Interview with Bob Friedman: Our asset policies 'reward the rich, miss the middle, penalize the poor'

Last week, I attended CFED’s 2012 Assets Learning Conference, a biannual national gathering of practitioners, researchers, and advocates working to promote economic opportunity and fight poverty for low- and moderate-income Americans through savings, investment and ownership. Following the conference, I… Read more [More...]

Watch This: Long term unemployment, 1967-2011

This animated graph, produced by the TellTaleChart, illustrates the unprecedented spike in long-term unemployment during and after the Great Recession.  The current median duration of unemployment (or weeks out of work) represents a dramatic departure from decades of unemployment trends. … Read more [More...]

May Employment Report: Unemployment numbers improve again but job creation remains sluggish

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released May state-level employment numbers today and the news was again good for Oklahoma. The state’s unemployment rate fell from 5.6 percent to 5.3 percent, continuing a trend that has seen the rate fall a… Read more [More...]

Quick Take on the Economy: Income picks up steam, unemployment edges downward

The nation continues to show signs that it is emerging from the deep and prolonged economic recession that began in late 2007.  April’s edition of Numbers You Need, our monthly bulletin of key economic and budget trends, paints a mixed… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma should act on new opportunities to aid the long-term jobless

“There’s no excuse for states to let 100 percent federally funded jobless support just die on the vine,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project. “This is a no-brainer for states to help their workers, businesses… Read more [More...]