Posts tagged economy
How Biden plans to handle a series of possible labor strikes across the country
July 24, 2023 // Biden is not inserting himself directly in any of the negotiations, officials told NBC News, even though he met with the UAW president at the White House.
Reports Reveal Americans Are Taking On Additional Income
April 5, 2023 // PYMNTS and LendingClub found that as of this February, 62% of all U.S. adults were living paycheck to paycheck, up from 60% a month earlier but stable year over year. The percentage of consumers living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay their bills has decreased over the past two years. Paycheck-to-paycheck consumers have adapted to rising inflation by adjusting their financial way of life. Most often, this has come through taking on additional income sources. Almost one-quarter of consumers have a side job, and 17% have other types of supplemental income. Most of this income is new—under two years—and most is earned by paycheck-to-paycheck consumers. Side hustles may be the solution to living paycheck to paycheck. 22% of those living from one paycheck to another but not struggling to pay monthly bills say that without their additional income sources, their financial grounding would deteriorate.
Millions of men are leaving the workforce. Here’s the lasting impact that has on the economy.
February 24, 2023 // But a less publicized factor is that men ages 25 to 54, have been dropping out of the workforce for decades. Their participation rate rebounded somewhat from 2017 to 2019 as unemployment fell and wages increased in a vibrant labor market. But it slid during the health crisis and has yet to fully recover despite record job growth over the past two years. A 2021 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond also cites a rise in male substance abuse and even heavy video game use. Another study several months ago by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston cites a less obvious reason: Non-college-educated men have left the labor force in greater numbers as the shortfall in their wages compared to college-educated men has increased, the study says.
DEMOCRATS AIM TO REPEAL MICHIGAN’S “RIGHT-TO-WORK” LAW
February 7, 2023 // Rep. Andrew Fink, R-Hillsdale, pointed to a 2022 study from the Mackinac Center, a right-leaning Michigan think tank. The study found that counties in “right-to-work” states had higher employment levels compared to bordering counties in non-“right-to-work” states. “Because of our unusual peninsular geography, relatively few communities in Michigan border another right-to-work state, leaving us to bear the brunt of such a policy change,” Fink said.
A third of Americans contribute to the $1.3T freelance economy. Now what?
January 24, 2023 // Nearly 40% of Americans performed freelance work in 2022. That’s up nearly 10% from 2021, and a third of them make freelance their full-time work.
Biden mends bridges with unions after rail dispute
December 12, 2022 // President Joe Biden has returned to the good graces of labor unions by announcing a $36 billion pension fund bailout that will prevent more than 350,000 truck drivers, warehouse workers, construction staff, and retirees from forfeiting their benefits. But Biden's intervention comes after he rankled the key Democratic constituency by urging Congress to enforce a tentative union dispute agreement between railroad companies and their employees in order to avoid a strike that would have crippled the economy before the holidays.
‘A huge opportunity for the labor movement’: Unions jump on newly won Democratic trifectas
December 1, 2022 // And if Democrats succeed in repealing certain laws in Michigan — and in pushing through other union-backed measures — union officials and campaign operatives hope to rekindle the labor movement’s influence in other states. Democrats are putting their energy toward raising the minimum wage, banning so-called captive audience meetings where employers can warn against unionization, and more. “We’re busy preparing our legislative agenda, because we put everything we had into the ground game for this election,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “How can we go on offense to pass legislation to protect people’s voice and ability to exercise their rights?”
NY POST Opinion: Union Joe suddenly turns into Union-Buster-in-Chief — to save himself
December 1, 2022 // With Americans already facing Bidenflation and a potentially painful recession, a rail strike would utterly slam the nation’s economy — and his legacy. “I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement [reached in September by] railroad workers and operators,” Biden said Monday, insisting no “path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table” exists. Hmm. Just this year he was backing unionization of Amazon workers, warning, “Amazon, here we come. Watch.” Last year, too, he pushed unionization drives and praised organized labor for winning workers better terms. His proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act and American Jobs Plan aimed to unionize practically the entire US workforce (by nixing states’ right-to-work laws, for example).
Rail strike threat escalates as third union rejects deal
November 15, 2022 // The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) announced Monday its members voted against ratifying a tentative agreement with the major freight railroads, making IBB the third labor group to turn down the deal brokered by the Biden administration and upping the chances of a nationwide strike.
How Biden’s Victory With Railroad Unions Could Be Derailed
November 1, 2022 //