Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Congressional Black Caucus "For the People" Jobs Initiative

On Thursday, August 18, the Congressional Black Caucus held a "For the People" Jobs Initiative town hall meeting in Atlanta focusing on job creation efforts and improving the economy. Among the topics they addressed were public and private cooperation to create jobs, federal spending programs, recent debate on the federal debt and deficit reduction, as well as programs designed to benefit African Americans. This event was part of the Congressional Black Caucus' "For the People" jobs initiative that included nationwide jobs fairs, workshops and town hall meetings.

The Congressional Black Caucus Launches “For the People” Jobs Initiative H.Res.348

Job Fairs and Town Halls around the Country
MSNBC Contributor and theGrio.com Correspondent Jeff Johnson will moderate the CBC town halls in Detroit (August 16) and Los Angeles (August 30-31). All the town halls, including Atlanta (August 18) and Miami (August 22-23), will be streamed live on theGrio.com

DETROITAugust 16 
REGISTER
Congressmen John Conyers &
Hansen Clarke, Host
WC3/ Wayne County Community College
(Downtown Campus)
1001 W. Fort St., Detroit, MI, 48211
Job Fair from: 9:00am – 5:30pm
Town Hall: 6:00pm -8:00pm
ATLANTA — August 18 
REGISTER
Congressman John Lewis and Hank Johnson, Hosts
Atlanta Technical College
1560 Metropolitan Pkwy SW
Atlanta, GA 30310
Job Fair:  9:00am – 5:30pm
Town Hall:  6:00pm -8pm

MIAMIAugust 22-23 
REGISTER
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, Host
Mt. Herman A.M.E. Church (town hall)
17800 Northwest 25th Avenue
James L. Knight Center, Downtown Miami (job fair)
400 SE 2nd Avenue # 3, Miami, FL 33131-2116
Town Hall: August 22, 6:00pm -8:00pm
Job Fair: August 23, 9:00am – 5:30pm


LOS ANGELESAugust 30-31 
REGISTER
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Host
Crenshaw Christian Center
West 7901 S. Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90044
Town Hall: August 30, 6:00pm -8:00pm
Job Fair: August 31, 9:00am – 5:00pm

Washington, DC – Today, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) officially announces its “For the People” Jobs Initiative, which includes nationwide job fairs and town hall meetings. As the reported African American unemployment rate hovers around 16.2%, Members of the CBC are standing together to address the joblessness crisis. Most recently, the CBC Members unanimously introduced the Congressional Black Caucus ‘For the People’ Jobs Initiative Resolution (H. Res. 348) to encourage the House of Representatives to immediately consider and pass critical jobs legislation to address the growing jobs crisis throughout America. Additionally, CBC Members have introduced over 40 job creation bills since the beginning of the 112th Congress. To celebrate our 40-year history, the CBC has gone well beyond their normal course of duty in legislating to go into communities all over the country to provide immediate, tangible results to address the jobs crisis by providing jobs to communities that need them most.

This August, thousands will gather for town hall meetings, job fairs, and job readiness workshops and seminars as a part of the Congressional Black Caucus’s For the People Jobs Initiative.

“As reported African American unemployment remains stagnant at 16.2%, it has become clear that it is time for immediate and real action to provide hard working Americans with real economic opportunity,” said Chairman Emanuel Cleaver.

“Too many Americans are struggling to get back on their feet and as members of the Congressional Black Caucus it is our duty to ensure their voices are heard, and needs are met,” said Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the CBC Jobs Committee.

The needs of our citizens have been ignored for far too long. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are prepared to work in a bipartisan fashion to do what is necessary to bring this nation out of economic turmoil and the For the People Jobs Initiative is the first step to making that happen.  Every American has the right to be gainfully employed and CBC Members will not rest until there is equality in access to jobs.

For more information, visit the CBC web site

Emergency Jobs to Restore The American Dream Act




Jan Schakowsky has introduced an emergency jobs bill to create over 2 million jobs.  You can help!  Please write to your Representative and urge him/her to cosponsor the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act.

