Unemployment Rate

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to tackle the high unemployment rate among Maryland veterans, his office said Tuesday. By the end of 2015, O'Malley aims to reduce veteran unemployment from 5.3 percent to below 3 percent, which economists would consider full employment, the administration said. "The military provides our service members with some of the best possible skills and leadership training," O'Malley said in statement. "We want to make sure Maryland's veterans who possess those skills become a part of our workforce.

The Sun's argument that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake should veto Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young's local hiring bill is quite weak on a number of fronts ("Noble but flawed," May 15). First, The Sun argues that if challenged, the proposed law will likely fail constitutional muster. However, like San Francisco and Boston, the law may never be challenged, and if it is, we have a judicial branch to decide its constitutionality. As many are aware, the law in any field is almost never settled and can always change.

The Sun's argument that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake should veto Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young's local hiring bill is quite weak on a number of fronts ("Noble but flawed," May 15). First, The Sun argues that if challenged, the proposed law will likely fail constitutional muster. However, like San Francisco and Boston, the law may never be challenged, and if it is, we have a judicial branch to decide its constitutionality. As many are aware, the law in any field is almost never settled and can always change.

Maryland employers added 4,700 jobs in March, gains driven by the private sector, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. It was the fourth straight month of increases, though at a lower level than the previous three. The expansion brought Maryland within about 5,000 jobs of finally regaining the number of positions the state had before the effects of the last recession set in - compared with nearly 2.9 million jobs still to go nationwide, more than the country added in all of last year.

In a pinch of bright news for the economy, the East Coast snowstorms that paralyzed transportation and shut down thousands of businesses last month did far less damage than expected to the nation's labor market, allowing the unemployment rate to hold steady at 9.7 percent. Some economists had forecast that the storms would result in a setback on the jobs front, with unemployment jumping and payroll losses reaching 75,000 or more. Certainly, the recovery remains slow and uneven after the worst recession in more than a half-century.

Maryland's unemployment rate rose to 7.5 percent last month as employers continued to cut jobs, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in November, according to revised figures from the federal government. Joblessness rose last month as employers cut 8,700 positions. The government estimates -- which are preliminary -- have been adjusted to try to account for normal seasonal changes in hiring and layoffs. All told, 220,000 Marylanders were actively looking for work last month and not finding it. The state's unemployment situation remains better than the nation's, which had a jobless rate of 10 percent last month.

Immediately after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent in September, conservatives started attacking the agency for producing figures that sounded a little too convenient for the Obama administration. The most prominent doubter was former GE chairman Jack Welch, who tweeted shortly after the announcement, "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers. " But he was hardly alone.

For yet another month, Maryland's unemployment rate inched upward, reaching 7 percent in July, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday. Maryland, however, saw an increase in 800 jobs last month, the first gain since February. "The fact that the decline ended is certainly good news," said Gus Faucher, senior economist with PNC Bank in Pittsburgh. "You would want to see stronger gains and you would also want to see that they improve over the next few months before you say that the weakness we had in the spring is over.

Maryland's unemployment rate jumped 0.5 percentage point in June despite the fact that a record number of Marylanders were employed during the month, as a surge in the number of seasonal workers seeking jobs expanded the labor pool and a dip in the auto industry helped hold down short-term job gains.The state's unemployment rate climbed to 5.4 percent from 4.9 percent in May, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.But after adjustment for seasonal factors, the jobless rate rose only to 5.1 percent from 5.0 percent, reflecting the fact that much of the labor force surge will disappear when it's time for students to return to college.

Maryland's unemployment rate in September continued to inch upward for the fourth straight month, according to U.S. Labor Department data released Friday. But economists saw positive signs in the fact that more people reported that they were in the workforce. The Maryland jobless rate rose to 7.4 percent last month from 7.3 percent in August. This year's low was 6.8 percent in May. Because the jobless rate is based on a survey that asks whether people are employed or looking for work, the increase could indicate that discouraged workers who had been sitting on the sidelines have resumed their job search.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to tackle the high unemployment rate among Maryland veterans, his office said Tuesday. By the end of 2015, O'Malley aims to reduce veteran unemployment from 5.3 percent to below 3 percent, which economists would consider full employment, the administration said. "The military provides our service members with some of the best possible skills and leadership training," O'Malley said in statement. "We want to make sure Maryland's veterans who possess those skills become a part of our workforce.

