California unemployment rate edges downward in October

California's unemployment rate fell by two-tenths of a percentage point to 11.7% in October as the state created 25,700 new jobs, the Employment Development Department reported. The agency also reported Friday that it had revised job growth in September upward, to 39,200.

The state's unemployment rate one year ago was 12.5%.

The total of net new hirings in 2011 so far was 192,900, a substantial number but still a long ways off for compensating for the 1.3 million jobs lost in the recession of 2007-2009.

The national unemployment rate for October was 9%.

Seven categories of employment showed growth in October: construction, information, financial activities, professional and business services, educational and health services and leisure and hospitality.

The number of jobs decreased in manufacturing, trade and transportation, government and mining and logging, the EDD said.

Unemployment in Los Angeles County also fell by 0.2% to 12.2% in October, the EDD said.

RELATED:

Filings for initial unemployment benefits drop again

Senate approves portion of Obama's jobs plan

Unemployment rate falls but U.S. economy remains sluggish

-- Marc Lifsher

Photo: Job-seeker at Career Partners center in Rosemead. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Workers win record number of bias cases in 2011, EEOC reports

More workers than ever sought help against office discrimination from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this year, the agency said this week.

More than 99,947 charges were filed in 2011 alleging unfair workplace practices based on race, sex, age, religion, disability and even family medical history, according to the EEOC’s annual performance report. 

That’s the highest number since the commission was launched through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The agency also won a record amount of monetary relief –- nearly $365 million -– for employees.

Over a year in which national unemployment remained stuck at around 9%, many workers are working longer hours for less pay, with older employees expecting to delay retirement.

The EEOC resolved 112,499 cases through a mix of investigations, conciliations, mediations and litigation, more than last year.

The agency won $3 million for 290 former 3M employees who had accused the company of denying leadership training to and laying off hundreds of workers over age 45. About 800 Verizon employees won a $20-million fund after challenging the company over claims that it disciplined or fired employees with disabilities.

RELATED:

Crowded labor market drives lackluster wage growth

Many Americans say they will have to work until they're 80

Texas Roadhouse sought 'young, hot' employees, lawsuit says

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Paul Taggart / Bloomberg

Long Road Ahead for Most American States

Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island will probably have to wait another six years before they are back to the number of jobs they had before the recession struck, according to economists at IHS Global Insight.

These analysts have projected when each state will likely return to its past peak employment, as shown in the map below:

Across the country, there are 4.7 percent fewer jobs today than there were when the recession began in December 2007. And remember that the United States population has grown in the last five years, so if the economy were healthy there would be more jobs today than there were then. This analysis only models when we’ll be back to square one.

Only Alaska, North Dakota and the District of Columbia have recovered the jobs they lost during the recession. Those places have actually surpassed their previous employment peaks as well.

Entrepreneurship tough for young adults, poll says

The lagging economy is preventing many young adults from becoming entrepreneurs, according to a new poll released Thursday.

A survey of the millennial generation -– those ages 18 to 34 -– found that more than half of those polled either wanted to start a business or already had started one.  But 38% of the potential entrepreneurs said  he poor state of the economy has delayed the process, according to the Young Invincible, in conjunction with Lake Research Partners and Bellweather Research.

A higher percentage of minority youths -– 64% of Latinos and 63% of African Americans -– want to own their own companies. 

Despite a strong entrepreneurial desire, only 8% of the young adults are in business for themselves, the survey found.

Young people face many obstacles to entrepreneurship, including lack of knowledge, inability to access capital, few mentors and current debt burdens.

The poll was released before the third annual Globe Entrepreneurship Week, which runs from Nov. 14-20.  

ALSO:

Young people think college is critical but too expensive

Stock plunge continues as European fears grow [Updated]

New unemployment claims fall again in positive sign for job growth

-- Angel Jennings

Photo: Entrepreneurs show their new men's clothing line EBO (Everything But Ordinary). Credit: Iris Schneider / Los Angeles Times

Who Gets Unemployment Benefits

Casey B. Mulligan is an economics professor at the University of Chicago.

