Labor Updates (4/8/08)

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
US Economic Woes Only Beginning for Workers: Following Friday's news that the US lost 80,000 jobs in March, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is predicting that job loss is likely to accelerate in coming months, reports Doug Cunningham of Workers Independent News. "CEPR economist Dean Baker says the March jobs loss report removes all doubt," that the US is already in recession, reports Cunningham. Over the past three months, workers' wages - growing by only 2.5 percent - have fallen behind inflation and unemployment had reached 5.1 percent, Cunningham reports. Last week's news "is the story of nearly eight million unemployed men and women who have no place to go in the morning except to hunt for jobs that won't be there," says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "The picture is particularly bad for African American and Latino workers who have suffered an increase in the unemployment rate over triple that of white workers."