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4 Feb, 4 tweets, 1 min read
The kiddo decided to start taking random photos around the house and turn them into grunge-era album covers.
So your mission is... name the band/album. Image
This one is definitely catching that Windows 95 vibe. Image
Getting into collage. Image
My entry for this one is “Space Candy.” (Maybe a lost STP album?) Image

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More from @bencasselman

Ben Casselman Profile picture
5 Feb
The U.S. economy added 49,000 jobs in January, a modest rebound from December's decline but still a much slower pace of growth than over the summer.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.3%.
nytimes.com/live/2021/02/0…
Revisions make December's decline look worse, now down 227k jobs. November also revised down.
We're still down nearly 10 million jobs from the pre-pandemic peak, and we gained essentially no jobs in January. We're barely even climbing out of the hole right ow. Image
Read 7 tweets
Ben Casselman Profile picture
15 Jan
Given the renewed attention on the possibility of a $15 federal minimum wage, it's worth noting that "$15/hour" looks very different in 2021 than it did when the "Fight for $15" movement began in 2012. (Thread)
Obviously, there's been some inflation. $15 in 2012 is the equivalent of around $17 today. But that's only a small part of it. At least before the pandemic, wages were rising faster than inflation, *especially for low earners.*
In 2012, a quarter of jobs were in places where the median wage was under $15/hour (meaning more than half of all workers in those places would have been owed raises). In 2019, less than 5% of jobs were in such places.
Read 17 tweets
Ben Casselman Profile picture
15 Jan
Retail sales fell for the third straight month in December -- clear sign the resurgent pandemic is taking a toll.
Important to note, though, that unlike with most measures of the economy, retail sales are actually ABOVE their prepandemic level. Up 2.6% from February, and 2.9% over the past year. So not a clean story like with jobs.
Very different story with restaurants, of course. They were down much more in December (-4.5%), and are down more than 20% since before the pandemic.
Read 4 tweets
Ben Casselman Profile picture
14 Jan
Big spike in unemployment claims last week: 1.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits (regular state programs, not seasonally adjusted). Another 284k filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
nytimes.com/live/2021/01/1…
Important to note that the big jump may reflect a bounceback after the holidays, when filings are often depressed. But this level is extraordinarily high by any measure.
Seasonally adjusted claims also jumped, to just under 1 million.
Read 7 tweets
Ben Casselman Profile picture
2 Jan
A year ago, I did a thread on my efforts to diversify my source list. I tracked the race and gender of my sources again this year. In the interest of accountability, here's an update on my progress.

Here's my original thread for reference:
Topline findings: Roughly half of my 400+ sources this year were women, including a hair over half of the people I quoted as experts (and just under half of the people I quoted as "regular people" -- workers, business owners, etc.).
(Note: I also have a category for elected officials, spokespeople, etc. They're included in the totals here but not broken out separately.)
Read 24 tweets
Ben Casselman Profile picture
25 Dec 20
Just got some very grim Christmas Eve news for unemployed workers: If the president doesn't sign the relief bill by the end of the day on Saturday, it will effectively cut the extension of the expiring unemployment programs to 10 weeks from 11.
nytimes.com/2020/12/24/us/…
Here's why: The bill says that the benefits won't be available for "any week of unemployment commencing before the date of the enactment of this Act." So if Trump doesn't sign the bill until next week, people can't get benefits until the FOLLOWING week.
But the *end date* of benefits doesn't change: March 14 (with a phase-out lasting until April 5). So workers would effectively lose a week of benefits. Note this applies to the $300 supplement as well.
Read 6 tweets

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