Employment

Rose Madeline Mula writes: Friends who had been clever enough to become teachers, protected by a powerful union, were raking in much more money than me and enjoying considerably more leisure time. Two weeks paid vacation was the most I ever got and no overtime pay for the many nights, holidays and weekends I worked. Noram I now enjoying a generous pension such as those that are financing the retirement travels of my teacher friends. Furthermore, they never had to go to work when it snowed, though back in the day we secretaries were expected to man our typewriters even during blizzards of historic proportions. more »

"Since 1891, women have made tremendous strides in their ability to pursue their dreams of education and meaningful work and to support themselves and their families. In pursuing these goals, women have helped improve working conditions for all workers and have been a major factor in America's prosperity over the past century and a quarter. Despite this progress, evidence suggests that many women remain unable to achieve their goals. The gap in earnings between women and men, although smaller than it was years ago, is still significant; women continue to be underrepresented in certain industries and occupations; and too many women struggle to combine aspirations for work and family." more »

The ride-hailing company Uber, along with its competitor Lyft, together spent $9 million on a 2016 ballot initiative in Austin, Texas, that would have overturned the city’s requirement that drivers for the companies undergo fingerprint-based background checks. The Chinese ride-hailing company Didi invested $100 million in Lyft, and Uber announced a few weeks after the election that Saudi Arabia had secured a 5 percent stake in the company with a $3.5 billion investment. more »

Chairman Yellen: The economy has essentially met the employment portion of our mandate and inflation is moving closer to our 2 percent objective. This outcome suggests that our goal-focused, outlook-dependent approach to scaling back accommodation over the past couple of years has served the US economy well... Indeed, at our meeting later this month, the Committee will evaluate whether employment and inflation are continuing to evolve in line with our expectations, in which case a further adjustment of the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate. more »