* Canada averaged 25.6 mpg in 2002, which could be raised to 32.0 mpg by 2010.
* Australia averaged 29.1 mpg and is expected to raise its fuel economy to 34.4 mpg by 2010.
* Japan averaged 46.3 mpg, and could be up to 48.0 mpg by 2010.
* China averaged 29.3 mpg in 2002, and is projected to reach 36.7 mpg by 2008.
* Child care services are not meeting current needs, which doesn’t reflect increased deployment demands;
* Short family leave periods after child birth and adoption hurt retention of women; and
* Limited resources for mental health services to help military mothers and their children cope with the periods before, during and after deployment
* Women make up approximately 14.3 percent of the active duty military (one in seven).
* Nearly half of all women in active duty force have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and according to the Department of Defense in February 2007, 24,475 women are currently deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
* Nearly half of women in the active duty force are in the lower pay grades, earningbetween $14,436 and $24,744 as their base salary.
* Forty Percent of Women in the Active Duty Force Are Mothers.
* Majority of First-Time Military Moms are Young and Low-to-Moderate Income Mothers.
* Military spouses and their children make up a significant percentage of the larger military community and 93 percent of military spouses are women.
May 04 2007
Schumer: Slowest Job Growth Since November 2004 Combined with Weak Housing Market, Raises Serious Concern
* While the unemployment rate has come down from its peak of 6.3 percent in June 2003, April’s 4.5 percent rate is still higher than the 4 percent rate achieved in the expansion of the 1990s.
* Many labor market indicators remain weaker than they were at the start of the 2001 recession in March 2001.
1. The labor force participation rate is 1.2 percentage points lower than when the recession began and the fraction of the working-age population with a job is 1.3 percentage points lower.
2. One in every six unemployed people – 1.2 million Americans – have been jobless for more than 26 weeks, the maximum number of weeks for receiving regular unemployment insurance benefits.
* Overall, there are 6.8 million unemployed Americans, and 4.8 million additional workers who want a job but are not counted among the unemployed (including about 1.4 million who have searched for work enough to be considered marginally attached to the labor force). An additional 4.4 million people work part-time for economic reasons.
* The unemployment rate would be 8.2 percent if the figure included those who are marginally attached to the labor force and those who are forced to work part-time for economic reasons.
The Joint Economic Committee, established under the Employment Act of 1946, was created by Congress to review economic conditions and to analyze the effectiveness of economic policy.
Apr 27 2007
Joint Economic Cmte Chair Calls Weak Housing Market And High Trade Deficits ‘Body Blows To U.S. Economy’
- Gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed sharply to a 1.3 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2007. That first-quarter growth was 1.2 percentage points below the economy’s 2.5 percent pace in the fourth quarter of last year and the slowest quarterly gain since early 2003. In the first quarter, real GDP was 2.1 percent above its level a year earlier.
- Economic growth remains below the 3 to 3¼ percent pace that most economists believe to be sustainable over the long term. The first quarter is the fourth consecutive quarter of sub par economic growth.
- Investment in housing declined 17 percent in the first quarter shaving one percentage point off the overall GDP growth rate. Though slightly less than the decline in the fourth quarter of last year, the first-quarter drop was the fourth consecutive double-digit quarterly decline in housing investment.
- A widening trade deficit, slower growth in consumer spending, and a decline in federal government spending were significant factors in the first-quarter slowing in economic growth. The trade deficit widened in the first quarter (reflecting a downturn in exports and an uptick in imports); real (inflation-adjusted) consumer spending on nondurable goods grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, as compared with its 5.9 percent pace in the fourth quarter; and real federal government spending decreased at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the first quarter after gaining 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter, reflecting a first-quarter decline of 6.6 percent in real defense spending.
Apr 24 2007
Schumer: Plunging Home Sales Across U.S. Cause For Concern As Subprime Foreclosures Mount
SCHUMER: PLUNGING HOME SALES ACROSS U.S. CAUSE FOR CONCERN AS SUBPRIME FORECLOSURES MOUNT
Previous Report by Joint Economic Committee on Subprime Mortgage Fallout Indicates More Subprime Foreclosures to Come, Compounding Already Sinking Existing Home Sales Revealed by the Nat’l Assn of Realtors
JEC Chairman Urges Curbing of Subprime Foreclosures to Shore Up Sagging Housing Market; Buyers’ Anxiety About Home Prices Falling Could Add to Further Sales Slowdown
Washington, DC: Today the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released figures showing an 8.4 percent drop in existing home sales. That is the largest monthly decline in 18 years according to news reports.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), released a report earlier this month showing that rising subprime mortgage foreclosures could lead to further weakening of the housing market as more supply is dumped onto the market. In response to today’s disappointing housing numbers, Sen. Schumer reiterated his support to help existing homeowners by stemming the tide of avoidable subprime foreclosures.
“Every day we are seeing new evidence that it is getting tougher for Americans to buy a home, keep a home, and now sell a home. With a brewing storm of subprime mortgage foreclosures on the horizon, the quickest way to instill more confidence in the overall housing market is to curb the wave of foreclosures,” Sen. Schumer said.
The Joint Economic Committee released a report “Sheltering Neighborhoods from the Subprime Foreclosure Storm,” which found that certain areas in the manufacturing belt of the Midwest, cities along the Northeastern corridor, Colorado, and the Sun Belt states—areas that experienced high foreclosure rates in 2006—are also seeing rises in the subprime delinquencies in the early months of 2007, indicating more foreclosure trouble to come.
The NAR report showed that existing home sales fell in all major U.S. regions. Sales were down 8.2% in the Northeast, down 10.9% in the Midwest, down 9.1% in the West, and down 6.2% in the South. The 8.4 percent March decline in existing home sales is larger than the drop analysts had predicted, and attests to the ongoing weakness in housing. The steepness of the March drop can be partially attributed to weather-related factors (warmer temperatures earlier in the winter skewed sales forward). On the price side, the NAR reported that the median sales price of existing homes of $217,000 in March. That was 0.3 percent below the level a year earlier, as compared with a 1.0 percent 12-month drop in February.
The Joint Economic Committee, established under the Employment Act of 1946, was created by Congress to review economic conditions and to analyze the effectiveness of economic policy.
www.jec.senate.gov
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