It’s commonly assumed that unemployed people not receiving unemployment benefits have been unlucky enough to go without a job for so long that their benefits have run out. But often more important are limited work histories and a low propensity to take benefits that are available.

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Historically, many unemployed people have not collected unemployment payments because of ineligibility, lack of awareness or simple unwillingness to collect benefits. But some of those patterns changed during the recent recession.

Perspectives from expert contributors.

The chart below shows the number of unemployment compensation beneficiaries per unemployed person, for people 16 to 24, people 25 and over and all people 16 and over. This ratio can be less than one for all of the reasons mentioned and because some unemployed people may exhaust their benefits sometime during the calendar year.

Not surprisingly, more than three-quarters of young unemployed people do not receive unemployment compensation, in large part because they are much less likely to have the employment history that is required for eligibility. Young people are disproportionately represented among the unemployed, and their limited work histories are the primary reason why a large fraction of the unemployed does not receive benefits.

More striking is the increase to 85 percent from 50 percent among people 25 and over. Before the recession began, about a quarter of unemployed people that age had been unemployed for more than 26 weeks, when unemployment benefits were typically exhausted.

The remaining quarter of the unemployed did not receive benefits for a variety of other reasons: they may not have been interested in or aware of benefits, or they may have been ineligible because they quit their jobs (rather than lost them).

By 2010, unemployment was lasting much longer, but the time for receiving benefits had increased even more. Ninety-two weeks was a typical unemployment benefit period in 2010 (in some states it was 78 weeks, in others 99 weeks), yet only 12 percent of the unemployed 25 and over were unemployed that long.

That means as many as 88 percent of the people that age who were unemployed could have received benefits. That 85 percent received benefits tells us how rare it was for eligible people to forgo benefits during the recession.

The recipiency rate change from 2007 to 2010 is thus a combination of a decreased likelihood of exhausting benefits and an increased propensity to receive benefits early in the unemployment spell. These two factors change so much that even though the average weekly number of unemployed people 25 and over increased by more than six million from 2007 to 2009, the average weekly number of those people not receiving unemployment insurance actually fell by 700,000. (For the purposes of this calculation, I assume that, consistent with the law, nobody received unemployment benefits for a week that she or he was employed.)

This absolute decline in nonparticipating unemployed suggests that people are more willing (equivalently, less unwilling) to collect unemployment benefits than they were before the recession began.

Unemployment insurance is known for its ability to expand eligibility as a recession gets going, whether through the “extended benefits” that take effect at given jobless rates or through legislative action beyond that. But an adjustment almost as important has occurred in the labor force itself: during the recession, people increased their propensity to take advantage of available benefits.

California shifts unemployment insurance payments to debit cards

The unemployment insurance checks aren't in the mail.

But that doesn't mean that eligible out-of-work Californians don't get benefits.

On Tuesday, the Employment Development Department, the state government agency that runs the unemployment and disability insurance programs, announced that it's completed the process of issuing 1.8 million debit cards to people receiving benefits.

The cards, which can be used to draw cash from Bank of America and some other ATM machines, are more convenient and secure than old-fashioned paper checks, the agency said.

"This unprecedented transition to paperless benefits is one of the largest pre-paid card roll-outs in the country," said Employment Development Department Chief Deputy Director Pam Harris. "It modernizes the purchasing power of our customers and puts them on par with the rest of the buying public."

Since December of 2010, the agency has paid out $3.7 billion in benefits for the disability and unemployment insurance programs.

The agency's debit cards provide recipients and the state with a number of benefits:

- They have no ATM fees, if used carefully.

- Beneficiaries without bank accounts do not have to pay check-cashing fees.

- They can't be lost in the mail or not delivered in the event of natural disasters.

- They can be used for most purchases anywhere that Visa debit cards are accepted.

RELATED:

Unemployment rate falls but U.S. economy remains sluggish 

White House scolded at Inland Empire summit with Latinos 

Fewer Americans seek unemployment aid

-- Marc Lifsher

Photo: Unemployed people at the Westminster job center in Orange County. Credit: Jaec Hong/Associated Press

Amazon workers complain of heat, cold at Pennsylvania facility

Amazon.com, the world's largest Internet retailer, got lots of scrutiny in September when a Pennsylvania newspaper published a story about workers fainting and suffering other heat-related health problems when temperatures rose to triple digits inside a local distribution center.

