Labor Market

California's Economic Recovery Has Been a Tale of Two States

When President Obama was elected in November 2008, the national unemployment rate was at 6.5 percent, and quickly rising. The Great Recession was picking up speed. By the inauguration, the unemployment rate had reached 8.5 percent. It eventually peaked a year later, in January 2010, at 10.6 percent. ... More >>

American Parasite: Romney's Bain Represents Capitalism's Worst

Occupy Protesters Clear Port of Oakland This Morning

​Port workers began lining up at 5 a.m. today, ready to get back to work after demonstrators managed to close the nation's fifth-busiest port as part of a massive West Coast effort to shake up the 1 percent. Only it wasn't the 1 percent they were necessarily interrupting. According to the Port of ... More >>

Miracle Faker: Rick Perry's Texas Teaches America the Wrong Lessons

Occupy Wall Street Protest Expands to San Francisco

12 days, plus interest ​Today marks the 12th day of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City -- and unlike BART protests, there's no sign that this demonstration is dying down. In fact, it's spreading -- all the way to the West Coast, where California is suffering from a staggering 12 perc ... More >>

H1-B Visa Program Creates Caste System for Silicon Valley

San Francisco's $2.8 million Corporate Welfare Tab

Matt Smith illustrationUp with corporate welfare!​Gov. Jerry Brown has moved to cut public money thrown at enterprise tax zones, which provide breaks to companies in certain disadvantaged areas, including San Francisco's financial district and SOMA.But San Francisco companies are veritable corpora ... More >>

John Avalos Wants Central Subway Project to Hire Locals

Local hiring is still an option, not an obligation​Update: Paul Rose, spokesman with the MTA, returned our call just now and said that the agency would not delay the bidding process. He pointed out that any delays could result in the loss of federal funding. Original Story, 2 p.m.: Yesterday, The ... More >>

Jerry Hill to Strip San Francisco's Local Hire Law

Big bark, little bite?​San Mateo County is like a yappy Pomeranian that won't shut up. Just as the county barked at San Francisco's plan for congestion pricing, politicos there are now retaliating against the city for passing its prized local hire law. The ink has barely dried on San Francisco's l ... More >>

Mission Bay Protest Shuts Down Construction Site at UCSF

ABU, waiting for the jobs​After a brief hiatus from protests in front of the Mission Bay construction site where UCSF is building a new hospital, the unemployed woke up this morning and resumed their picketing, this time forcing builders to shut the gates and stop working for several hours.Members ... More >>

Camels Chided For Using San Francisco in Tobacco Ads. Use These Sh*tholes Instead.

Phallic camels aren't welcome in this here town! ​Earlier this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and short-timer Department of Public Health Director Mitch Katz wrote a sternly worded letter to Joe Camel's corporate overlords. The two chided R.J. Reynolds for using the Haight -- as well as Brookl ... More >>

San Francisco Unemployment Picture Grows Less Awful

Times are tough in San Francisco. But they're not Joad Family tough. ​By all measures, San Francisco's job market had a damn good run between September and October. Of course, this is the equivalent of a gambler, deep in the hole, winning a single hand. But you take what you can get. Per figures j ... More >>

How Many Minimum Wage Workers Are There in S.F.?

Counting workers -- whoops! -- can be hard​Yesterday we reported on the pending augmentation of San Francisco's minimum wage to $9.92 an hour. Yet when we tried to find out how many city workers would be benefiting from the new minimum wage -- well, that's maximum labor. It appears no one in the c ... More >>

California Faces Interstate Lawsuit -- If Voters Don't Pass Prop. 23

Don't touch that greenhouse gas, warn out-of-state attorneys general...​If California voters don't pass Proposition 23 -- which would pull the rug out from under the state's 2006 law limiting greenhouse gas emissions -- a gang of out-of-state attorneys general have threatened to file suit against ... More >>

San Francisco Unemployment Numbers Holding at 'Crappy'

Dorothea LangeGood news, pal! It could be worse...​As we've said before, losing by less is the new winning. So, by that measure, San Francisco's just-released unemployment numbers are cause for celebration. Yes, the city's unemployment rate grew from 9.6 percent in June to 9.7 percent last month. ... More >>

San Francisco Unemployment: Bad, Could Be Worse

​Ah, the monthly Labor Market Info from the California Employment Development Department. It's like an old friend, dependable and reliable. Actually, it's more like that friend you've had since college. And you don't really have anything in common with them anymore, but you feel really bad about c ... More >>

Latest State Employment Numbers: Slightly More Abysmal than Before

​We know you've been sitting in the closest, in the dark, refusing food and ignoring the increasingly desperate pleas of friends and family to Please, just come out! Not until I get my next installment of the Employment Development Department's monthly labor statistics, you told yourself resolutel ... More >>

City Economist: Mayor's Payroll Tax Plan Would Create Thousands of Jobs -- Cost City $72M

But it's going to take money -- a whole lot of money -- to do it right, child​A report moments ago sent out by the city's chief economist, Ted Egan, claims that Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposed payroll tax revision will spur the creation of perhaps 4,300 jobs over the next two years -- but at a cost ... More >>

S.F. Unemployment Numbers Drop -- But This Isn't Necessarily a Great Thing

'I dunno, Paw. That sure don't sound like good news to me.' ​A quick glance at this month's unemployment numbers for San Francisco and its neighboring counties reminds us of how deftly numbers can be tortured. So, while the unemployment rate in San Francisco dropped between November and December f ... More >>

Exhale: The Unemployment Statistics are Here!

