The Economy
About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.
Millions of people around the world are emerging from poverty thanks to rising economic freedom. But by sharp contrast, America’s economic freedom has been on a declining path over the past decade.
According to the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual publication by The Heritage Foundation, America’s economic freedom has tumbled. With losses of economic freedom in eight of the past nine years, the U.S. has tied its worst score ever, wiping out a decade of progress. -Anthony B. Kim 
The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969. According to a recent study by New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff, median net worth is at the decades-low figure of $57,000 (in 2010 dollars).
This was not the employment report either the American worker or the Obama campaign wanted to see right now. The Labor Department said the U.S. economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, less than the 90,000 economists had been forecasting. And private-sector job growth was just 84,000, down sharply from 105,000 in May. Not doing fine. The unemployment rate stayed at a lofty 8.2%.
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[Jan 2016]: Nearly 17 percent of young adults age 16-29 don't have a job, aren't going to school or participating in employment training, an army of 10.2 million "detached" Americans down on their luck and a potential source of social unrest, according to a new Pew Research Center report.
Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Incompetence, Obama, Oops, Economy
Johnson Controls said on Monday it was renouncing its United States corporate citizenship by selling itself to Tyco International, based in Ireland, a deal struck in large part to reduce its tax bill, which it said should drop by about $150 million annually.
Monday’s announcement by Johnson Controls is just the latest effort by corporate America to flee the United States. In the last year, Pfizer said it was leaving for Ireland, as did Medtronic, the medical device maker. Coca-Cola’s largest bottling company, after selling its domestic operations, is heading to Britain. (The company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, insists it isn’t for tax reasons.)
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[Dec 2015] Mayor Bill de Blasio, still struggling to manage near-record levels of homelessness, announced on Tuesday that his homeless-services chief was stepping down. The departure of the commissioner, Gilbert Taylor, is the latest fallout from the homelessness crisis, which has become a major political liability for Mr. de Blasio.
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Sept 2015: PORTLAND, Ore. – As the housing crisis in Portland grows, Mayor Charlie Hales has announced a State of Emergency for housing and homelessness in the city. Many Portland residents are seeing rent spikes and an extremely tight rental market. At the same time, the number of homeless people living on city streets remains high.
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Sept 2015: LOS ANGELES – It's no secret to people who walk or drive the streets of Los Angeles that homeless people — tens of thousands of them — are everywhere. On Tuesday, having looked at numbers showing the city's homeless population has increased more than 10 percent over the past two years, officials announced they have decided enough is enough. Mayor Eric Garcetti and several other elected officials stood outside City Hall — a few feet from several homeless people dozing on a lawn — to announce they plan to declare a state of emergency on homelessness and spend $100 million to eradicate it.
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In July 2014, there were 92,001,000 Americans, 16 and over, who were classified as “not in the labor force,” meaning they not only did not have a job, but they didn’t actively seek one in the last four weeks. This number has increased by 11,472,000 since January 2009, when the number of Americans not in the labor force was 80,529,000.
Nov 2013:Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people in 2012 was 49.7 million, or 16 percent. That exceeds the record 46.5 million, or 15 percent, that was officially reported in September. The latest numbers come as more working-age adults picked up low-wage jobs in the slowly improving economy but still struggled to pay living expenses.
Oct 2013: Almost 6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday. That's almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which wrote the report... The coalition also finds that 49 states have seen an increase in the number of families living in poverty and 45 states have seen household median incomes fall in the last year.
A new report out Tuesday from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that American businesses and workers took a beating in 2010. A few of the lowlights: Total employment in 2010 dropped 2.5 million workers. The number of U.S. businesses in 2010 was 7.4 million, a plunge of 36,800 from the previous year.
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Oct 2013: Some American women struggling with the current economy have come up with a solution to their fiscal woes: they’re selling hair, breast milk, and eggs, according to Bloomberg. One such American, April Hare, said, ““I was just trying to find ways to make money, and I remembered Jo from ‘Little Women,’ and she sold her hair. I’ve always had lots of hair, but this is the first time I’ve actually had the idea to sell it because I’m in a really tight jam right now.”
