The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate increased slightly from 7.5% to 7.6% in May. Each month, comments on this number include a discussion on “labor force participation"—the number that is released is based on people who are “in the labor force.” To be included in the labor force, someone has to either be employed, or actively looking for work. 

Join Robert Reich on Thursday, June 20, noon–1 p.m. EDT for the seventh in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton and Chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley—and the AFL-CIO—wants to hear your ideas on new ways the labor movement can change economic trends that hurt working people. He poses this question:

The rich keep getting a bigger share of the economic pie while everyone else’s share keeps shrinking. What should be done to reverse this trend?

Workers in states all over the United States are joining a movement for earned paid sick leave and seeing major victories. It's common sense and smart business. Now, business owners are getting on board. 

Nearly 300 small businesses have joined a campaign to support laws that require employers to give their workers paid sick days. The businesses have endorsed the Businesses for Earned Leave campaign, a partnership of American Sustainable Business Council, the Main Street Alliance and Social Venture Network. On Tuesday, the coalition launched a website supporting the campaign, Better Workplaces, Better Businesses.

If you have student loan debt or follow the politics of it, you're probably familiar with this deadline: On July 1, if Congress does nothing, the interest rates on subsidized federal Stafford loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. We absolutely don't want this to happen, since it would mean thousands of extra dollars of debt for many already low-income borrowers. Numerous proposals to address the looming rate doubling are being debated in Congress, and both sides of the aisle have already seen one bill each get voted down. 

This week, the Center for American Progress (CAP), a think-tank closely associated with President Obama’s Administration since it was the home of many key White House officials like Gene Sperling and Melody Barnes, changed course on backing a “grand bargain” with Republicans on cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits and raising taxes on high income earners to balance the budget in the long run. After taking a position favoring a debate on shrinking government back in 2009, CAP now sees four years later, that the job crisis remains while the federal deficit and the size of government has plummeted.  But, let’s hope this change in heart has a similar effect on the Obama administration.

A new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that there was a decline in April for job openings to a total of 3.8 million, while the number of unemployed workers seeking jobs was around 11.7 million. April's level of job openings is more than 16% below where it was in the months before the recession began.

The nation’s economy added 175,000 new jobs in May and the jobless rate slightly increased to 7.6% compared to April’s 7.5%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 175,000 new May jobs outpaced April’s job growth by 10,000 and marked 38 straight months of tepid job growth. But economists say the growth rate is too slow to fuel a healthy jobs recovery.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is publicly calling on Congress to abandon job-killing cuts and "grand bargains"—which aren't so "grand" for America's working families—and focus on what the country really needs: jobs. 

Last week, the Social Security Trust Fund report was released. One of its more telling charts was of the trend in Social Security revenue. Social Security revenue comes from a tax on the wages of earners, paid by both employees and employers. So, essentially it tracks the level of employment. Based on the simple trend of revenues from 1990 to 2007, just before the Great Recession started, 2012 revenue would have been $899.4 billion; instead, it was $840 billion.  That gap means less money to build up the Social Security Trust Fund than expected. The trustees do not break down the revenue by the age of workers, but based on the dramatically lower employment experience of young workers, the bulk of that gap reflects the lost wages of young people.

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shatters several bits of conventional wisdom embraced by the media and many in Washington, D.C., including the oft-repeated Republican mantra that lower corporate taxes boost the economy. The analysis found no evidence that changes in the statutory or effective tax rate on corporations are correlated with economic growth.