Jobs For Connecticut Now

The number of people who took part-time jobs because they were unable to find full-time work has grown nearly fourfold in Massachusetts since 2000 and has been accelerating at an alarming pace for much of this year, according to an analysis by Northeastern University. In the first eight months of 2011, the number of so-called underemployed workers in the Bay State surged 18 percent to 200,500, a sign the economic recovery has been so weak – and companies so reluctant to hire – that many workers have little choice other than to take lower-paying jobs. Read More

The 2011 GOP Jobs Tour will stop in Sutton Oct. 3 as part of a six-week tour by the House Republican Caucus.  State Reps. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, and Paul Frost, R-Auburn, in conjunction with state Reps. George N. Peterson Jr., R-Grafton, Peter Durant, R-Spencer, Kevin Kuros, R-Uxbridge, Matthew Beaton, R-Shrewsbury, and Steven Levy, R-Marlboro, announced the Blackstone Valley stop yesterday. The Jobs Tour Forum will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Sutton Senior Center, 19 Hough Road. The GOP Jobs Tour will stop in seven communities across the state.  State unemployment is 7.6 percent and the national unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. Read More

President Obama’s recent address to Congress served to once again renew the focus of the entire nation on the issue of jobs. Across the country and certainly here in New England, putting people to work has been the number one priority. The news has been mixed in our region. Massachusetts and Maine both continue to show an unemployment rate below the national figure. Despite its relatively low unemployment, however, Maine has always had a structural unemployment problem based on a lack of business diversification and its rural character. Read More

The New England unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged at 7.8 percent in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The region remains below the national rate of 9.1 percent. And Massachusetts beat the regional average in August with an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent. The Pacific region of the country had the highest unemployment in August at 11.2 percent while the West North Central region had the lowest rate at 6.9 percent. Massachusetts’ unemployment rate may be better-than-average, but it is not best in New England. Vermont’s unemployment rate is 5.9 percent and New Hampshire’s is 5.3 percent. Read More

President Obama’s recent address to Congress served to once again renew the focus of the entire nation on the issue of jobs. Across the country and certainly here in New England, putting people to work has been the number one priority. The news has been mixed in our region. Massachusetts and Maine both continue to show an unemployment rate below the national figure. Despite its relatively low unemployment, however, Maine has always had a structural unemployment problem based on a lack of business diversification and its rural character. Read More

When I graduated from Cass Technical High School in the late 1980s, the only people who had heard of the Internet were a few scientists and my old boss Al Gore. Not many would have guessed that soon we would be able to carry around this lifeline to the world in our pockets with touch-screen pads. Fast mobile broadband connections will be available soon for more Americans if the Federal Communications Commission acts quickly to enable entrepreneurship opportunities and greater access to information, education, health care and more. A third of American adults now own and use smart phones, according to a study released last month from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But far too many Americans still don’t even have the option to connect.

When I graduated from Cass Technical High School in the late 1980s, the only people who had heard of the Internet were a few scientists and my old boss Al Gore. Not many would have guessed that soon we would be able to carry around this lifeline to the world in our pockets with touch-screen pads. Fast mobile broadband connections will be available soon for more Americans if the Federal Communications Commission acts quickly to enable entrepreneurship opportunities and greater access to information, education, health care and more. A third of American adults now own and use smart phones, according to a study released last month from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. But far too many Americans still don’t even have the option to connect.

Maine has lost 9,545 jobs to China since the Communist nation entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) ten years ago. That’s according to a report by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which figures that China’s unfair economic subsidies, currency manipulations and inhumane labor practices have resulted in 2.8 million U.S. jobs either lost or displaced. Read More

America’s trade deficit with China cost eastern Connecticut more than 5,000 jobs over the past decade, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. The Washington, D.C.-based institute, which bills itself as a nonpartisan think tank, said in its report that Connecticut’s 2nd Congressional District – which includes New London County – lost 5,716 jobs between 2001 and 2010 because of increasing imports from China since its entry into the World Trade Organization. Job losses amounted to 1.6 percent of the district’s labor force, the report said. Read More