finding jobs

On Chicago’s West Side, No Rebound From the Recession

La Risa Lynch

While the overall unemployment rate in Chicago has declined since the recession ended, the rate in African-American communities has remained high. The citywide unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in 2014, but it has been well into the double digits in neighborhoods like Austin, North Lawndale, Englewood and Garfield Park, according to a Reporter analysis. The interconnection between unemployment and incarceration has made these communities least likely to share in the economic recovery.

The Student Loans Crisis: Default or Pay?

Rebekah Frank

It is certainly true that higher education in the United States is prohibitively expensive, and that $1.2 trillion in student loans is a scarily high number. There are a lot of people struggling under the burden of high loans with high interest rates, people who are working jobs that they don’t love in order to repay those loans, families that are placed under high levels of stress by that loan bill that keeps coming month after month. 

Congress Stands By as Number of Jobless Americans Grows

Charles D. Ellison

More than 2.2 million Americans are barely getting by after most of their extended unemployment benefits were abruptly cut over the Christmas break. In fact, Congress and the president skipped town for restful, holiday vacations soon after. Hopes of a post-New Year’s Day resolution were dashed by stalls and foot-dragging in the Senate, which is finally taking a vote this week. But, a nastier, unsympathetic House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is signaling that he’s not interested in bringing it to the floor for a vote. 

The Current Unemployment Crisis Facing Minority Youths

Imara Jones

As the White House prepares to launch a major economic opportunity effort, record high unemployment among black and Latino youth underscores how essential it is to create job opportunities for young people of color. The critical issue here is that the ages of 16 to 24 are make or break years for lifelong earning potential. With one out four blacks and one out of six Latinos under the age of 25 without work, a generation of youth of color risks falling behind.

Note to Congress: Raise the Minimum Wage

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The GOP has ruthlessly sold the outlandish myth to millions that a hike in the minimum wage is a huge job killer. It has been so effective in its hard sell that President Obama and Congressional Democrats have repeatedly been stymied and frustrated in every effort they’ve made to boost the minimum wage nationally. And almost certainly, Obama in his State of the Union Address later this month will again demand that Congress, meaning House and Senate Republicans, immediately raise the minimum wage. 

Spain’s Wandering Lost Generation

Alexander Ostrovsky

The domestic employment outlook remains just as frustrating as close to six million Spaniards are unemployed, with a startling 56.1 percent youth unemployment rate. The youth unemployment rate in Spain is twice what it is in the rest of the Eurozone, and with such little prospects in their home country, most are choosing to leave. In the first few years of the Spanish crisis most of the unemployed had chosen to remain in Spain and relied on two-year redundancy packages to survive. 

Higher Education Doesn’t Always Translate into Better Jobs for Black Men

Frederick Lowe

Center officials wrote in a report, titled "Has Education Paid Off for Black Workers?" that good-paying jobs have eluded black men because of continuing racial discrimination in the job market and other factors. "Over the last many decades, black workers have made significant --- and often overlooked --- investments in education. Nevertheless, black workers have little to show for these investments," the report said. "A lack of human capital does not appear to be causing the difficulties black workers face in the labor market. 

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