Now, employees at Amazon's Breinigsville, Pa., facility are complaining that they're being left out in the cold.

They were forced to spend hours outside in nighttime temperatures in the 20s after they had to leave the building without coats when fire alarms sounded a year ago, the Morning Call newspaper reported last week. Several people required medical attention.

Amazon subsequently changed its evacuation policies and provided employees with cold-weather gear and hand warmers, the newspaper said. The company also said that it had installed air conditioning at the same order-fulfillment center following heat waves last summer.

Both the summer and winter incidents prompted investigations by the federal workplace safety agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Amazon released data to the Morning Call showing that its incidence of worker injury and illness, as reported to OSHA, in U.S. warehouses between 2006 and the third quarter of 2011 was lower than the rates reported by general warehousing, automobile manufacturing and department stores.

RELATED:

Amazon workers complain of harsh conditions 

Amazon agrees to serve as tax collector -- at a price 

Amazon to alter the way it does business in California

-- Marc Lifsher

Photo: Amazon fulfillment center in Phoenix. Credit: Jushua Lott / Bloomberg

More Churn in Job Market Is Hopeful Sign

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

The number of people leaving or receiving jobs picked up in September, the Labor Department reported today, a sign that that the labor market may be regaining its health.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Both hires and separations have been relatively stagnant in the last year, with companies too nervous to hire or let anyone go, and employees too frightened to leave their jobs. Separations in particular had reached record lows. But levels of both rose in September.

While a rise in separations, at least, may not sound like welcome news, it means that companies and workers are finally more willing to start making decisions again. Uncertainty about the state of the economy had largely frozen both hiring and firing, and without people leaving their jobs, companies had nobody to replace with new workers. Greater churn in the job market now potentially means more opportunities down the line for the 14 million unemployed workers sitting on the sidelines.

The turnover is still not as great as it was before the recession began, however, when the population was also smaller.

Particularly promising is that the number of quits — that is, workers who voluntarily left their jobs, as opposed to being fired or laid off — rose in September, reaching its highest total since November 2008. That probably means that workers finally feel more confident that they can find new work if they are unhappy with their current position.

The best news was in job openings, which was at its highest level since August 2008, the month before Lehman
Brothers failed. That also helped bring down the number of jobless workers per opening to 4.1, which, while still historically high, is far better than its peak of 6.9 unemployed workers per opening in July 2009.

Continued competition among unemployed workers implies that wage inflation is unlikely to hit anytime soon, according to Henry Mo, vice president of economics at Credit Suisse.

The main continued area of concern in the Labor Department’s report was the disconnect between job openings and hiring. There has been decent growth in the number of job openings since the recession officially began, with openings up 38 percent since June 2009, but growth in the number of hiring has been very slow, up only 17 percent.

It’s not clear what to make of this. The disconnect could be due to a skills mismatch — that is, workers don’t have the skills that employers are looking for. Or it could just be a sign of continued hesitation among employers, who are waiting for the recovery to pick up more speed before they commit to filling an opening.

U.S. economy added 80,000 jobs in October, fewer than expected

The nation’s economy continued to grow sluggishly in October, adding just 80,000 jobs as concerns about the future weighed on employers and consumers, curtailing both hiring and spending.

The unemployment rate dipped slightly, to 9.0% from 9.1% the month before, and the government revised upwards employment figures from both August and September. But the economy still isn’t creating the 125,000 jobs a month economists say are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.

“Employers are riding a turtle when we were hoping they’d get on a Thoroughbred,” said Patrick O’Keefe, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Labor who is now director of economic research at accounting firm J.H. Cohn.

The service sector led growth in the month, continuing the nation's shift to a service-heavy economy. Retail trade grew by 17,800 jobs and transportation and warehousing added 9,400. Professional and business services gained 32,000 positions and educational and health services added 28,000.

