
Chris Kutalik, Labor Notes
International Women's Day often gets short shrift in the United States, its places of birth, but in San Antonio, women's groups are raising its profile—and a little hell—while bolstering a hotel organizing drive. Photo: Chris Kutalik.
Much like its storied sibling, International Labor Day (May 1), International Women's Day often gets short shrift in the United States, its places of birth.
But for 20 straight years women's groups and allies in San Antonio, Texas, have been raising the profile of Women’s Day—and a little hell—by taking to the streets. The march has grown steadily over the years, and close to 2,000 marched this Saturday, making it the largest and arguably the rowdiest such event in the country.
Lawrence Mishel, David Walker, Politico, in Economic Policy Institute
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has recently released state-by-state U-6 numbers for 2009, which magnify the job market misery in many states.
Catherine Rampell, New York Times
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski
Many people watch the unemployment rate to get a sense of how much pain there is in the job market. But as we and others have pointed out, it includes only people out of work who are actively looking for work. It doesn’t take into account people who have given up looking for jobs, and it doesn’t include people who are stuck in part-time positions but really want to be working full time.
For that we have the “U-6,” a broader measure of unemployment that includes underemployed and discouraged workers. Across the country, the (standard) unemployment rate was 9.3 percent last year. Including the underemployed and discouraged, however, the national rate rose to 16.2 percent.
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