Employment
Janet Yellen Speaks at a Teachers Town Hall Meeting; The Gender Gap in Economics and the Leaky Pipeline Problem
Fed Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen addresses educators in Washington and nationwide via webcast. "Very importantly for students, we try to make sure that the job market is strong so that students entering it will have a wealth of job opportunities.. we do work to make sure that unemployment is low and job opportunities plentiful. And we try to keep inflation low and stable. And that's something that is important to savers who are concerned about providing for their retirement." more »
Congressional Actions: Sexual Harassment & Gender Discrimination at Agriculture Department; Considering the 21st Cent.Cures Act
On December 1, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing entitled “Examining Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).” The hearing is in response to widespread media coverage and reporting of sexual harassment of female employees at the Forest Service. One of the witnesses, Ms. Denise Rice, testified in her capacity as a whistleblower about her own experience of sexual assault, reporting, and retaliation. more »
Researchers Warn of Financial Risks in Retirement Jobs: Rethink Those SSA Benefit Calculations
In Is Uncle Sam Inducing the Elderly to Retire? a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a team that includes Alan Auerbach, a UC Berkeley professor suggests that prospective retirees can forget the Social Security Administration-provided benefit calculations that come in the mail. "They’re completely meaningless," says Auerbach. more »
Trump's Infrastructure Plan Dwarfed by Estimates of Need: Civil Engineers Group Ranked the Country at a D-Plus on Infrastructure
If President-elect Donald Trump is successful with his proposed $1 trillion, 10-year program to fix America's disintegrating and inadequate infrastructure, the states have a list of critical projects handy for him. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that fixing all the roads, bridges, public transit, railroads, energy systems, schools, public parks, ports, airports, waste systems, levees, dams, drinking water facilities and hazardous waste installations in the 50 states and the District of Columbia would take $3.6 trillion by 2020. more »