After a burst of activity earlier this year, manufacturing seems to be losing steam. That sector gained just 5,000 jobs in October, and a separate report released earlier this week by Automatic Data Processing Inc. said that the manufacturing industry shed 8,000 jobs last month.

Government and construction are also struggling. Cuts in state positions dragged down the government sector, which lost 24,000 jobs. Construction shed 20,000 positions.

Economy added 80,000 jobs in October; unemployment rate at 9%

Employers added just 80,000 jobs to payrolls in October, fewer than analysts had expected, as cuts in the government and construction sectors continued to weigh down the national economy. The unemployment rate dipped only slightly, to 9.0% from 9.1% the month before, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Still, the government revised employment figures from previous months, saying the economy had added 158,000 jobs in September, more than the 103,000 than previously reported, and that it had gained 104,000 in August, nearly double the number it had previously reported for that month. Those revisions indicate that the economy is on firmer footing than it seemed to be just a few months ago, analysts say.

"I don't think there's any sign of a recession in this report," said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics. "Going forward, the labor market isn't booming, but I don't think there are any signs we're going to take a significant step back."

Private-sector employment led the growth in October, adding 104,000 jobs. The professional and business services, healthcare and leisure and hospitality sectors all performed well. The government sector shed 24,000 jobs and construction lost 20,000.

A separate report released earlier this week by Automatic Data Processing Inc. said that private sector employers added 110,000 jobs in October, buoyed by strength in service-providing sectors. Manufacturing growth slowed last month, the company said, as the industry shed 8,000 jobs.

Despite the job growth, many workers say that the positions being created are of lower quality than the ones they held before the recession. Wages and salaries grew just 0.3% in the three months ending Monday and benefits grew only 0.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Kevin Friedlander knows it. The 22-year-old Las Vegas resident got laid off from a warehousing job last month and is scrambling to find new work to support his wife and daughter. Each job he’s had since  he got out of the military three years ago pays less and seems more temporary than the one before, he said.

“With almost every job I’ve  had, every day I’ve gone into work it felt like it could be my last day,” he said. “Nothing feels secure, nothing feels stable.”

RELATED:

Weekly jobless claims drop below 400,000

October retail sales up 3.4% at major chains, less than expected

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says growth will be 'frustratingly slow'

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Job seekers at a career fair in Minneapolis. Credit: Jim Moore/Associated Press

How Unemployment Benefits Became Twice as Generous

12:48 p.m. | Updated to revise reference to standard benefit period.

Casey B. Mulligan is an economics professor at the University of Chicago.

Government spending on unemployment insurance has soared, and it’s hard to imagine the program ever shrinking back to its prerecession size.

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Unemployment insurance is jointly administered and financed by the federal and state governments, offering money to people who have lost their jobs and have as yet been unable to find and start a new job. On average they receive about $300 a week until they start working again, they stop looking for work or their benefits are exhausted.

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Between 2006 and 2010, inflation-adjusted spending on unemployment compensation by federal, state and local governments more than tripled.

The program has been around for decades, but the most recent recession and continued economic weakness has created an especially large group of laid-off workers who, despite an extensive search, cannot find another job. More unemployed people equals more spending for the unemployment insurance program, so we expect the program to be spending a lot during a recession.

However, the unemployment program has also become more generous in recent years. Before the recession, an unemployed person in a state without high unemployment would often exhaust benefits after 26 weeks; that is, the program would stop paying after the 26th weekly benefit, even if the beneficiary was still without work.

The federal law in place before the recession included some local labor market “extended benefit” triggers that, based on the statewide unemployment rate, would automatically lengthen the maximum benefit period. These automatic triggers began to extend benefits around the nation in the middle of 2008.

About the same time, new “emergency unemployment compensation” legislation extended maximum benefit periods for the entire nation. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of February 2009 further extended these “emergency” periods to up to 99 weeks, and legislation later in 2009 and in 2010 permitted the 99-week maximum to continue. (Among other unemployment insurance expansions, the act also increased monthly benefit amounts and excluded from federal personal income taxation the first $2,400 of benefits received in 2009.)

