There is an on-line book club discussion at PrawfsBlawg, organized by Matt Bodie (Saint Louis), about Steve Greenhouse’s new book: The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.  Yesterday, Steve himself responded to the comments made by the other participants in the book club. Here’s a taste:

For starters, I want to say that when I researched and wrote my book, The Big Squeeze, I saw that workers were suffering not just from one squeeze, but from several squeezes. There is of course an economic/financial squeeze with wages stagnating and health and pension benefits getting worse. Then there is a time squeeze with Americans working 1,804 hours a year on average — 135 hours or nearly three-and-a-half fulltime weeks more than the typical British worker, 240 hours or six fulltime weeks more than the typical French worker and nine fulltime weeks more than the typical German worker.  (Those of you who answer work emails at 11 p.m. know what I’m talking about.) The United States is the only industrial nation without laws guaranteeing workers paid vacation, paid sick day and paid maternity leave. (In the 27 countries of the European Union, workers are guaranteed at least four weeks vacation.)

Good piece here from Ed Zelinsky (Cardozo) on the 401(k) aspect of the 2008 economic collapse from the Oxford University Press Blog:

Even as we contemplate the financial carnage of the Crash of 2008, the federal government sends a strong, paternalistic and, ultimately, misguided message to 401(k) participants: Invest your retirement savings in common stocks.

The following news stories from the Associated Press this past Friday confirm that that Wall Street financial meltdown is also being felt throughout the country on Main Street.

From the Associated Press on September 19th:

Florida’s unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in August. According to the state labor department that’s the highest the state has seen in more than 13 years. The number is up from 6.2 percent in July, and up from 4.2 percent since August 2007. The state’s total number of jobs lost in the past year rose to 99,100. According to federal numbers, that’s the largest loss in the nation for the third month running. 606,000 residents are currently without work in the state. In Miami-Dade County, the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent, up from 3.8 a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Adjusted numbers are not available for other Florida counties, but Broward’s unadjusted number is 6.1 percent, up from 3.9 a year ago. Monroe County is at 4.8 percent, and was at only 3 percent in August 2007. Florida’s unemployment numbers are being pushed by job losses in the construction industry and related fields. The current national rate is 6.1 percent. Only Rhode Island saw a larger unemployment spike in the past year.