An October 7 analysis from Pew found that 30 percent of those unemployed in August had been out of work for more than a year, up from 23 percent in December 2009.
Also on October 7, the AFL-CIO announced the establishment of a new database of companies that outsource jobs to foreign countries. It also released a report on the cost of outsourcing.
An October 5 report from the National Science Foundation found that only a small percentage of American companies are actively engaged in innovation. Economist Michael Mandel comments : “ You can’t be an innovative economy if only 9 percent of your companies are innovating.”
Also on October 5, Sallie Mae issued a report on how Americans save for college.
And on October 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published consumer expenditure data for 2009. They show a decline of 2.8 percent over the previous year. The biggest spending cutbacks were for apparel and transportation expenses. People increased their consumption of food at home at the expense of restaurants.
In a September 30 report , former Commerce Department Under Secretary Everett Ehrlich proposes an infrastructure bank that would replace all federal transportation project funding. Rather than having the politicized system we have today, funding would be based solely on project quality.
Also on September 30, Brookings Institution economist Martin N. Baily published a paper on medium-term economic trends. He is somewhat more optimistic than many other economists because of the continuing strong growth of productivity.
On September 14, the Congressional Research Service published a report on saving rates in the U.S.
An article in the September issue of the Monthly Labor Review published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics examines self-employment. Key finding: the percentage of the self-employed with paid employees has fallen from 18.7 percent in 2000 to 13.6 percent in 2009.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times . Read his most recent column here . Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).
