Washington Post: Black Economists see bad news

African American Economic Summit at Howard University

The Washington Post has a story on the Back Economic Summit held a Howard University on February 1st, 2013.  It was sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Howard University.

The WP story is here.

Bad Jobs at Amazon

More bad news on how amazon treats workers.  This time the Financial Times of London has a long piece on a new amazon warehouse in Rugeley, UK. The FT's writing is called "Amazon Unpacked".

It looks like there is no downside to Amazon's corporate behavior when people want jobs. But ultimately is it worth it.

Proposal to increase H-1B Visa's to 300,000 from 65,000

The Hill newspaper report's that several lawmakers are proposing to increase the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000 and possibly has high as 300,000.  It would also remove country specific limits.
The Hill's story on H-1B limits is here.

H-1B visa's are used by large technology corporations to recruit skilled foreign born workers for jobs that cannot be filled with US citizens.  Many people believe the programs helps the US economy grow by plugging key gaps in the US labor market.

Others believe the workers take jobs from US citizens and steal talent from developing countries.

Corporations like the program because they can reduce costs by paying foreign workers less than comparable US workers.

Here is a longer piece from the Government Accounting Office reviewing the H-1B Visa program in 2011.  GAO H-1B Visa program report.

Stories on Wage Theft (Non-payment by employers)

Here are a couple stories on employer non-payment which is wage theft.  In These Times has a long story on  "The Wage Theft Epidemic". One study by by the Iowa Policy Project called Wage Theft in Iowa: An Invisible Epidemic estimates that $600 million was stolen from Iowa workers and $60 million from state government accounts. The story also covers states cutting enforcement staff.

Pro Publica: Does job training work

A great long-form piece in pro-publica reviews the effectiveness of job training after mass layoff in Janesville, Wisconson.  The piece determines that workre in job training after the layoff had lower levels of employment and lower wages.

The article called "Rare Agreement: Obama,Romney and Ryan all endorse retraining for the Jobless -- But are they right." by Amy Goldstein.

Brookings: Economic Effects of Immigration

The Brookings Institute has a good piece on immigration called "The Economics of Immigration Reform," by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney.