In recent times, the status of the job market has not been positive for American workers.  Many have been losing their jobs, and the struggle to find new employment is difficult.  Here, from the website www.americanworker.org, is a video about how to put Americans back to work.  The main focus of the 30-second clip is actually immigration reform, which the Coalition for the Future American Worker believes is a foundational issue of the job market.

Interesting Washington Post Article shows Unemployment in America by the numbers from 0 to 10 percent and separates it into time periods with detail of each time period. Things like society values, Wars, and Presidential terms are taken into account when explaining how and why unemployment was what it was and/or is what it is.

Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company: American Workers in the Service Industry

For four years I had the opportunity to work as a simple A&P bakery clerk, with my grandmother at the Ortley Beach A&P stores: many may not have remembered the Great Atlantic and Pacific, but these stores had become one of the first supermarket grocers, driving customers from their mom and pop bakeries, butchers, etc. Cheap prices had seen them at the highest of their population during the mid-1950s, until sales receded and eventually began dropping well into the 20th and 21st century; while battling competitive supermarkets such as ShopRite and Walmart, they have filed for bankruptcy that cost thousands of loyal employees their jobs.
We managed to stay afloat because of our close proximity to Seaside Heights, NJ. Business boomed during the summer, but died down in the winter. For part-time employees, the promise of 48 hours is quickly reduced to a meager 12 or, at most, 20 hours. Full-time employees were offered buy-outs or coerced to retire while we suffered through pay cuts, reduction in hours, or ridiculous demands from our employers.



The American Worker has transformed the meaning of industrialization into a service based economy. Us workers were expected to serve our loyal customers with high quality food service; we baked much of our merchandise, but rarely mixed anything; our job was to service people with as much courtesy as if we were praising the king of England. And, unfortunately, we don't hate our jobs. Most American workers do love their jobs. I did, though it was for barely minimum wage; every department manager loved their jobs, they disliked the top businessmen behind what has destroyed A&P today.

In a sense, most American Workers band together against most corporate higher-ups. We were a family, both on the job and off; American Workers care for their job, no matter how many times they work to screw us over.

This graph displays the growth of shared labor amongst men and women from 1948 to 2009. Women's share has increased from approximately 25% all the way to just under 50%

This bar graph shows a dramatic increase in labor participation amongst women ranging in age from the year 1950 to 1998. The percentage has nearly doubled in most of the age ranges. An assumption can be made that the 65 and older percentage has decreased slightly because of the change in retirement ages. Its also safe to assume an increase can be shown since 1998; about a decade and a half ago.

Is the U.S. Facing a Shortage of Factory Workers?

by B. Traven (March 13, 2013) The U.S. manufacturing sector has been shrinking steadily since before most of us were born. So why are American factories reporting that 600,000 jobs are going vacant across the country? The manufacturers say it’s due to a shortage of skilled workers, but Bloomberg offers a few caveats: for example, companies might be keeping these jobs unfilled due to uncertainty about the future, opting to increase overtime for existing workers instead. Working in a high-tech modern factory also takes a lot of training even for experienced workers, and training budgets were slashed during the Great Recession. And some of the jobs are in non-production areas, like accounting. They point out that if manufacturers really wanted to fill those jobs, they would be raising wages—which obviously hasn’t happened (yet). Still, the average age for skilled manufacturing workers is now 56, so the number of unfilled jobs is likely to keep growing—especially as more companies bring factory jobs back to the U.S. What do you say—would you work in a factory for $23 an hour?

Illegal Immigrants Deported While Recovering in the Hospital

Immigration reform has become a highly debated issue between battling parties in Congress. For illegal workers, the risks for simply seeking medical attention could quickly have you deported back to your country of origin.
Take, for example, The Deportation of two illegal immigrants, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana; two illegal workers at the nation's largest pork-producers, who were recovering from a serious car accident in Iowa. They did not know that, because they were in the country illegally, were being deported back into their country without them even knowing it.
Emergency rooms are required to care for an patient in serious condition, whether they be illegal workers or American citizens. However, when the patient is stabilized is when the need to keep them monitored ceases-and hundreds of migrant workers have been deported from this loophole. The hospital can transport patients in international flights until they reach their destination. In the cases of Cruz and Rodriguez-Saldana, it led them 1800 miles in Veracruz, on the Mexican Gulf Coast.