Every Floridian deserves access to a quality job that provides a living wage; a job where the employer fosters equitable workplace practices and empowers workers. In a truly thriving economy, working Floridians get to share in the prosperity created by that work. However, Florida’s policies have historically prioritized profits and corporate interests over people, especially workers of color, people paid low wages, and immigrants. This has put economic mobility out of reach for far too many, forcing Floridians to work twice as hard and face countless roadblocks to fiscal stability.
Publication Type: Publication
State of Working Louisiana
Louisianans are working at near record numbers, and the state’s unemployment rate continues at or nearrecord lows. The state’s rapid recovery follows a chaotic period of massive, pandemic-related job losses, seesawing energy prices and structural changes to the state and national economies.
Beneath this recent good news lies some stark realities: Wages for most workers are flat, and often are not enough to support a family. There continues to be large wage and income disparities between Blacks and whites, the young and the old, men and women, the highly educated and those with less education. Several of the sectors that employ the largest number of Louisianans and have added the most jobs – retail trade, accommodation and food service, and health care – tend to pay some of the lowest wages and often offer little room for advancement.
This report is meant to give an overview of Louisiana’s economy through the eyes of its workers. While the strength of an economy is often measured in gross domestic product, corporate profits or the fate of the stock market, the most important economic question is how it serves ordinary citizens: Do most people’s jobs allow them to afford a safe place to live, food for their table, and reliable transportation?
A strong minimum wage, tax credits for working families, new investments in education and training, and pro-union policies that make it easier for workers to advocate for themselves can all move Louisiana toward a more equitable economy that works for everyone. But these policy solutions can only take root if we start by asking the right questions.
State of Working Ohio 2023
This July, Ohio reached a critical milestone. The state posted the largest number of jobs in its history: 5,639,200. Reaching this benchmark was especially important because the previous peak was more than 23 years ago, in May 2000. The July jobs number is preliminary, so we could learn that the true milestone came a month or so before or after, but what’s clear is that Ohio’s recovery from the COVID-created recession stands in stark contrast to the two decades prior, in which the state’s recoveries from recessions were slow and incomplete. This could be a turning point for the state. After decades in which corporations held wages nearly flat and captured most of the economic gains made possible by Ohio’s working people, the labor market is tilting in favor of workers.