Let’s cheer the fact that 243,000 Americans went back to work last month. But let us not forget that 1.57 million Americans dropped out of the labor force last month. And that’s why the unemployment rate dipped to 8.3 percent.

Since its start, UCubed has been consistent in how we count the jobless. Unemployed, plus Involuntary Part-Time, plus Want-a-Job.  Those three numbers from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tables now add up to 28.26 million jobless Americans.

However, since the start of the Grave Recession in December 2007, the number of Americans “Not In The Labor Force” – another BLS statistic – has grown by 9.33 million Americans! And just in the last three months, it grew by 2.6 million.

Go ahead and pop the cork. But remember, that cheap champagne can give you quite a hangover.

Yesterday, the White House detailed its new Veterans Jobs Corps that will put 20,000 vets to work over the next five years. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki described it as a “bold new effort” to lower the unemployment rate for veterans.  And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suggested that the program – aimed at preserving and restoring national parks — is based on the FDR-era Civilian Conservation Corps.

UCubed has been pushing that idea for two years. So we should be ecstatic. But the public relations value of those announcements far outweigh their real impact. 20,000 jobs divided by 5 years equals 4,000 veterans get jobs each year.

In January, 815,000 veterans were unemployed – 481,000 or 60 percent of them were Gulf War II-era veterans. And that’s according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The mismatch between problem, resources allocated and results is simply stunning.

By Heidi Shierholz | February 1, 2012

Congress is debating whether to renew legislation that extended unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployed for up to 99 weeks (providing 73 weeks of federal benefits beyond the regular 26 weeks of state-financed benefits in most states). A good benchmark for testing whether this is a good idea is to determine if the long-term unemployment situation has improved enough to warrant discontinuing extended benefits or shortening the length of time unemployment benefits can be received.

The figure shows the share of unemployed workers who have been out of work for more than six months, the maximum length of regular benefits in most states. There has been little discernible improvement. The share of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than six months shot up from a 17.5 percent average in 2007 to 43.7 percent in March 2010; it has since hovered around that point, peaking at 45.5 percent in March 2011. It currently sits at 42.5 percent—25 percentage points above the pre-recession level.

The fact that there has been so little improvement in job-finding prospects for unemployed workers shows that it is much too early to begin cutting back on how long unemployed workers can receive benefits. Congress should reject suggestions to cut back on unemployment benefits; instead, it should renew through the end of 2012 the program of extended benefits as it currently stands.

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Click here to read the original article and view the table associated with the article.

During his State of the Union address, President Obama presented many ideas for kick-starting job growth. They included large-scale job training programs, “insourcing” positions that have been shipped overseas, and tax breaks for companies that keep their operations here at home.

It’s vital that Congress and the White House actually follow through on these proposals. The situation of the American jobless is actually much more dire than the official statistics would have you believe. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear UCubed Leader:

ZERO is how many times the words “jobless” or “unemployed” were used in the 2012 State of the Union Speech. ZERO is the number of times those words were used in the 2011 State of the Union Speech.

So how many voters will turn out from “unemployed” households in November, households where someone has been “jobless” in the last three years? The answer is:

In Unity – Strength,
Rick

Rick Sloan
Executive Director

The Washington Post estimates President Obama devoted nearly half of his third State of the Union address to the economy. But while much was said about jobs, workers, business taxes, and energy, two words were never used – the words were “jobless” and “unemployed.”

“President Obama’s rallying cry for a national commitment to re-train 2 million workers and his administration’s work to secure 135,000 jobs for our nation’s veterans should be applauded,” said UCubed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “But for 65 minutes, more than 27.3 million jobless Americans waited patiently for an answer to their one burning question, ‘Where’s a job for me, Mr. President?’ To them the silence was deafening.”

UCubed continues its call for a proven jobs plan that works and will put millions of jobless Americans to work immediately – a 21^st century Works Progress Administration (WPA). “The answer millions of jobless Americans are waiting for is sitting in plain sight in our nation’s history,” said Sloan. “President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s WPA was the monument to action needed to bring this country out of the Great Depression. We did it once. Let’s do it now.”

Click here to tell the White House and Congress to enact a modern-day WPA today! And be sure to “Like” UCubed’s WPA ad campaign on Facebook.

A recent cartoon in the New York Times joked that “outnumbering the populations of 46 states, the nation’s … unemployed are trying to form a state of their own.” There’s a serious point to be made here. The unemployed and underemployed are one of the most influential and powerful voting blocs in the country.

And here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »

Washington, D.C., January 23, 2012 – International Association of Machinists (IAM) President Tom Buffenbarger, speaking at the Labor Summit sponsored by the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), urged a renewed focus on a 21^st Century Works Progress Administration (WPA).

“Between 1935 and 1938, over 9.7 million jobless Americans received WPA pay checks,” said Buffenbarger. “The WPA offered average Americans a chance to prove themselves, work hard, and ensure their families’ financial security. They grabbed at the chance. We’re still driving on the roads and bridges they built. We’re still flying into the airports they constructed. And we’re still admiring the photographs taken, stage plays produced and books written.”

“The WPA was an opportunity to modernize our country even in the midst of the Depression,” explained Buffenbarger. “If we could do it then, we can do it now.”

Buffenbarger’s remarks preceded release of the DGA report “Creating Jobs, Putting People Back to Work, and Turning Our Economy Around” which included a WPA-style jobs initiative. The report also calls for policies that establish a strong Buy American Act, discourage the outsourcing of American jobs, strengthens U.S. trade laws, creates a national manufacturing policy and develops skills training programs – all points included in the 21-point jobs plan, Hire US, America, and crafted by unemployed members of the Union of Unemployed in 2010.

UCubed, with over 60,000 members, is a community service project of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). For more information, visit Union of Unemployed and UCubed’s ongoing WPA Facebook campaign.

Dear UCubed Leader:

As you may know, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has underwritten the phenomenal growth of UCubed. The IAM has assigned staff, funded our Facebook campaigns and paid for our TV ads.

And for much of the last year, GOP politicians created a cottage industry attacking the IAM in South Carolina. So as the SC primary draws to a close, the IAM is running an ad I thought you should see.

Called “Scales“, the IAM ad makes a simple observation:

When unionized workers stick together, we tip the scales for ALL workers. We win; they lose.

The IAM  negotiated an exceptional, four-year deal for its Boeing members with increases in wages, benefits, pensions and job security. And workers in their communities will benefit when they cash their paychecks.
What happened to the GOP politicians in SC?  All but one of them  has lost (or soon will).

Still, after so much political hyperbole, 28 seconds of truth-telling seems long overdue.

Please watch “Scales“. Then forward this email or hit the “Like” button.

After all they’ve done for UCubed, it is the least we can do for the IAM.

In Unity — Strength,
Rick

Rick Sloan
Executive Director

For a jobless, struggling South Carolina man, reality isn’t a political debate

by Eli Saslow, January 18, 2012, The Washington Post

CONWAY, S.C. — He awoke to his alarm on Monday morning at 6, just like always, even though his handwritten schedule for the day read only: “Find something to do!” Steven Murdock, 39, poured himself a cup of coffee and rummaged through the defrosted Thanksgiving leftovers in an otherwise barren refrigerator. He grabbed the phone that bill collectors were threatening to turn off and made his first call of the day.

“I need some kind of odd job to help me get by,” he told a neighbor. “Know of anything?” Read the rest of this entry »