While the national unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent in January, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday that 30 states actually saw an increase in unemployment that month. Five states reported record-high unemployment, including California (12.5 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), Florida (11.9 percent), North Carolina (11.1 percent) and Georgia (10.4 percent). The [...]
Continue reading...Friday, March 5, 2010
While the U.S. shed 36,000 non-farm payroll jobs in February, the national unemployment rate managed to hold steady at 9.7 percent, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. Last month’s severe winter weather that gripped much of the country likely had some negative effect on the numbers, but BLS Commissioner Keith [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, March 4, 2010
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts increased to 9.5 percent in January from a revised 9.3 percent in December. The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reports the state added a net of 400 jobs last month, but the labor force increased by 3,200, which resulted in the uptick in the unemployment rate. The biggest jobs [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 3, 2010
A survey of U.S. executives revealed 10 percent of companies expect to increase the number of full-time employees in professional occupations during the second quarter of 2010 and six percent expect a decrease in staff. The results are based on a telephone survey of more than 4,000 executives throughout the United States conducted by The [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, February 18, 2010
There were 473,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ending Feb. 13, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 442,000, according to seasonally adjusted data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. The four-week moving average was 467,500, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week’s revised average of [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Social Security payroll taxes, the part employer’s are responsible for, may soon be removed. This proposal is being considered as part of new legislation seeking to generate jobs. Despite the proposal reducing the cost to employer’s by 6.2% to hire new employees, the effect is anticipated to be minimal. The reason lies in a combination [...]
Continue reading...Friday, February 12, 2010
On Thursday the Economic Report of the President predicted that unemployment would only fall slightly this year. By 2012 unemployment is predicted to be 8.2% and will remain over 6% until 2015. The report said that an average of 95,000 jobs would be added to the payrolls each month this year. The Labor Department estimated that [...]
Continue reading...Friday, February 5, 2010
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported mixed news on the job front Friday morning. The national unemployment rate managed to fall below 10 percent in January, but employers reported having 20,000 fewer jobs on its payrolls. The contradiction is the result of the methodology used to glean the numbers. The unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 [...]
Continue reading...Friday, January 22, 2010
The New York State Labor Department reported Thursday that New York City’s unemployment rate rose 10.6% in December, a 17 year high. Hotels, museums and builders eliminated jobs in December and hiring remained weak in other sectors. Overall employment in New York State also rose to 9% from 8.6% in November. Throughout New York state [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 21, 2010
Today’s news from the Labor Department is bad, but may not be as bad as it first appears. Initial claims for unemployment rose by 36,000 last week, well above the anticipated 4,000. Worse than that is the four week average, which ended its 20 week streak declines with an increase of 7,000. [...]
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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