Lanham-based veterans group Amvets has been awarded a $250,000 grant to bring veterans' job services to 20 new markets around the country. The grant comes from the Call of Duty Endowment, which provides grants to groups that find jobs for veterans. Amvets expects to open career centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, California, Florida, Missouri and Tennessee. The unemployment rate for veterans improved overall in 2012 to 7 percent, according to a U.S. Labor Department annual report released Wednesday.

Maryland employers added 6,700 jobs in January, picking up the pace from the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Labor said Monday. Businesses added 5,300 jobs in December, according to the agency's revised estimates. In both December and January, all gains came from the private sector as government agencies cut back — eliminating 1,500 jobs in each month. January's uptick wasn't large enough to lower the unemployment rate, which held steady at 6.7 percent. The U.S. jobless rate was 7.9 percent that month.

Letter writer Don Mathis of the Community Action Partnership insists in one breath that he is not a shill for the Obama Administration, then in the next tries to convince readers what a wonderful job the president is doing ("Obama speech was about strengthening the middle class," Feb. 17). Really? Mr. Mathis claims unemployment is going down when the reality is that it is climbing. The work force has declined considerably since the onset of this administration, making the unemployment rate much higher than touted by mainstream media outlets and a complicit Sun. Accordingly, Mr. Mathis may be right about the auto industry not crashing, but he forgot to mention the billions of dollars it owed to taxpayers that we will never recover.

In all of the clamor about deficit reduction and fiscal cliffs, the assumption is that the U.S. economy is basically fine. The "jobs slump" is just that - a slump - so with proper government intervention (or lack thereof), the happy days of full employment will return. After all, the "recession" is just temporary, isn't it? There is a more devastating prospect: that the lost jobs are gone forever, leaving tens of millions of Americans, concentrated at opposite ends of the age scale, who may never work "permanently" again.

Friday, forecasters expect the Labor Department to report the economy added 155,000 jobs in December - substantially less than is needed to pull unemployment down to acceptable levels. The tax and spending package passed by the Senate and House provides little prospect of improvement, as the U.S. economy continues to suffer from insufficient demand and will continue growing at a subpar 2 percent a year. Factors contributing to weak demand and slow jobs creation are the huge trade deficits with China and other Asian exporters, as well as on oil. However, on the supply side, increased business regulations, rising health care costs and mandates imposed by Obamacare - and now higher taxes on small businesses - discourage investments that raise productivity and competitiveness and create jobs.

Maryland's unemployment rate improved in October as employers added 3,100 jobs, a bit of good news for residents to chew on heading into Thanksgiving and - retailers hope - holiday shopping. The state's jobless rate dropped to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent in September, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday. The job growth estimates suggest that 60 percent of the net gains came from the private sector in October, with most of the rest coming from state government agencies. Job growth has bumped up and down over the past year, producing only a relative inching-up in employment - to the chagrin of the more than 215,000 unemployed Marylanders.

A five-month stretch of job losses in Maryland ended in August with a small gain, too meager to keep the state's unemployment rate from ticking up to 7.1 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. And some economists said even the apparent job increase in August looks suspect. The labor agency, which measured losses in most major industries and both federal and state employment that month, estimated a 1,400-job gain overall as a result of a 6,700-job increase in local government.

President Barack Obama expects the Republicans to give into his tax-hike demands ("Progress elusive in fiscal talks," Dec. 14). "I'm pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle-class taxes hostage in trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals," he told Barbara Walters in a recent interview. However, now it seems Mr. Obama's busy party schedule can't accommodate the fiscal cliff talks. Since returning from a trip to Southeast Asia on Nov. 12, Mr. Obama has managed to play three rounds of golf but has met only once face to face with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the man with whom he is trying to strike a deal on taxes and spending to prevent another recession.

Starting in June 2005, I had literally hundreds of conversations with men and women — mostly men, and mostly from Baltimore — about their struggles to land jobs after prison. Most employers wanted nothing to do with these guys, especially the ones who had committed violent crimes. But most of those I interviewed had not been convicted of killing anyone; they had not beaten anyone or engaged in armed robbery. Most were in their 30s and 40s and had gone away for selling or using illegal narcotics.