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Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream... The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
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Lincolnton Furniture Company closed abruptly Thursday just one year after it was hailed by President Barack Obama as an example of the recovering U.S. economy. Furniture-making operations stopped indefinitely and only a few people will remain employed moving forward, company financial officer Ben Causey said.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the biggest change in employment over the last month affected black workers. In September, the unemployment rate for blacks was 13.4 percent. In October, that number jumped to 14.3 percent, an almost a full percentage point change, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Economic growth was much weaker than previously estimated in the second quarter as a drought cut into inventories, setting the platform for an even more sluggish performance in the current quarter against the backdrop of slowing factory activity. Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.3 percent annual rate, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2011 and down from last month’s 1.7 percent estimate, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Thursday.
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Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to "AA-" from "AA," citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country's credit quality.
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"Ahead of the election in the United States there is great uncertainty about the course American politics will take in dealing the U.S. government's debts, which are much too high," Schaeuble said. "We need to remind ourselves of that sometimes and the global economy knows that and is burdened by it."
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New income data from the Census Bureau reveal what a great job Barack Obama has done for the middle class as President. During his entire tenure in the oval office, median household income has declined by 7.3%. In January, 2009, the month he entered office, median household income was $54,983. By June, 2012, it had spiraled down to $50,964. That’s a loss of $4,019 per family, the equivalent of losing a little less than one month’s income a year, every year.
Twenty-eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years. An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest. The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. Only once has job growth been slower.
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The U.S. economy followed up a weak second quarter by creating more jobs than expected with 163,000 new positions added in July, but the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent... As the country struggles to gain growth traction, the unemployment rate held above 8 percent for the 41st consecutive month, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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The number of U.S. workers filing applications for jobless benefits rose last week, continuing an uneven pattern that suggests job creation was likely modest in July. Separately, factory orders unexpectedly fell in June, the latest sign that the slowing economy is sapping demand.
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Even as women have moved up the economic ladder and outpaced men in earnings growth over the last decade, they are lagging behind in a crucial area — getting new jobs. Since the recession ended in June 2009, men have landed 80% of the 2.6 million net jobs created, including 61% in the last year.
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Hit hardest were the unemployed in the black community, where the unemployment rate increased from 13.6% in May to 14.4% in June. For black youths aged 16 to 19, the unemployment rate is now an astonishing 39.3%, up from 36.5% last month. After an increase from 10.3% to 11.0% in May, the unemployment rate among Hispanics remained stuck at 11.0% in June.
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Manufacturing in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank in June for the first time since the economy emerged from the recession three years ago, indicating a mainstay of the expansion may be faltering. The Institute for Supply Management’s index fell to 49.7, worse than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, from 53.5 in May, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report showed today. Figures less than 50 signal contraction. Measures of orders, production and export demand dropped to three-year lows.
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Employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year, and 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the prior two months than had been thought, the Labor Department said on Friday. The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April, although the increase reflected people entering the labor force to look for work, a possible sign of growing confidence.
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Employment: By this point, the average job growth in the past 10 recoveries was 6.9%. Under Obama, jobs have grown by just 1.9%, according to data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. Had the current recovery kept pace with just the average recovery over the past 60 years, there would be 6.5 million more people with jobs today, and the unemployment rate would be below 7%, instead of above 8%.
One of the world's leading credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, has downgraded the United States' top-notch AAA rating for the first time ever.
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Still, the major indexes ended the first quarter at new post-crisis lows, the report said. For the first quarter, prices were down 2 percent, compared to a 3.9 percent decline in the last three months of 2011.
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Did somebody say McJobless? The American job market is no place for students as the number of employed high schoolers has hit its lowest level in more than 20 years, according to new figures from the National Center for Education Statistics. In 1990, 32 percent of high school students held jobs, versus just 16 percent now.
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U.S. economic growth cooled in the first quarter as businesses cut back on investment and restocked shelves at a moderate pace.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge. Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.
