Here's one of the reasons so many people think it's worth taking on piles of student debt to get a college degree:
This chart shows undermployment—defined as "Unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force"—for different education levels. And while college graduates aren't doing fabulously well, there's no question people who haven't attended college are doing worse.
- Home care providers in Missouri twice voted to unionize, only to see their votes twice thrown out by the courts. But this past Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals has ruled that the second election should stand and 13,000 home care workers can be represented by the union they voted to join.
- A federal judge ordered Peabody Energy to reinstate a fired union supporter—and to quit threatening workers with firing if they support the union.
- Cafeteria workers in the Chicago schools have won a moratorium on the construction of new schools that don't have kitchens, meaning school lunches are reheated frozen food.
- Momentum continues to build against unpaid internships, at least the exploitative kind where interns are used as unpaid drudges, not people getting training and experience. Via Atrios.
- The RNC uses a Verizon call center in the Philippines to attack President Obama's economic policies. Not that Democrats are perfect on that front, but still. Also, let's not forget how Mitt Romney's pro-America pins were made in China.
- How do out-of-work construction workers make ends meet with such high construction unemployment? For many, the answer is odd jobs and Craigslist. That means instability, low pay, and some pretty sketchy job offers.
- The Economic Policy Institute has lots more information about how women and African Americans are hit hardest by state and local government job cuts.
- As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner are in China for economic talks, Alliance for American Manufacturing Executive Director Scott Paul takes a look at the state of U.S.-China trade, arguing:
...the fanfare of the Geithner-Clinton visit will be closely managed and impeccably staged. In fact, China is already playing its part, having temporarily raised the value of its currency (and ironically, proving the point that it manipulates the Yuan) so that the Administration can avoid naming it a currency manipulator, despite an Obama campaign promise to do so. There will also be recycled agreements on protecting intellectual property and U.S. investment in China. Any astute observer will note how this is an annual ritual, but most media accounts will proclaim these as "new" and significant advances. And, Beijing will throw U.S. industry a bone or two by inking a few commercial deals.
But left unaddressed amidst the hoopla: Our record $295 billion trade deficit with China, the growing strength of China's state-owned enterprises, and Beijing's ongoing failure to adhere to its international trade obligations.
- Huntsville, Alabama is not the likeliest place for activism, but as Verizon learned, holding your shareholder meeting there isn't a guarantee you won't face a protest.
Farm workers also rallied at the Reynolds American shareholder meeting in North Carolina.