​San Francisco's unemployment rate clearly knows nothing about how to keep fans interested. The California Employment Development Department released their most recent statistics, and let's say they're less than stimulating. The San Francisco/Marin/San Mateo Counties' collective unemployment rate ... More >>

Huzzah: September's Unemployment Statistics are Here

​Stop the presses!!! Do not click 'save' on that blog entry!!! Drop everything you are doing RIGHT NOW (fact: The kids will still be at school, they don't die if you're late) and listen up. The Employment Development Department has issued September's unemployment statistics. When last we visited t ... More >>

S.F. Unemployment Numbers: Every Time a Teacher Loses Their Job, a Bartender Is Born

​The leaves rustle gently in the wind, and deer raise their dewy muzzles expectantly to the sky. Birds twitter in anticipation. Hark! What's that sound?Shhh. It approaches.Here's this month's unemployment statistics from the state Employment Development Department! So, there's good news and bad ne ... More >>

San Francisco Library's Usage, Circulation Skyrocketing -- But This Is Not a Good Thing

stuffunemployedpeoplelike.comYeah, we thought it was Zach Galifianakis too. It's Joaquin Phoenix -- and be quiet or he'll eat you.​You've got to salute someone who finds a way to succeed in down times. The man who invented and marketed the bindle -- he must have cleaned up during the Great Depress ... More >>

Small Confort, Big Unemployement Numbers: S.F. Still Doing a Bit Better than Rest of State

Gather 'round, children, it's that time of the month when we reveal the state's Employment Development Department numbers -- which indicate  our employment rates are (still) failing to thrive in this sluggish economy. Basically, the numbers are as lowly as they were last month. Which makes one ... More >>

A Depressing Sign of the Times, Or Just Unoriginal Trend Reporting? TV Station Sells San Franciscans On Wonders of Tourism -- In San Francisco.

As California teeters down the road toward the day when even pot roast-fed Republican legislators could earnestly suggest a marijuana-based economy, the word "staycation" has grown as annoyingly ubiquitous as tabloid headlines about those reality TV folks with all the kids.After stumbling across thi ... More >>

We're Getting Jobbed: San Francisco's Bleak Employment Picture Slightly Better Than State's 'Grapes of Wrath'-Like Totals

California's unemployment figures have gotten bad enough you are now allowed to mention the Joad familyHooray! It's that time of the month when the state's Employment Development Department releases its numbers about how much employment is not being developed. We're posting this article right now be ... More >>

Funemployment: Jobless young San Franciscans are welcoming the worst recession of their lives with open arms. Too bad the party can't last forever.

State Unemployment Numbers Are In: S.F. Situation Upgraded From 'Shitty' to 'Crappy'

James Duncan DavidsonA sign of the times...The State Employment Development Department today released its monthly accounting of where the state's employment handbasket is in its journey toward hell. And it's a good news-bad news situation akin to: "We've got fresh vegetables -- but we're serving the ... More >>

That's Just the Sound of the Employment Rate Whizzing Past Your Ears

The California Employment Development Department released their latest statistics pertaining to unemployment and industry today, and guess what? They are not awesome. California hit a record high of 11.2 percent unemployment in March, which is nearly five points higher than March of last year. San F ... More >>

San Francisco's Employment Report: Things Could Be Much Shittier!

Dorothea Lange, San Francisco, 1933 -- from the SFMOMA collectionBack to the future?In a case of debating whether the glass is half full or half empty -- but, upon further analysis, realizing the glass contains something nasty -- the state's Employment Development Department this morning released th ... More >>

Change for the Worse

Some local Obama supporters hit hard times after the election.

Bay Area Profs Speak Out Against Stimulus

Did stimulus really help them?Washington's elected officials and punditocracy have of late been consumed in hashing out the shape of an economic stimulus package. While no love has been lost between Republicans and Democrats in the pit fight over the bill's final shape, both sides say they recognize ... More >>

Law Requires Lobbyists to Disclose Little

SF Gov InAction: Same Old Shit Gets Bigger Tax Breaks; Jake McGoldrick's Charter Amendment Retirement Tour Heats Up, and Did Somebody Say "Peaker Plants?"

Bay Area Jobs Outlook III - The Highest-/Lowest-Paying Gigs in the Bay

Bay Area Jobs Outlook II - Public Employees Retiring En Masse

Bay Area Jobs Outlook - Winners, Losers, and Boomers

Worst Of The Worst: San Francisco Makes Forbes 10 Worst Cities For Job Growth

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Arrested Development

Mayor Brown is pushing for quick approval of a Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment plan that gives a lot to homebuilding giant Lennar, and not nearly enough to the city or the shipyard's neighbors

Best Bargain Hunting

Alameda Point Antiques & Collectibles Faire

The New Economy

The road to Punta Abreojos is paved with hollow intentions

South to the Future

New Way to Ease New Economy's Inflation Threat: Release Nonviolent Inmates

Welcome Home

How shortsighted neighborhood activism fuels the city's housing crisis, and pushes the best of San Francisco deeper and deeper into the suburbs

Candidate Promises Citizen Mayor Delivers?