The Department of Labor released its weekly unemployment insurance claims data this morning. Initial and continuing claims moved slightly downward, from 445,000 to 432,000 and from 3,379,000 to 3,362,000, respectively. The four-week moving average of initial claims, however, ticked up from 438,500 to 445,750.

On Tuesday, August 19, the Coalition on Human Needs is once again hosting a webinar to help advocates and analysts prepare for the release of annual data from the Census Bureau about poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. The webinar will take place from 2:00 - 3:30 (EST) on the web, and feature Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Insitute, Douglas Hall, Acting Managing Director of Connecticut Voices for Children, Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, and will be moderated by Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs, Food Research and Action Center.

If you are not familiar with CHN's webinar or the annual data release of poverty information from Census, here's a bit of information about what you can expect if you sign up and participate. The webinar will help you:

* to find and understand national numbers and the findings for your state when they're released on August 26
* to see accurate trends over time; whether your state fares better or worse than the national average
* to compare the new data (from 2007) with what we know about the economic woes of 2008, and
* how to talk about the new findings to help build the growing movement for a national commitment to dramatically reduce U.S. poverty.

To sign up to participate and for more information, see CHN's webinar webpage.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data for inflation and real earnings this morning, while the Labor Department reported on unemployment insurance claims for the past week.

Inflation: Consumer prices continue their steep advance as prices jumped 0.8 percent in July, pushing the annualized rate to 10.6 percent (yikes!). The jump in consumer prices was largely driven by food and energy, and when those items are subtracted inflation clocks in a high, but not scary, 3.5 percent. BLS Release: Consumer Price Index: July 2008 Commentary: Dean Baker at CEPR
Real Earnings: Workers' pay took a hit in July as real average weekly earnings fell by 0.8 percent. The 0.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings couldn't keep up with the 0.3 decrease in aerage weekly hours and the 0.9 percent in prices. BLS Release: Real Earnings in July 2008
Unemployment Insurance Claims: Last week, 450,000 workers claimed unemployment insurance for the first time -- 10,000 fewer than the previous week. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims rose to 440,500, an increase of 19,500 from the previous week's revised average of 421,000. Workers who continue to collect unemployment insurance advanced to 3,417,000, an increase of 114,000 from the previous week. Department of Labor Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report Commentary: Andrew Samwick at Capital Gains and Games

The OMB Watch Fiscal Policy Program is looking for an intern for the fall of 2008. Yup, that's right. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor at one of the most dynamic nonprofit watchdog groups in Washington, DC. We're looking for energetic undergraduate or graduate students who have excellent writing, critical thinking, and communications skills, and who are dedicated to public policy and government accountability (see current intern Josh at right for example).

The internship is unpaid, but you'll have the chance to gain first hand experiences and take on significant responsibilities related to a number of different aspects of policy analysis in DC. Plus, you'll get a chance to write for the BudgetBlog - what could be better?

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The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment insurance (UI) claims data this morning.

• 455,000 workers filed first-time UI claims last week, a jump of 7,000 from the previous week. The number of claims last week had not been seen since March 2002.
• The four-week average for new UI claims moved up to 419,500, a five-year high
• The number of continuing claims rose to 3,311,000, also a five-year high

AP: Jobless claims hit highest point since March 2002

Writing in the New York Times, Stephanie Strom brings yet another instance of how corporations and their enabling political benefactors have clearly had their way with the tax code.

Organizations, including the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities, have complained that the current tax deduction for use of a personal car while performing volunteer services for charities was too low at 14 cents a mile. That is compared with 58.5 cents a mile for corporate employees who use their cars for business purposes.

Simply inexcusable.

And on Wednesday, four senators plan to announce a proposal to reset the charitable mileage deduction to 70 percent of the corporate deduction.

Seventy percent? Way to even out the disparity, clowns.

Tax breaks are inserted into the tax code as a means of either encouraging certain behavior or restoring fairness to a perceived inequity. That the use of personal vehicles for business deserves a tax break of some four times that of charitable use indicates that, as a society, we either 1) believe personal vehicles should be used way more for business than for charity (free market, baby!) or 2) that it would be really unfair for people who use their personal vehicles for charity work to see a tax break equal to those who use them for business.

Put to a vote, it's hard to see how either of these options would win in a citizen ballot initiative. Common decency would forbid it. One wonders, then, what sort of conditions foster this kind of shameful disparity in the tax code.

Photo by Flickr user genericstrasse used under a Creative Commons license.

Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich really nails it on his blog today:

But even an adequate stimulus package will offer only temporary relief this time, because this isn't a normal downturn. The problem lies deeper. Most Americans can no longer maintain their standard of living.

...

The heart of the matter isn't the collapse in housing prices or even the frenetic rise in oil and food prices. These are contributing to the mess but they are not creating it directly. The basic reality is this: For most Americans, earnings have not kept up with the cost of living.

Reich then goes on to explain that, since the 1970s, facing stagnating wages, American families sent women into the workforce to supplement family income, then families worked longer hours, and finally they relied on borrowing -- through credit cards and equity in their homes -- as a means to increase their standard of living. And now that the last source of wage supplement has dried up, the recession that we're headed for will require a ground-up fix, rather than a temporary (and marginal) boost to family income.

Growing inequality, where the gains from increasing productivity have accrued mainly to the wealthy, is ultimately harming the nation's economy. Economists and policy makers can no longer duck the inequality issue with a "well, life isn't fair" attitude: Inequality bears directly on the ability of the economy to sustain and improve the standard of living for all Americans. The economy, after all, does not exist to protect and extend the fortunes of the fortunate.

Image by Flickr user incendiarymind used under a Creative Commons license.

Jobs data released this morning show that the economy continued to a seven-month trend of shedding jobs. July's bottom-line job-loss number was mitigated by an increase of 25,000 government jobs; private sector employment dropped by 76,000. Since January, the economy has lost 463,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate also moved upward from 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent. In the past year, the unemployment rate has rise 1.0 percent as 1.6 million workers have become unemployed.

(click to enlarge)

The federal minimum wage will increase to $6.55 per hour today, the second bump that is part of a law passed last year to increase the wage to $7.25 by next summer (see this story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). As the AJC correctly points out, the increase will have a significant impact in Georgia, but for more than half the states, it won't do much because the federal government is woefully behind the curve:

Yet in 30 states, Thursday's change is a yawner: They already have higher wage floors — the highest being California and Massachusetts at $8 an hour and Washington at $8.07 an hour.

In Georgia, the new floor matters: About 210,000 Georgians work for the minimum wage, according to a 2006 study by the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute. About 461,000 others, while making a little more than the minimum, would also likely get a boost because of the change, the GPBI said.

For a full-time worker, Thursday's $28-a-week raise would mean a year's pay of $13,624. That is below the official poverty line for a family of three — and about one-third of the Georgians affected by the change are parents, according to the GPBI.

Nationally, it is estimated that 2.1 million workers will receive a long-overdue pay increase today, but for a family of three, a minimum wage earner will still be well below the federal poverty line.

Related Articles:
OurFuture.org: The Next Minimum Wage Fight
Jonathan Tasani: The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace and a Scandal
EPI: Guide to the Minimum Wage