Working Life

It’s never enough to remind people every single day how many workers are out there on the frontlines risking their lives in the pandemic. I’ve talked about those folks regularly on the show: the transit workers, retail workers, and teachers. And, surely, the workers who put food on our plates are right up there on […]

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 The big news—it’s the first regularly scheduled Working Life TV Show!!! View the show now and sign up at www.youtube.com/WorkingLifeWithJonathanTasini  But, all our audio podcast listeners will still be able to hear the show in the long-time format. The unemployment system is in chaos—jammed phone lines, crashing websites. People can’t get the checks they […]

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Now it’s the turn of teachers in Oklahoma to rise up. I chat with Alicia Priest, the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, and Jennifer Thornton, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa, after the state’s teachers walked off the job to push for higher pay so they don’t have to go to a food pantry to feed their […]

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I remain in the camp of people who are entirely unimpressed by the economic figures raved about by most pundits, economists and The White House. We all know that pay is not growing. But, there’s another thing to be concerned about: the missing 3.1 million workers.

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This was almost predictable: the traditional media, and too many bloggers who regurgitate what they read in the traditional media, are buying into the “rebound” in the economy because of today’s Labor Department report; the stock market goes up; and, I’m certain, pretty soon, the White House will be taking credit for all this and, subtly or not so subtly, arguing that, see, aren’t we great, vote for us. It’s nonsense.

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For Corporate America, it’s “Morning in America”, babe. Time to party, break out the champagne, lock in a little trip on the Gulfstream to the South of France. For the rest of the people, oh, well, nose to the grindstone–it’s as dark as can be.

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Truthfully, this is not particularly a new idea. For a long time, I, and others, have been pointing out that the data about the economy and jobs does not reflect how bad it really is–and this was true way before the financial crisis. But, drumroll, a little academic cover joins the chorus.

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I meant to share this from last week. “Young black workers with college degrees have fared better than their less-educated peers, they have a higher unemployment rate and are more likely to find themselves in a job that does not require a degree than other recent college graduates”, says the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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A little thing to remember when you see unemployment seem to get “better”. There is more here than meets the eye.

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That elites and the transcribers of press releases (formerly known as “journalists”) don’t understand what is happening to most working people is never more apparent when discussing the Federal Reserve Board, and the basic abandonment of the idea of full employment.

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