Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Ten Troubling Numbers Labor Day 2015
Bill Quigley
09 Sep 2015

by Bill Quigley

U.S. workers are in bad shape. Two-thirds of poor people have jobs that don’t lift them out of poverty. Actual unemployment is at least twice as high as the official figure. Blacks are twice as jobless as whites, as they have been for generations. CEO’s make hundreds of times more than their employees. The employment disaster is closely linked to the act that “union membership is at its lowest rate in 70 years.”

Ten Troubling Numbers Labor Day 2015   

by Bill Quigley 

“The real rate of unemployment is 10. 3 percent.”

5.1. The official unemployment rate is 5.1 percent, or 8 million people, according to the US Department of Labor.  However, this widely reported “official” number overlooks the millions of people unemployed for more than a year nor does it count those who are working part-time and looking for full-time work.  The Department of Labor monthly report, which includes people working part-time and looking for full-time work, shows the real rate of unemployment is 10.3 percent.    

6.  It has been 6 years since the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour was raised.

8.9. Millions of adults, 8.9 million in fact, work full-time, year round and earn too little to lift their families out of poverty.

9.5. Unemployment among African Americans is officially reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics at 9.5 percent while unemployment among whites is 4.4 percent.  This report does not count the millions of people who have been unemployed for more than one year or who are working part-time and want to work full-time.

“More than 40 million workers do not have paid sick days.”

11.  Union membership in the US is 11 percent according to the Department of Labor.  Public sector unions have a membership rate of 36 percent compared to 6 percent of private sector workers.   Union workers earn about $200 more per week than non-union workers.  Union membership is at its lowest rate in 70 years, according to the New York Times.  The International Monetary Fund found declines in unionization results in higher income for those in the top 10 percent.

21.  Worker productivity went up 21 percent between 2000 and 2014 while wages rose only 2 percent according to the Economic Policy Institute.

68.  More than two-thirds of the poor in the US work, 68 percent.

82.  Full-time women workers earn 82 percent as much as men reports the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

204.  The average Chief Executive Officer earns 204 times what average workers earn, according to a 2015 report by research firm Glassdoor.

40,000,000.   More than 40 million workers, mostly low-wage workers, do not have paid sick days; so they are much more likely to go to work while sick, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.

Bill Quigley teaches at Loyola University New Orleans and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com.

 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Centenary of Negro Emancipation, Marcus Garvey, 1934
    30 Jul 2025
    “When the American and West Indian Negroes get to know their history…they will have a greater love for the African through whom they have sprung.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Zionists Accuse Yves Engler of Genocide Denial
    30 Jul 2025
    The Canadian branch of B'nai B'rith has accused author, activist, and political candidate Yves Engler of genocide denial.
  • Jon Jeter
    Betraying Howard Zinn: How the White Left Uses Scholarship to Undermine Black/White Solidarity
    30 Jul 2025
    Howard Zinn showed that scholarship can fuel solidarity and liberation—but now, some white leftists use it to undermine Black struggle.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Breaking it Down with Barron: The New York City Mayoral Race, New York City Politics, and a Primer for an Independent Black Revolutionary Polity
    30 Jul 2025
    Charles Barron dissects the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani’s struggles with Black voters, and why independent Black radical politics are essential.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?
    30 Jul 2025
    "Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us