Unemployment, Poverty and the “Great” Recession
with
Avis Jones-DeWeever, Exec. Dir., National Council of Negro Women,
Marc Morial President & CEO of the National Urban League, and
former Mayor of New Orleans,
Dean Baker, Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Signs of economic recovery, well, maybe for Wall Street, and the banksters,
but what about our street? Where’s the beef, where’s the jobs? The United
States is still experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression.
Officially in of May 2011 the unemployment rate increased to 9.1%. In 2009
there were 43.6 million people living in poverty, the largest figure in the 51
years for which poverty estimates are available, and the numbers have been
climbing. This national crisis demands a bold plan to put people back to work
and to prevent those wielding the ax from chopping more jobs and cutting
further holes in the safety net and jeopardizing entitlement programs.

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NYC Unemployed Arrested Protesting Benefits Termination
With
Members of Flashmobs4jobs

Workers who have exceeded the 99 week maximum limit on unemployment benefits (called 99ers) were arrested for blocking traffic on Varick Street at a demonstration outside the NYS Dept.of labor. They were demanding that Congress, in the lame duck session, immediately pass a bill granting benefits to those workers who have passed the 99 week limit. They also called for the reauthorization unemployment benefits extensions set to expire on November 30 and new legislation to create jobs. There are currently 4.5 million 99ers with an additional 50,000 jobless losing their benefits each week - this is an emergency!
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A Fair Wages Act Is A Matter Of Faith For Coalition of Religious Leaders

Clergy members across NYC recently led a procession of congregations, community groups and union members to demand that the City Council pass the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act. Every year NYC spends approximately two billion dollars, to subsidize development and create jobs. Too often the jobs created with these public subsidies pay poverty wages with no benefits -- whether it's retail and stockroom jobs at shopping centers, mailroom jobs in office buildings, or food service jobs at stadiums. When public dollars are used to promote private enterprise, the public has the right to expect jobs with good wages and benefits.

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We Need Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs
With
. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Exec. Dir., Ntl. Council of Negro Women
. Heidi Shierholz, labor market economist, Economic Policy Institute
. Catherine Singley, Policy Analyst, Economic Employment Project,
National Council of La Raza

Persistent high unemployment & lackluster job growth are having a profoundly
damaging impact on millions in America. The Jobs Report for August
documented 54,000 jobs lost and the unemployment rate increasing to 9.6%.
The underemployment rate is 16.7 %. The ranks of the unemployed are
continuing to swell. These adverse effects are not limited to the unlucky ones
who have lost their jobs. This is also creating shock waves among those who
are still employed, lowering wages and benefits. We are creating a new layer
of poverty on top of the old for the foreseeable future unless we decide to
make fighting unemployment priority job1 and implement a stimulus big
enough to get that job done
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99ers Protest at Unemployment Demonstration

Heeding a call to put New Yorkers back to work, hundreds rallied at Federal
Hall in lower Manhattan to build for the October 2nd One Nation Working
Together Washington demonstration to demand that city, state and federal
government representatives make getting people back to work their number
one priority. Let’s go to the rally and hear what members of the United
Workers Action Group, an organization of 99ers who have exhausted their 99 week limit on unemployment benefits, had to say.

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The State of Working America
with
. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director of Research & Public Policy,
National Council of Negro Women
. Juan Cartagena, General Counsel & Vice Pres. of Advocacy,
Community Service Society,
. Robert Pollin, Co- Dir., Political Economy Research Institute
& economics professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

The United States is experiencing its worst jobs crisis since the
Great Depression. Nearly 16 million Americans, our family, friends,
and neighbors are out of work. This national crisis demands a bold
plan to put people back to work. We must understand why there’s
a jobs crisis, and create a plan that would create millions of jobs
each year, every year. We do the analysis of the jobs crisis and
discuss what must be done to put America back to work.

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