The chart below shows the size of the “emergency” and extended-benefit expansions, by quarter, measured as a fraction of the entire unemployment insurance program. Essentially, no “emergency” and extended-benefit benefits were paid in 2007 or in the first half of 2008. “Emergency” and extended-benefit benefits immediately became about a quarter of all unemployment insurance benefits and beneficiaries and were a majority of all unemployment insurance benefits by the end of 2009 (the two measures are slightly different because they come from different data sources).

Because “emergency” and extended-benefit benefits are paid to people only when they have exhausted the normal benefits, the fraction shown in the chart is a measure of how much unemployment benefits are paid pursuant to unemployment insurance rule changes, as opposed to payments that occur merely because more people were losing their jobs.

If we assume, merely for simplicity, that the expansions had no effect on the number of people unemployed or on the length of time they were employed, then setting “emergency” and extended-benefit payments to zero as they were in 2007 would have cut total unemployment insurance benefit payments by the fraction shown in the chart. In this case, it appears that the unemployment insurance program is at least twice as generous as it was in 2007, thanks to the federal changes in benefit rules.

The unemployment insurance program is a good example of how federal government spending has grown and how tough it will be to bring it back to pre-recession levels. People are now used to having well more than one year’s unemployment benefits available to them, and politicians will have a lot of trouble asking them to make do with just 26 weeks.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 2, 2011

An earlier version of this post misstated the typical benefit period. Before the recession, 26 weeks, not 13, had become the typical maximum for states to pay unemployment benefits.

Average student-loan debt tops $25,000 for first time

You don't have to be a math major to understand this statistic: The average student-loan debt of last year's college graduates tops $25,000 -- the first time it's ever exceeded that ignominious mark.

Seniors who graduated in 2010 had an average student-loan burden of $25,250, up 5.2% from the $24,000 owed by the class of 2009, according to a report by the Project on Student Debt at the Institute for College Access & Success in Oakland.

Some experts had expected a bigger increase in debt given the gloomy economy, but increased financial aid at some schools partially offset the hit for low-income students and those at pricier colleges.

Still, the increased debt load is another negative for college graduates who already were facing a punishing job market. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 20 to 24 rose to 9.1% last year, up from 8.7% in 2009 and the highest annual rate on record, according to the nonprofit research organization.

The report is based on data reported voluntarily by more than 1,000 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges. It did not include so-called for-profit colleges.

In California, the average debt load last year was $18,113, with 48% of graduating seniors owing money, according to the study.

Students and their families (who, after all, will be footing many of the college bills) can get data on average student-loan rates for many schools on the group's website in the link above.

RELATED:

California's 529 college-saving plan to gain options under TIAA-CREF

California's 529 college savings plan to be revamped

Contributions to college-savings 529 plans are rising sharply after falling during recession

-- Walter Hamilton

Photo credit: University of Chicago

 

ADP: Private employers added 110,000 jobs in October

Private sector employers added 110,000 jobs to payrolls last month, led by hiring among small- and medium-sized businesses, according to a report by Automatic Data Processing Inc., or ADP. The firm provides a monthly jobs report in advance of the government's official tally, to be released Friday.

ADP also said that private sector employers added 116,000 jobs in September, more than the 91,000 the firm had previously reported.

The ADP report does not include government employment, which has been falling consistently, and shed 34,000 jobs in September. State and local governments have jettisoned 641,000 jobs over the last three years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A shrinking government sector is helping keep the unemployment rate elevated even as the country adds jobs.

"The recent trend in private employment is probably below a pace consistent with a stable unemployment rate and reflects the sluggish pace of GDP growth exhibited earlier this year," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, which puts out the jobs report with ADP.

Medium-sized businesses added 53,000 jobs in October, while small businesses -- those with 50 to 499 employees -- added 53,000, ADP said. Large companies lost 1,000 jobs.

Gains were concentrated in service-providing sectors, which added 114,000 positions. Goods-producing sectors shed 4,000 jobs. Manufacturing shed 8,000 jobs, ADP said.