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April 19 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans than forecast filed claims for jobless benefits and sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly dropped... "The economy has slowed a notch," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who is the most accurate forecaster of existing- home sales for the two years through February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "We're just not going to be able to duplicate the growth we saw in the first quarter."
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After three years with unemployment topping 8 percent, the U.S. has seen the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression, the Congressional Budget Office noted in a report issued today.
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"We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is. We don't know why on this trip that he's in the United States now, he's not in any black community."
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One of the world's leading credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, has downgraded the United States' top-notch AAA rating for the first time ever.
NEW YORK - The average US household lost $21,261 of net worth this summer, the largest decline in family wealth in nearly three years. The drop in the third quarter, tied to falling home values and a cratering stock market, is the second straight quarter of eroding wealth, according to the Federal Reserve's quarterly report, released Thursday.
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The U.S. economy faces difficult times ahead with chronic unemployment and slow manufacturing hurting the pace of recovery, the head of Congress' budget agency said on Thursday.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government's list of troubled banks hit its highest level since 1993 during the second quarter, although the pace of growth continued to slow, according to a government report released Tuesday. The number of banks at risk of failing rose by 53 to 829, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in its quarterly survey of the nation's banking system. That increase marks the smallest rise since the first quarter of 2009.
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The S&P 500 slid 4.7% for August, while the Nasdaq shed 6.2%. Small-capitalization stocks, seen as a leading indicator of the economy, took an even bigger hit in August. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks posted its worst August in 12 years, down 7.5%.
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NEW YORK - The average US household lost $21,261 of net worth this summer, the largest decline in family wealth in nearly three years. The drop in the third quarter, tied to falling home values and a cratering stock market, is the second straight quarter of eroding wealth, according to the Federal Reserve's quarterly report, released Thursday.
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The U.S. economy grew much slower than previously thought in the second quarter as business inventories and exports were less robust, a government report showed on Friday.
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Unemployment peaked at 10.2 percent in October 2009, an amount significantly higher than the administration’s warning for what unemployment would be without the stimulus (8.8 percent).
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The share of young people aged 16 to 24 who were employed this summer fell to 48.9 percent -- the lowest rate on record since 1948.
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Although more young people found jobs between April and July, the percentage of young people employed in July 2011 was the lowest July rate on record since the government started tracking the numbers in 1948.
About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.
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Twenty-eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor swelled to almost 1 in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment left millions of Americans struggling and out of work. The number of uninsured edged up to 49.9 million, the biggest in more than two decades.
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US foreclosure activity rose in August from the previous month, and banks and lenders took ownership from homeowners at a record pace, according to a new report released Thursday.
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U.S. auto sales in August probably were the slowest for the month in 28 years as model-year closeout deals failed to entice consumers concerned the economy is worsening and they may lose their jobs.
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About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.
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Foreclosures rose at an elevated rate for the second month in a row, according to RealtyTrac, with one in every 381 U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing.
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Data released by the Census Bureau today showed the proportion of people living in poverty climbed to 15.1 percent last year from 14.3 percent in 2009, and median household income declined 2.3 percent. The number of Americans living in poverty was the highest in the 52 years since the U.S. Census Bureau began gathering that statistic. Those figures may have worsened in recent months as the economy weakened.
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Banks foreclosed on 102,134 properties in September, the first single month above the century mark, RealtyTrac said. There were 347,420 total foreclosure filings in September, 3 percent higher than August and 1 percent higher than a year earlier.
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So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent.
When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79.
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The ailing US housing market passed a grim milestone in the first quarter of this year, posting a further deterioration that means the fall in house prices is now greater than that suffered during the Great Depression. The brief recovery in prices in 2009, spurred by government aid to first-time buyers, has now been entirely snuffed out, and the average American home now costs 33 per cent less than it did at the peak of the housing bubble in 2007.
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An unofficial gauge of human misery in the United States rose last month to a 28-year high as Americans struggled with rising inflation and high unemployment. The misery index — which is simply the sum of the country's inflation and unemployment rates — rose to 13.0, pushed up by higher price data the government reported on Wednesday.