June 30, 2020

According to experts, the coronavirus pandemic has deepened economic inequality and expanded the racial wealth gap across the U.S. While the unemployment rate for white workers sits at 12.4 percent, the rate among black and Hispanic workers has gone up to 16.8% and 17.6% respectively. But while many poor Americans struggle to make ends meet, the wealth of the nation’s 614 billionaires has increased by $584 billion.

These top-end earners make most of their money on the stock market, which Continue reading

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June 26, 2020

For the 14th week in a row, more than 1 million people filed for unemployment benefits as fallout from the pandemic continues to hurt workers across the nation. The last three weeks have each seen the number of newly unemployed Americans hover around the 1.5 million mark, an ominous sign that economic recovery could still be a long time coming. 

Although some people have returned to work as states reopen, the rising number of coronavirus cases threatens to once Continue reading

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June 11, 2020

Tens of millions of Americans have filed for unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic. This historically high number increased by another 1.5 million last week as many people continue to struggle to make ends meet. Although the gradual reopening of businesses has sent some back to work, nearly 21 million Americans are still receiving unemployment benefits. All together, more than 44 million people have applied for unemployment over the course of the pandemic. 

“That means 29 percent of the workforce Continue reading

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With tens of millions of Americans currently out of work, the U.S. is experiencing an unemployment crisis on a scale not seen since the height of the Great Depression. This video looks at the devastating effects of rising joblessness while also explaining how several European governments intervened to avoid disastrous unemployment rates. 

Questions:

  1. Why is the U.S. unemployment insurance system not equipped to face the current crisis?
  2. Do you think the U.S. should take a more active role in Continue reading
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Last month, 20.5 million people lost their jobs, sending the unemployment rate skyrocketing to 14.7 percent. Economists predict that the actual jobless rate could be even worse when factoring in people who are out of work but not collecting unemployment benefits. Experts also expect that things will only get worse in May as job cuts spread to white-collar workers. “It’s devastating,” said Ryan Sweet of Moody’s Analytics. “There’s someone behind each of these numbers. It’s going to take years to Continue reading

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April 23, 2020

This morning, the Labor Department announced that another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That brings the official number of jobless people to 26.5 million over the past month, effectively erasing almost all of the new jobs created since the 2008 financial crisis. To make matters worse, many state unemployment processing systems have become overwhelmed after receiving record numbers of requests. As a result, experts predict that the actual number of jobless Americans could be much higher Continue reading

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April 9, 2020

This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that another 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. All told, almost 17 million people have applied for jobless aid in the past three weeks, accounting for 10 percent of the U.S. labor force. The sudden loss of so many jobs is staggering and unprecedented. For comparison, it took two years for 8.6 million people to lose their jobs during the Great Recession. Many analysts predict that the unemployment rate Continue reading

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March 26, 2020

After the federal government placed a ban on gatherings of ten or more people last Monday, restaurants and bars across the country either closed or drastically altered their operations. Although such measures are necessary to contain the spread of coronavirus, countless businesses have had to furlough workers or lay them off entirely as a result. In fact, statistics released by the Labor Department this morning found that a record 3.3 million Americans applied to receive unemployment benefits last week.

That Continue reading

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March 20, 2020

With many businesses altering their day-to-day operations, millions of Americans working in restaurants, bars, hotels, or for gig companies like Uber have seen their hours and pay cut drastically. This video looks at how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting regular people working in the San Francisco Bay Area and the solutions that they are asking for to relieve this crisis. 

Questions:

  1. Why do small businesses like restaurants and bars face so much uncertainty during the current coronavirus pandemic?
  2. Do Continue reading
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January 26, 2017

DaveSTo people familiar with sunny Silicon Valley, Finland may seem like a questionable tech hub. But thanks to the telecommunications giant Nokia, for years the snowy Scandinavian nation served as one of the central destinations in Europe for tech workers. Once Nokia began to collapse, however, the fortunes of many Finnish engineers declined as well.

These formerly prominent staffers then signed up for unemployment benefits in the hopes that the tech industry would turn around. When jobs largely failed to Continue reading

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