Other signs indicate that manufacturing slowed in October. The ISM Manufacturing Index was 50.8 in October, showing very slight expansion, down from 51.6 in September. A number above 50 indicates growth. Although new orders improved, a good sign, companies cut back on inventories because of fears about the future, according to Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight.

RELATED:

Auto sales: General Motors stalls in an otherwise strong October

Savings rate falls as spending outpaces gains

Crowded labor market drives lackluster wage growth

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: A Whirlpool operations plant in Ohio. Whirlpool said it would cut 5,000 jobs after demand fell. Credit: Daniel Acker / Bloomberg

Cubicle Nation

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

The occupation employing the greatest share of American workers is paper pushers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Well, technically the bureau reports that a plurality of workers — 16.9 percent — are employed as “office and administrative support,” but you get the idea. Here’s a chart from a new report on occupational employment:

The Labor Department predicts that many of the jobs in this group — for example, mail clerks and proofreaders — will be replaced by automation in the next few years. Occupations in customer service, however, are expected to add about 399,500 by 2018 “as businesses put an increased emphasis on building customer relationships,” according to the bureau’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.

The Depreciation of Care at Home

Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

At the next birthday party for your grandparents or yourselves, consider what the following public policies all have in common:

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Medicare pays for many expensive medical procedures that don’t significantly prolong life, but does not cover the costs of custodial care for patients with diseases that can’t be medically treated, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Medicaid is far more likely to pay for nursing home care for the indigent elderly than to pay for home- and community-based services that would enable them to remain in their own homes. While some states do far better than others in this regard, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia cut spending on such services between 2007 and 2010.

Plans to offer families affordable long-term care insurance — whose benefits would include stipends for family members providing care — were recently dropped from President Obama’s health care plan.

Paid workers who care for individuals needing assistance in their own homes are not guaranteed a federal minimum wage or overtime protections because they are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

All these policies take for granted family care, and forms of paid work that resemble family care, assuming that they don’t merit public support or regulation. Yet the aging of the population means that the demand for home-care services is growing even as the supply of young people shrinks.

Marital instability, geographic mobility, increased childlessness and the demands of paid employment all reduce the likelihood that family members will be able to fully meet care needs.

Women, who made up about 67 percent of all caregivers for adults at last count, may become increasingly unlikely to take on responsibilities that their brothers and husbands resist sharing. They may also prove reluctant to enter an occupation that is underpaid and not subject to federal labor regulation.

Paid home and community-based services tend to be more cost-effective than nursing homes, partly because they can help organize and enable support from family members and friends. There is little evidence that they “crowd out” family care; on the contrary, families tend to use paid help when care needs exceed their own capacity, supplementing the total hours of care provided without reducing their own efforts.

Paid home-care workers take on a variety of tasks, including preparing meals, feeding, bathing, doing laundry, changing sheets, ensuring pills are taken and providing reassurance and companionship.

But an outmoded administrative rule excludes them from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act on the grounds that they are “merely” providing companionship.

Pressure on both family and public budgets intensifies resistance to changing this rule, for fear of increased costs. But the small number of home-care workers who are providing companionship and nothing more could be excluded.

Modest overall cost increases would be countervailed by reductions in turnover and improvements in care quality. Overtime restrictions would provide incentives to hire new workers and reduce unemployment. Many states are already on board (21 mandate a minimum wage, and 15 require overtime payment).

Current and future family caregivers should favor better federal protections for paid home care workers out of respect for the value and dignity of caregiving itself.

President Obama, who recently suggested a number of administrative rule changes in other policy areas, should urge Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to extend coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

And everyone who hopes to grow old should demand more support for caregiving at home.

Crowded labor market drives lackluster wage growth

A labor market flooded with unemployed workers continued to put downward pressure on wages and compensation in the last three months, according to employment cost data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages and salaries increased just 0.3% in the third quarter of 2011, while benefits increased just 0.1%, the slowest growth rate since 1999.

Wages and salaries grew 1.6% in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, while benefits rose 3.2%. Benefits have grown faster than wages and salaries over the past two years. In the quarter, the overall employment cost index rose at the slowest pace in two years.

