RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Karen Dynan, Ted Gayer and Darrell M. West, February 12, 2012, The Brookings Institution and The Washington Post
In the 11th "How We're Doing Index," Karen Dynan, Ted Gayer and Darrell West use data from the past five quarters to chart recent economic improvements and discuss the likelihood of policy responses ahead of the election. Due to the current political gridlock in Washington, they argue, non-political actors—particularly the Federal Reserve—will be the primary sources of changes in economic policy. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Charles K. Ebinger, February 08, 2012, The Brookings Institution
On February 8, Charles Ebinger took your questions on the Keystone XL pipeline project in a live web chat moderated by POLITICO. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Gary Burtless, February 03, 2012, The Brookings Institution
With the unemployment rate dropping to 8.3% in January, Gary Burtless examines the numbers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report that indicate a seventh straight month of improvement in the job market. Burtless explains which demographics and industries, including manufacturing and construction, have seen the most job growth. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, February 03, 2012, The Hamilton Project
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney examine the decline in marriages over the last 50 years, highlighting the correlation between income level and likelihood of marrying. Greenstone and Looney note that the decline in marriage is concentrated among less-educated, lower-income Americans. Read More
PAST EVENT
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Washington, DC
President Obama’s State of the Union address was delivered last night to a divided Congress against the backdrop of presidential election year politics. On January 25, Brookings hosted a discussion of the president’s speech and how it might impact crucial policy issues facing the nation in this pivotal election year. Read More
VIDEO
Ted Gayer, January 20, 2012
President Obama, citing the rushed decision deadline imposed by congressional Republicans as part of a recent payroll tax extension agreement, rejected a proposal to build an oil pipeline stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Ted Gayer says, however, that the benefits of building the pipeline—through jobs and infrastructure—would outweigh the costs.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Gary Burtless and Adam Looney, January 13, 2012, The Brookings Institution
Gary Burtless and Adam Looney discuss the U.S. job market's short- and long-term challenges, including high unemployment, anemic job creation, stagnating wages, and eroding job prospects. Burtless and Looney offer recommendations for accelerating job growth and argue for educational changes that would better align skills to employers' needs. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Alan Berube, January 13, 2012, The Brookings Institution
Even as the Great Recession deeply affected the stability of the country’s overall labor market, both unemployment and recovery trends have had different levels of impact in different metropolitan areas. Alan Berube identifies three issues facing metropolitan economies help to explain the varying patterns in the employment crisis. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Gary Burtless, January 06, 2012, The Brookings Institution
Gary Burtless explains why the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for December 2011 represents a brighter picture for the U.S. economy. Burtless writes that the report shows that the unemployment rate has fallen, the outlook has improved for the long-term unemployed and the pace of growth has increased. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, January 06, 2012, The Hamilton Project
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney compare trends in unemployment duration before and after the Great Recession, noting that the probability of finding new employment is considerably lower today than it was before the recession. Read More
VIDEO
Michael Greenstone, December 16, 2011
As Michael Greenstone, director of The Hamilton Project at Brookings, explains, the marketplace is changing and job training programs also have to change in order to keep pace in this global economy.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Howard Wial, Siddharth Kulkarni and Richard Shearer, December 15, 2011, The Brookings Institution
The 11th installment of the MetroMonitor series shows a slow recovery continuing in the third quarter for the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. Metro areas continued to experience a very slow recovery of both employment and output. The authors examine metro unemployment rates, housing markets, manufacturing job growth, and financial sector performance. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Howard Wial, Richard Shearer and Siddharth Kulkarni, December 15, 2011, The Brookings Institution
Metro Monitor’s interactive maps illustrate the economic climate of the nation’s largest 100 metropolitan areas. Each map displays metropolitan data for a particular metric, with areas classified by quintiles (groupings of 20). Quintile groups are derived from rankings of economic performance. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Mark Muro and Kenan Fikri, December 15, 2011, The Brookings Institution
The eighth edition of the Mountain Monitor supplement to the MetroMonitor examines trends among metros in the Intermountain West and reports that the pace of recovery improved in the region over the third quarter of 2011. High technology and manufacturing industries boosted some metropolitan economies and the housing bust’s drag on others began to abate. Notwithstanding some notable bright spots, however, the region’s recovery—following the nation’s—remains vulnerable to outside shocks and in need of a stronger engine of job creation. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Adam Looney, December 14, 2011, The Brookings Institution
On December 14, Adam Looney took your questions on extending unemployment benefits and payroll tax breaks in a live web chat moderated by POLITICO. Read More