Be INFORMED

Friday, July 10, 2009

State Of The Economy: Tampa

As you are all aware of by this time, the economic state for many lower income residents of Tampa is in a major degree of shambles. sure, the minimum wage is at a whopping $7.21 per hour, but with rises in the price of food, drugs ( legal ones ), and tobacco, that wage increase has been totally snuffed out of existance.
Want to have a really shitty time trying to live on minimum wage in this area? then might I suggest that you get sick for a week? That is what I did from the 4th up till now. I went and caught a bad case of pneumonia. Is there a good case? This illness has set me back almost to the starting point once again!
On Monday the 6th, I had just a bad headcold, which I could live with. On Monday, after going to a temp service and getting only a few hours of work per week, I finally got a decent job with 10 hour days, six days per week. Yippeee?! After spending Monday going from the high heat and humidity into a nice ice-cold truck on a regular basis, I got a little bit more sicker. Tuesday? Forget about it! I couldn't even move!the lungs were aching,the muscles were sore, and I'm not sure what the rest of me was doing. I'm a type 1 diabetic, so this shit did not help me much. So imagine. No income coming in, and plenty of income going back out. Needless to say, the job was taken over by someone else. Another one bites the dust!
There are many more people in even worse situations than I, and I do not see how they manage to pull living off on a regular basis. Perhaps this is why so many of the poor in the Tampa area drink and do drugs. I guess that the escape, even though temporary, is a means of management for the people here.
I'll have more on this after my illness is finished with me.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

U.S. Unemployment Rate 9.5%...

... which is little changed from the previous month of May. 467,000 jobs were lost in the month of June with the largest losses coming in the manufacturing industry, as well as in the professional,construction, and the business services industry.
The unemployed stands at 14.7 million persons as of June 2009.

In June, unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men
(10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent),
whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per-
cent)--showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was
8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who com-
pleted temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after
increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first 5 months
of this year.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million.In June, 3
in 10 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.

www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.html

Friday is the third of July,so that means that our 4th of July holiday weekend is beginning. Many businesses will be closed or they will be having short work days. I am no exception. There will be no new postings at this site until Monday, the 6th.
Have a great and safe holiday everyone!