Compensation was dragged down by flat salaries for state and local government workers. Their pay increased just 1.5% over the year, the slowest growth since the data started being recorded in 1982. (In June 1982, state and local government compensation grew 8.5% over the year). That's just one more sign that state and local government positions, once seen as work that came with job security, pensions and stable pay, are no longer the sinecures they once were.

In the three months ending Sept. 30, wages and salaries in the private sector grew in financial activities and insurance, 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively, and in installation and repair. They shrank in the public sector in education, especially among elementary and secondary school employees.

Total compensation, which includes benefits, grew the fastest in the Detroit area over the year -- 4.9%. It rose just 1.9% in the Los Angeles area, and 2.9% in the Phoenix area. If benefits are taken out, wages and salaries grew the fastest in the Minneapolis region over the year, 2.5%, followed closely by Boston and Houston. They grew the slowest in Los Angeles, just 1.3%.

These growth rates aren't likely to speed up until the unemployment rate shrinks, wrote Gregory Daco, an economist with IHS Global Insight.

"With the unemployment rate at 9.1%, ongoing labor market slack should continue to put downward pressure on employment costs," he wrote. "While this is good news for business, it does not bode well for U.S. households whose real disposable incomes fell 1.7% in the third quarter -- the biggest drop since the third quarter of 2009."

RELATED:

Savings rate falls as spending outpaces gains

Lower-paying jobs dominate recovery

More jobs available, but at lower wages

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Job seekers in Oakland. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

 

 

The Recession in Pink and Blue

Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Measured in terms of absolute job loss, men bore the brunt of the Great Recession, hence the term “mancession.” On the other hand, men have fared better than women in regaining jobs during the slight rebound sometimes called the recovery.

Today’s Economist

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Interesting comparison, but gender differences in economic hardship reach beyond employment statistics.

Perspectives from expert contributors.

Many people – even those who live alone – share a portion of their earnings or devote unpaid hours of work to family members, including children and others who are dependent as result of age, sickness, disability or unemployment. Measures of economic hardship should take responsibility for dependents into account.

Women tend to be more vulnerable in this respect than men, primarily because they are more likely to take both financial and direct responsibility for the care of children.

In 2010, according to Census data, about 23 percent of children under the age of 18 lived with mothers but not fathers, about 3 percent with fathers but not mothers and 4 percent with neither parent. In 2007 (the latest year for which data are available), slightly more than half of all custodial parents had formal child support agreements or awards, and less than half of those received the full amount they were due.

Even mothers receiving support from fathers tend to take more responsibility for meeting family needs, intensifying the experience of economic insecurity.

A recent report issued by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research assessed some of the most stressful consequences of a high unemployment rate, based on a nationwide telephone survey conducted last fall in conjunction with the Rockefeller Survey of Economic Security.

The report emphasizes the effects of unemployment on families rather than individuals. More than one-third of respondents reported that they or someone else in their household experienced unemployment during the previous two years. The percentage reached almost one-half for black and Hispanic respondents, and more than half for single mothers.

Unemployment made daily life more difficult for almost everyone touched by it. Still, the gender differences are striking, even among married couples.

Married mothers reported that they were more likely to cut back on household spending than married fathers (80 percent, compared with 66 percent). There was also a noticeable, though not statistically significant, difference between the percentages of married mothers and fathers who reported problems paying their rent or mortgage (31 percent, compared with 26 percent).

Health care anxieties were intense: married mothers were more likely than married fathers to report that they had trouble getting or paying for medical care for themselves or family (34 percent, compared with 17 percent) and that they were worried about the possibility that their employer would cut back health care coverage or increase its costs (43 percent, compared with 34 percent).

Whether single or married, mothers are more directly affected than fathers by cutbacks in public child care provisions resulting from state budget shortfalls and the withdrawal of federal stimulus funds. A new report from the National Women’s Law Center estimates that families in 37 states are worse off under one or more key child care policies in 2011 than they were in 2010.

