Unemployment Rate

Bloomberg Vs. City Council Over Unemployment Hire Bill

As if the unemployed needed another political showdown in their honor after the fiscal cliff debacle. Yesterday, City Council approved a bill that would bar an employer from hiring you simply because you're unemployed (ironic, given that the unemployed are at the interview for a reason: because the ... More >>

Rightbloggers Revel in Romney Rout, But Good Job Numbers Put Them Back in Tinfoil

Rightbloggers had one of their best weeks of the campaign. First their candidate, Mitt Romney, bested President Obama in a debate, and then the Labor Department posted a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate. Both events convinced them of impending electoral victory, as the first proved that the Presid ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg to NYC: Cut $2 Billion in 18 Months

Year Four of the Great Recession has taken its toll on budgets across the country: it's hard to not come across some sort of public service being slashed in the news almost every day. The reactionary politics of cut-and-save economics has hit New York hard since Downtown self-imploded in 2008 as Blo ... More >>

Big Apple's Unemployment Rate Hits 10% Again

We hate the phrase 'double-dip,' especially when it becomes an unfortunate reality.In September of 2009, as President Obama's stimulus package was beginning to leak into the economy, New York City's unemployment rate hit its peak of 10.1% and stayed there for six months. Since then, the job num ... More >>

Giuliani: Romney is Good, But He's No Giuliani (We Don't Understand It Either)

Endorsements are vital parts of a campaign's method of connecting with voters who would otherwise remain skeptical of a candidate's performance. They run as supplements to the Big Picture, stumping on behalf of a message that they believe in for the most part (search: Republican candidates' speeches ... More >>

Unemployment Is (Barely) Down

And now for even more reasons to be skeptical about the alleged economic recovery: Unemployment is down, but a smaller share of Americans are in the labor force and many have just given up on trying to find work. The newest Bureau of Labor Statistics data came out this morning, and the April jobs n ... More >>

America Added 120,000 Jobs in March: Is This Good or Bad?

In March, the U.S. added 120,000 more jobs, just released Bureau of Labor stats indicate. Now, this sure sounds like a lot, but compared to February -- when America's payroll swelled by 240,000 jobs -- this turns out not to be all that exuberant. But is this cause for concern or disappointment? ... More >>

Iraq and Afghanistan War Vets Facer Higher Unemployment: Survey

Members of the armed services who have come home face substantially higher unemployment rates than the government claims, an Iraq and Afghanistan advocacy group claims. And 37 percent of veterans surveyed say they know a fellow vet who committed suicide following deployment. The report comes from I ... More >>

Who Has Two Thumbs and Hates More Primaries? Mitt Romney!

First, there was Iowa and New Hampshire. Then, there was Super Tuesday. At some point, there were other Republican primaries. And tonight, the resilient candidates find themselves in Illinois -- a contest that is "make-or-break" for Mitt Romney. With 54 delegates up for grabs in the state that is ... More >>

National Unemployment Rate Falls to Three-Year Low

​Finally, some genuinely good news to celebrate: the U.S. Department of Labor's monthly job market snapshot says that the national unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3 percent, the lowest it has been in three years. January saw 243,000 jobs added to the market, mostly in business services, labo ... More >>

Comptroller John Liu: City Unemployment in Double Digits For Youth and Minorities

​Comptroller John Liu, a possible 2013 mayoral candidate, released a report yesterday that highlighted the disparities in unemployment rates across the city. At the end of 2011, the rate of unemployment was in the double digits for young people, blacks, and Hispanics -- and the rate was nearly ... More >>

McDonald's Cashier Cleared of Assault Charges; Unemployment Down; Deadly Shooting on Q111

​Rayon McIntosh, the McDonald's cashier who was videotaped beating two unruly customers with a metal rod in October, was cleared of all charges after eleven days of grand jury testimony. The Daily News reports McIntosh, who had previously served almost ten years in jail for a manslaughter rap, ... More >>

Today in El Diario: Easter Was No Holiday for Hard-Working NYC Latinos

​New York's Latinos didn't get a rest on Easter While hundreds of the region's Latinos traveled to Fifth Avenue to celebrate Easter on Sunday, others attended another annual event, the Spanish-language daily reports.  That event: "Paying the rent," Estefany Cua, a 19 year-old Guatemalan, t ... More >>

In 2011, We All May Have Jobs, Yet!

Cover from August 2009​According to the weekly report from the Labor Department, new jobless claims have fallen to the lowest level since July 2008, declining 34,000 for the week ending on Christmas Day. Apparently "seasonal layoffs" often pick up in that week, which seems particularly shitty, ... More >>

Michael Bloomberg to Cut 10,000 Jobs by 2012

If you were excited about yesterday's news that New York City's unemployment rate had dipped, think again. Private businesses may have added 40,000 jobs last month, but if you're a city employee, watch out: The New York Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg's quarterly budget modification, announced ye ... More >>

You Are 0.1 Percent More Employed Than Last Month

​Hey, New Yorkers: Things are looking up. The state Department of Labor has new numbers out, which the New York Times says show a dip in the city's unemployment rate. It's true! Our rate of downtrodden, jobless recession victims for October is down to 9.2 percent! Which means September (whose ... More >>

New York Unemployment Down, National Jobless Claims Up, Dow Just Crazy

​The good news first: the city's unemployment rate was finally below 10 percent last month, the first time since August. Colleen C. Gardner, the state's labor commissioner, says that the number of private-sector jobs in the city rose by 21,000 in April, nearly triple the average increase for t ... More >>

