June Unemployment Up to 9.2%

ECONOMIC WEEK IN REVIEW

Obama and Congress tackle foreclosures and mortgage servicing

Saturday, July 9, 2011

A key government measure on the nation's jobs situation reported Friday that the U.S. unemployment rate for June edged up to 9.2 percent.  This came days after Congress and the White House worked on mortgage servicing and foreclosure mitigation practices. 

June Unemployment Up to 9.2% from 9.1% 

The U.S. economy added 18,000 jobs in June with job gains in professional and business services along with mining. 

Over the past 2 months, job growth has slowed markedly.  Employment rose by an average of 215,000 per month from February through April of this year, compared with an average of 22,000 for May and June.

Also Friday, GOP leaders held a press conference on the monthly jobs report and the House-passed jobs bill waiting for Senate action.  Pres. Obama also delivered a statement on that the numbers and confirmed there’s a long way to go to get the economy back on track. 

The BLS surveys about 140,000 businesses and government agencies in order to provide industry figures on worker's employment, hours and earnings in the United States. 

White House Announces Extended Mortgage Assistance 

A day earlier, the White House announced plans to assist out-of-work homeowners to stay in their homes. The Obama administration called on Congress to try to revamp its troubled foreclosure-prevention program. 

The program, created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, is intended to help homeowners who meet certain criteria to receive mortgage assistance. Starting Aug. 1, the Federal Housing Administration will extend the period for unemployed homeowners to miss mortgage payments to a full year from three or four months. 

House Committee Looks for Ways to Cut Down on Foreclosures 

Thursday, two House Subcommittees held a hearing on mortgage servicing and foreclosure mitigation practices. Members reviewed the role of Federal regulators in the ongoing mortgage servicing settlement negotiations and considered the development of new mortgage servicing standards. 

The hearing was held in response to complaints and various lawsuits filed by homeowners who have encountered problems with their mortgage servicers despite making on-time payments.  Homeowners have faced foreclosure threats and other types of misconduct due to irregularities by mortgage servicers in recent years. 

Witnesses included government officials from the FDIC and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well David Stevens, President of the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Immediate Former Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration. 

The hearing was co-chaired by West Virginia Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, who heads the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, and Texas Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer, who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. 

Next Week

On Monday, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt will join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at a major jobs summit.  The meeting will also include political figures: Barry Jackson, chief of staff to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and David Krone, chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Updated: 4 hr., 22 min. ago