This emerging pattern of economic insecurity could affect the size and shape of the gender gap in voter preferences. Red may be the Republican color, but over all, pink tilts Democratic.

According to exit polls, unmarried women have typically given more support to Democratic candidates than have married women.

In hard times, however, this “marriage gap” may diminish.

California employers add 11,800 new jobs in September

California's unemployment rate dipped below 12% in September, and nearly 12,000 new jobs were created.

The jobless rate fell to 11.9%, from 12.1% in August, according to the California Employment Development Department.

Non-farm jobs totaled 14.1 million, a jump of 11,800 over August. In August, the state gained 21,100, according to EDD data that was revised upward.

Interactive: California’s unemployment rate by county

In all, California employers have added 250,600 net new jobs during the past 12 months. The trend over the last two months is modestly encouraging, said Howard Roth, chief economist for the state Department of Finance.

"I'd say it's a good gain in jobs, better than what we've been getting," he said.

Five categories of employment rose in September, with the biggest increase in professional and business services at 13,300. Six categories lost employment, including manufacturing, information, financial and health services. The largest decrease was in the government, a loss of 7,000 jobs.

California in September had the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind only Nevada with 13.4%. North Dakota had the lowest rate at 3.5%, while the national rate was 9.1%.

Unemployment in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metropolitan area was 12.4%.

RELATED:

Unemployed Californians face benefit losses

California job centers must devote more money to training

California unemployment rate hits 12.1% as employers slash jobs

-- Marc Lifsher

Photo: Job-seekers meet with recruiters at a Dell career fair in Santa Clara.  Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Airline industry continues to hire for now

The U.S. airline industry has been on a hiring trend lately, but don't expect that to continue too much longer.

For the ninth straight month, the airline industry has added full-time employees, with employment numbers for August up 2.8% over the same month last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

In August, commercial passenger airlines employed 388,523 full-time workers in the U.S., up 10,688 workers from August 2010, according to the bureau.

But the long-term trends show the industry has yet to reached the pre-recession peak of nearly 420,000 workers in early 2008. And in the last few weeks, airline executives have promised to cut back on flights and available seats in response to higher fuel prices and decreasing demand.

The biggest growth in the last few months has been among low-cost airlines, such as Virgin America, Spirit and JetBlue, which combined have increased employment by nearly 6% over last year.

Continental Airlines reported 9.2% more full-time employees in August 2011 than in August 2010, the largest increase among the large, network carriers, according to the bureau. California-based Virgin America hired 21.2% more full-time workers, the largest increase among low-cost airlines.

Related:

American Airlines to cut capacity and retire 11 planes

Christmas travel spending to increase, survey says

Spending on business travel expected to slow in 2012

--Hugo Martin

Photo: A worker at Delta Air Lines helps a customer at Los Angeles International Airport. Credit: Los Angeles Times

 

 

New jobless claims continue modest decline

The number of workers filing for new unemployment benefits dipped slightly last week, a sign the job market is improving, albeit very slowly.

The Labor Department said Thursday initial jobless claims filed in the week ending Oct. 15 dropped to 403,000 from an upwardly revised 409,000 in the prior week. That’s down from the summer high of more than 430,000, but still far from comforting given that employers haven’t stepped up their hiring much.

Based partly on this latest count of new-jobless claims, Barclays Capital Research said it was now looking for 100,000 net new jobs to be added this month, or about the same as in September. That’s a little less than what’s needed to keep pace with the growth of the working-age population. And that means the unemployment rate will most likely remain stuck at 9.1%.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, observed another trouble spot in the latest labor market indicator: rising ranks of unemployed civilian and military federal workers.

“Those who want smaller government are getting it in droves,” she said in a note to clients. “The problem, especially for returning veterans, is that we don’t seem to have jobs for them when they return home.”

From week to week, the initial jobless claims data can be quite volatile. But averaging the last four weeks and comparing that with prior four-week periods also shows a steadily improving trend since summer. In the latest week, Wisconsin led the states reporting decreasing new-unemployment claims. California, New York and Texas showed the biggest increases in filings.

-- Don Lee