Cross-posted from Rep. Jan Schakowsky's web site:

Schakowsky Announces Bill to Create 2.2 Million Jobs
“Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act”
Estimated to Lower Unemployment Rate by 1.3%

CHICAGO, IL (August 10, 2011) – Today Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of President Obama’s 18-member Fiscal Commission, announced she will introduce the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, a cost-effective plan to put over 2 million people to work for two years.

The time has come for Congress to focus like a laser on the most pressing crisis facing our country – the jobs crisis. With extended unemployment benefits scheduled to expire at the end of this year, 13.9 million people remain out of work. The average worker who is unemployed has been searching for a job for more than nine months and recent reports reveal that private sector employers largely refuse to hire those currently jobless. An additional 8.4 million are working part time because they cannot find a full-time job. In June 2007, 63 percent of adults were employed, now the percentage is 58.2 percent. Despite reports of a Congress immobilized and unable to address the jobs crisis– Congress can and must do something today.

“It begins with this simple idea: If we want to create jobs, then create jobs. I’m not talking about “incentivizing” companies in the hopes they’ll hire someone, or cutting taxes for the so-called job creators who have done nothing of the sort. My plan creates actual new jobs,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “The worst deficit this country faces, isn’t the budget deficit. It’s the jobs deficit. We need to get our people and our economy moving again.”

If enacted, the legislation would create 2.2 million jobs that will meet critical needs to improve and strengthen communities:

•The School Improvement Corps would create 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs by funding positions created by public school districts to do needed school rehabilitation improvements.

•The Park Improvement Corps would create 100,000 jobs for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 through new funding to the Department of the Interior and the USDA Forest Service’s Public Lands Corps Act. Young people would work on conservation projects on public lands include restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, and historic resources.

•The Student Jobs Corps would creates 250,000 more part-time, work study jobs for eligible college students through new funding for the Federal Work Study Program.

•The Neighborhood Heroes Corps would hire 300,000 teachers, 40,000 new police officers, and 12,000 firefighters.

•The Health Corps would hire at least 40,000 health care providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and health care workers to expand access in underserved rural and urban areas.

•The Child Care Corps would create 100,000 jobs in early childhood care and education through additional funding for Early Head Start.

•The Community Corps would hire 750,000 individuals to do needed work in our communities, including housing rehab, weatherization, recycling, and rural conservation.

The legislation gives the unemployed priority for jobs, particularly those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits (the “99ers”), and veterans. The bill allocates a fair distribution of funding and jobs among states, with targeting based on high unemployment and need. The bill also ensures that jobs do not undercut the rights of other workers, lower wages, displace current workers or take business from small/local businesses.

The $227 billion cost of the bill ($113.5 billion over each of two years) can be fully paid for through separate legislation such as Rep. Schakowsky’s Fairness in Taxation Act, which creates higher tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, and eliminating subsidies for Big Oil and tax loop holes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.


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CONTACT: Adjoa Adofo; 202.225.2111, adjoa.adofo [at] mail.house.gov




Nearly 29 Million People Need Jobs in the U.S.!

JULY 2011 UNEMPLOYMENT DATA*
                                          (U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT: 9.1% [Analysis]A year earlier, the number of unemployed persons was 14.6
million, and the jobless rate was 9.5 percent.
[BLS]

White
     8.1%
African American
15.9%
Hispanic
11.3%
Asian**
                                    7.7%
Persons with a disability **
    16.8%
Men 20 years and over
9.0%
Women 20 years and over
7.9%
Teens (16-19 years)
25.0%
Black teens
39.2%
Officially unemployed
13.9 million

HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT

Working part-time because can't find a full-time job:  8.4 million
People who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics (of which about 2.8 million** searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available for work during the reference week.)  6.6 million
Total: 28.9 million (18.1% of the labor force)

Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
 
**Not seasonally adjusted.


Cross posted from www.njfac.org

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A bold, new U.S. jobs bill would stop a double-dip recession - KansasCity.com

A bold, new U.S. jobs bill would stop a double-dip recession - KansasCity.com:
by Robert Reich, 8/9/11

"...We’re now poised on the edge of a double-dip — and have our hands tied behind our back because of a phony debt crisis and a misleading view that the first stimulus failed.":

"The hope: voters tell their members of Congress — now on recess — to stop obsessing about future budget deficits and get to work on the real crisis of unemployment, falling wages and no growth. Demand a bold jobs bill to restart the economy."

