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Over 400 Rally for Jobs Legislation

The Oregon AFL-CIO and the Oregon State Building Trades cosponsored a rally for job creation in Salem today. From our press release:

Well over 400 union members, most unemployed, came to Salem to ask legislators to use the February Legislative Session to help get Oregonians back to work.

Coming from Eugene, Corvallis, Gresham, Hillsboro and everywhere in between, their message was clear: too many Oregonians are still out of work, and not enough is being done. They support a three-pronged approach to rebuilding Oregon's economy: first, Oregon's businesses need to be able to create jobs and workers must be able to be hired; second, businesses must be incentivized to create jobs; and finally, new jobs must be good jobs - jobs that pay a decent wage, and that are here to stay.

"Wall Street may think the recession is over," said AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain, "but here in Oregon it's not. Legislators need to make sure that the job creation legislation before them this session makes it to the governor's desk. For the hundreds of thousands of unemployed Oregonians there is no other option."

Chamberlain added that it was up to everyone in the crowd to make sure their legislators know just how important job-creation legislation is. And that's just what they did.

Read the rest In Other News...

Think the Recession is Bad? Check out These Stats

The less you made before the recession hit, the higher the chances you're now out of work. That's right. The people most struggling already, least likely to own their home, least likely to have money in savings, and most at risk, are also most likely to be unemployed.

From a New York Times article yesterday:

The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.

Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. That's more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression.

The next lowest group, with incomes of $12,500 to $20,000, had an unemployment rate of 19.1 percent.

Making matters worse, in the lowest group, the underemployment rate was 20.6 percent, compared with just 1.6 percent in the highest group.

For those of us in the middle unemployment is hovering between 6 and 10%.

SB 1045 - Because Your Credit Doesn't Show How Hard You'll Work

At today's rally we talked about three necessary steps to helping Oregon's economy: businesses need to be able to create jobs and workers must be able to be hired; businesses must be incentivized to create jobs; and new jobs must be good jobs - jobs that pay a decent wage, and that are here to stay. SB 1045 helps make sure workers are able to get hired.

Right now a potential employer can check your credit as part of their hiring process. In some professions that makes sense, but for most jobs it just doesn't. Your financial history doesn't tell an employer if you'll work hard. It doesn't tell them if you'll show up on time. It doesn't tell them if you have the skills you need to get the job done well.

Consider a union member who, for the past two years, has barely worked, and who has not had a day's worth of work in the past 7 months. Two years ago she owned her home and a rental property, was able to help out her kids, and had a little in savings. Today she has sold off almost everything and lost both her houses. She has no savings. Her credit score plummeted. Some employers might deny her work based on her credit score. But until she finds work and has a steady paycheck she won't be able to improve her credit score.

Stories like this are why Senator Rosenbaum and Representative Kotek introduced SB 1045 to make sure employers don't use your credit score when making hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

SB 1045 passed out of committee today, and is headed to the Senate floor.