rise in joblessness, the state saw increases in jobs in all but one employment sector - manufacturing, which lost 2,200 jobs in May. In the last year, manufacturing has lost 29,000 jobs statewide, said Roosevelt T. Halley, the commission’s executive director.
“The decline in manufacturing jobs does not bode well for the state’s chances of an economic recovery in the short term,“ Halley said....
When Bush/Cheney were in office, they 'disfavored' strongly Democratic states. They were discriminatory, because, they thought they'd teach them a lesson they won't forget. They succeeded in teaching the nation a lesson they wouldn't forget. I don't see Obama doing that at all, actually. He bends over backward to try to bring the nation together. It's the Republicans that keep shooting themselves in the foot.
U.P. (Michigan) unemployment dips (click here)
Mackinac County accounted for the gain in jobs.Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 5:43 p.m.
UPPER PENINSULA -- Reversing a trend, the unemployment rate in the Upper Peninsula actually dropped during May.
It was 12.6 percent, down from 12.9 percent in April.
The main reason for the drop? Mackinac County, which saw its unemployment rate plummet from 20.9 percent in April to 8.1 percent in May.
The summer season has started there, which means there has been massive hiring.
The highest jobless rate in the UP can still be found in Baraga County at 26.2 percent, which approaches the level of a Depression.
After Mackinac County, the next lowest rate was in Marquette County at 10.8 percent.
Tracking the Stimulus Spending with Recovery.org (click here)
Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:44pm EDT
By Marc Gunther - Marc Gunther
Marc Gunther: Hi, this is Marc Gunther for GreenBiz. I'm speaking with Eric Gillespie, the chief information officer for Onvia. Onvia is the company that started Recovery.org (click here). That's a place where you can track all of the spending coming out of the federal government's $787 billion stimulus bill. Eric, tell us a little bit about Onvia and why you started Recovery.org. Eric Gillespie
Eric Gillespie: Onvia is a business that tracks the procurement activity of all federal, state, and local governments' activity. So, you know, as a business we take all that information real time as it's happening in the marketplace every day, we aggregate it, and we provide that to our clients who are largely small and medium businesses who are interested in selling their goods and services to those government entities. So we alert them when the government wants to buy what they have. That's the business we're in....
Biden says 'everyone guessed wrong' on jobs number (click here)
Jun 14, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says "everyone guessed wrong" on the impact of the economic stimulus.
Biden says the economy was worse off than anyone thought when officials estimated the number of jobs that could be saved or created under the administration's $787 billion stimulus spending.
Biden says White House economists used standard formulas to estimate that 3.5 million jobs would be saved or created under the plan Congress passed earlier this year.
Biden says money is flowing out of Washington to help states and cities build roads, hire teachers and update infrastructure. He promised 600,000 new jobs in the coming months.
Biden appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" from his hometown of Wilmington, Del.
Biden Talks Green Technology In Ohio (click here)
Posted: 4:33 pm EDT June 23, 2009
PERRYSBURG, Ohio -- Vice President Joe Biden spent time in Ohio Tuesday talking about the economy.
Biden was visiting an area close to Toledo and said the state can recover from the auto industry meltdown by developing green technologies.
The Vice President said wind power, solar energy, battery technology and other innovations will be vital to bringing back Ohio's manufacturing sector.
Biden said, "There's no reason why those shuttered factories can't throw open those shutters and allow the light of a new, clean, renewable, green energy come streaming through those windows."
Vice President Biden gave Tuesday's speech at a solar panel manufacturing facility in Perrysburg.