The Kal Penn Effect Hits Twitter

​What subjects, you may wonder, are most Tweeted about? If you said technology, you would pretty much be right. Apple, iPads, iPhones, iPhone thefts or alleged thefts, cops breaking into journalists' homes to retaliate for alleged iPhone thefts ... all of these topics would be, and were, and ... More >>

Any More Jobs and We May Actually Have to Work

​Uh oh, people. The job market in New York City is officially perking up. Which means ... that old "nobody's hiring" excuse is just not going to fly. If you want to stay home and eat peanut butter and watch Law and Order all day, you better at least call yourself a "blogger" or something. Not ... More >>

Jon Kyl Continues GOP War on Unemployment Benefits

​The other day Republican Senator Jim Bunning waged a one-man war on, among other things, extension of unemployment benefits. Among the highlights: "Tough shit" and "[gives finger]." (And this was without being required to perform a real, talk-all-day filibuster, so you can't put it down to fa ... More >>

City Unemployment Rises to 10.6%, State to 9%

Well, we got a little break in December, when it dropped to 10 percent, but that's all done: Now the unemployment rate in New York City is 10.6 percent, according to the state labor department. That's the worst it's been in 17 years, and as bad as Oswego's, the only municipality in the state with d ... More >>

Few Surprises in Times Unemployment Map (Though Coney Beats Carroll Gardens)

​We are grateful for the Times unemployment map, which shows what New York neighborhoods are doing best and worst in these parlous economic times, though most of its findings come as no shock. The big loser is unsurprisingly East New York (also murder rate increase leader) with 3rd-quarter un ... More >>

On the Jobless Front in NYC: Now You Can See How Poorly Your Own Neighborhood is Doing

One Depression-era approach to dealing with the unemployed.Those of you who insist on leavening your holiday happiness with doses of grim reality can now check out a new neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown of unemployment in New York City, courtesy of the Fiscal Policy Institute. The FPI clai ... More >>

Senate extends COBRA subsidy and federal unemployment filing deadlines

​The Senate voted Saturday to extend the filing deadline for both federally-funded extended unemployment benefits and an additional six months of a 65% COBRA subsidy until the end of February. The current filing deadline is December 31 for both programs. One million of the nine million jobless ... More >>

New York Unemployment Goes Down, a Little!

Hooray, recession over! New York City unemployment went down point-three percent in November. It had been 10.3 percent, and is now a flat 10. And New York State unemployment dropped too -- from 9.0 to 8.6. This is from state Department of Labor seasonally adjusted private sector job numbers. We've ... More >>

Cuomo Sues Company Whose Employees Say They're State Employees and Promise the Out-of-Work $60K Jobs

Andy goes after another scammer.​State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced this morning that he is suing a company he alleges scammed thousands of unemployed people with the promise of well-paid government jobs. The official-sounding "State National Training Service", a New Jersey compan ... More >>

Breaking: H&H Bagels Owner Indicted for Stealing Withholding Taxes and Unemployment Insurance Tax Evasion

Ty Hewitt/New York Magazine​Earlier this afternoon, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced the arrest and indictment of Helmer Toro, the owner of H&H Bagels, for stealing withholding taxes and evading unemployment insurance tax in connection with his wholesale and retail busin ... More >>

D.A.: H&H Bagel King Collected Taxes from Workers, Didn't Give to Govt.

Poor Helmer Toro, owner of the legendary H&H Bagels, can't seem to stay out of trouble. In summer 2008 we noted some of his legal and financial woes, including a $2.335 million property lien brought against him by the IRS. Toro had previously been accused of shunting some of his tax liability to a q ... More >>

U.S. Unemployment Goes Double Digit; Obama Will Sign Benefits Extension

As usual, New York got there first, recording 10.3 percent unemployment in September. Now the nation at large is catching up. The Department of Labor today reveals that U.S. unemployment is at 10.3 percent, up from 9.8 and the highest rate in 26 years. "The economy is recovering," insists an exper ... More >>

Alan Greenspan supports extending unemployment benefits, but the Senate balks

In an appearance on This Week, former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan said he sees the unemployment rate rising above 10% and staying there for a while, but he's particularly concerned with the number of people who have been unemployed over six months. Greenspan says that prolonged unemployment can lead to ... More >>

COMPANY MAN

Ethan Coen explores cubicle hell

Like the Sun, New York Unemployment Rises Again

We know you're getting tired of hearing it, but knowledge is power, they tell us, so be aware that the state Department of Labor just put out new figures and guess what, everything's worse. New York City's unemployment rose from 6.9 in January to 8.1 in February. We seem to be tracking the national ... More >>

Unemployment Hits 8.1%, Wal-Mart Still Hiring

The national unemployment rate went to 8.1 percent last month as 651,000 jobs were lost. The losses are attributable not only to collapsing Wall Street giants, but also to corner-cutting by "healthy" companies like IBM, who in January announced a strong 4th quarter and said that "most importantly, w ... More >>

Unemployment Up to 7.6 Percent, 598K Jobs Lost

The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released released job numbers for January, and the new is not good. Non-farm employment by 598,000 jobs last month, the biggest one-month drop since 1974, increasing the official unemployment rate from 7.2 to 7.6 percent. (That rate excludes longtime discouraged w ... More >>

Study: NYC Unemployment to 8.5% This Time Next Year

First Obama YouTube: Things Are Bad, but He Has Plans

NY State Shuffles, Deals Jobless' Social Security Numbers

1993

NYC Pols Play Numbers Game

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