Foreclosures and loan workouts, Employer provided healthcare, Good jobs in Wisconsin, Broadband and economic performance

In a new report by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, a group of state attorneys general and banking regulators working to prevent home foreclosures, they find that seven out of ten delinquent borrowers are not on track for any loss-mitigation outcome.  The report recommends more systematic loan work-out systems and slowing down foreclosure processes to allow time for more work-outs.

In an in-depth report, the Economic Policy Institute finds that the share of workers with employer-provided health care declined from 51.1% in 2000 to 48.8% in 2006 despite a profitable business cycle for businesses in that period.  The report finds that this decline is not due to the loss of particular industry jobs but to a broad drop in coverage within all kinds of industries.

In Skilled Workers, Quality Jobs: Meeting the Needs of Wisconsin's Workers and Businesses , the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) highlights growing shortages of skilled workers for many industries, and the insufficient education and training for too many working Wisconsinites who are unable to land jobs with family-sustaining wages.

The failure of the U.S. government to develop a comprehensive broadband policy has left the country ranked only 15th out of 30 developed countries in percentage of population with broadband access, according to this economic snapshot by the Economic Policy Institute.

Highlighting that "access to health care" means more than the ability to go to an emergency room, the Center for American Progress argues in a new resource that affordable coverage is needed to assure that Americans can get the preventive and other care needed.  They note that tax credits and other market-based reforms fail to address key problems.

The National Partnership for Women & Families is conducting an national online rally in support of paid sick days legislation.