Friday, August 5, 2011

New York City Council Introduces Resolution in Support of Full Employment and Living Wage Jobs for All!

The New York City Council Committee on Community Development is now considering a resolution in support of HR 870, the 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).  The resolution was introduced by Council Members Brad Lander, Gale Brewer, Margaret Chin, Daniel Dromm, Letitia James, Deborah Rose and Jumane Williams.

The Put America to Work Campaign thanks these Council Members for their vision and leadership on this issue!   And we thank Mark Dunlea of Hunger Action Network of NY State for helping to get the resolution introduced.  We urge other cities and communities to pass similar resolutions to draw attention to the unemployment crisis and build support for a national jobs program.

Download a copy of the Draft New York City Resolution.

You can also obtain a Local Jobs Resolution Toolkit on how to pass a local jobs resolution at Cities for Progress.  Additional language that may be helpful for local resolutions can be found in the draft The Drive For Decent Work jobs resolution developed in 2008 -- but please update the text for your local situation, and add a current reference to HR 870.   Contact us if you'd like help developing a local resolution.

The text of the NYC draft resolution follows below.

Res. No. 956


Resolution calling upon Congress to pass and the President to sign The Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, H.R. 870.

By Council Members Lander, Brewer, Chin, Dromm, James, Rose and Williams

Whereas, Millions of people in the United States are unemployed in good times as well as bad, and many more work without living wages, comprehensive health insurance and retirement benefits; and

Whereas, The official unemployment rate leaves out the "hidden unemployed" - who want full-time work but are forced to work part-time or who want a job but are not currently looking for reasons such as lack of child care or transportation; and

Whereas, In May 2011, an estimated 13.9 million workers were officially unemployed (9.1%), an additional 11.3 million were among the "hidden unemployed," bringing the actual jobless rate to roughly 16.5%; and

Whereas, The Full-Employment and Balanced Growth Act was signed into law by President Carter in 1978, thus becoming the nation's first attempt at establishing an official Federal full-employment policy; and

Whereas, The original intent of the legislation's sponsors, Senator Hubert Humphrey and Representative Augustus Hawkins, was to create a full-employment society brought about by direct hiring policies that would obligate the government to create jobs if the private sector was unable to create a fully employed society through gradual economic growth after ten years; and

Whereas, This legislation was supported by both civil rights and labor organizations who viewed the bill as a way to address the economic hardships being felt by low-income Americans; and

Whereas, The intent of the Act's sponsors was weakened when the bill reached the United States Senate prior to it being signed into law; and

Whereas, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. has introduced legislation that is tailored to fit the current state of the nation's economy and seeks to embody the spirit of the original Humphrey-Hawkins legislation; and

Whereas, H.R. 870 known as the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act seeks to establish a National Full Employment Trust Fund to create employment opportunities; and

Whereas, This trust fund would have two separate accounts directing the allocation of monies towards job creation and training programs; and

Whereas, The first trust fund account would direct funds to a jobs program, allocating funds based on a Community Development Block Grant formula that considers unemployment data, with the purpose of creating employment opportunities in activities designed to address community needs for eligible individuals who either are unemployed for at least twenty-six (26) weeks or unemployed for at least thirty (30) days and low-income; and

Whereas, The second trust fund account would distribute funds to job training programs covered under the Workforce Investment Act; and

Whereas, Although New York City's economy has improved at a faster rate than both the state and the nation, state and federal budget cuts along with a slowly recovering national economy could keep the City's level of unemployment high for some time; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon Congress to pass and the President to sign The Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, H.R. 870.