From Crain’s Chicago Business | Peoria-based heavy-equipment producer Caterpillar expects to rehire 9,000 of the 19,000 workers who were laid off worldwide during the recession.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
Filed under: Jobs/employment
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April 30, 2010 at 5:05 p.m.
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Filed under: Economy, Jobs/employment, Layoffs, Manufacturing Caterpillar to bring back 9,000 laid-off workers
Obama makes case for reform in Illinois
Associated Press | President Barack Obama is telling voters in
the Midwest that unless lawmakers tighten controls on Wall Street,
there’s no guarantee another economic crisis won’t hammer the heartland.
Making that link as he sells the Democrats’ financial regulatory reform
bill is a political imperative for Obama as well as an economic one.
He’s not on the ballot this fall, but his fellow Democrats face a tough
landscape brought on in part by the public’s wariness of his handling
of the economy.
Unemployment falls in a majority of US cities
Associated Press | Unemployment rates fell or remained level in
three-quarters of the 372 largest metropolitan areas, a sign that the
economic recovery is widespread. The Labor Department said Wednesday
the jobless rate dropped in 69 percent of metro areas last month from
February.
It rose in 24 percent of large cities and remained the same
in the rest. The Chicago-area unemployment rate for March remains unchanged since February, holding at 10.9 percent.
Illinois No. 7 in US for high-tech jobs
By Wailin Wong | Illinois ranks seventh in the nation for jobs
in the high-tech sector, according to a new report from the TechAmerica
Foundation.
The Foundation is the non-profit arm of industry association
TechAmerica and releases a yearly “Cyberstates” report about trends in
high-tech employment and wages. According to the national report,
high-tech employment slipped 4 percent in 2009, with the country losing
245,600 jobs during the year. TechAmerica counted 5.9 million high-tech
workers in the U.S. last year.
COBRA subsidy extended through May
From the Problem Solver: The IRS has announced that it will extend a subsidy to the recently unemployed covered by COBRA through May 31.
Eligible individuals pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums with the remaining 65 percent reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit. This subsidy expired March 31.
Get the full story: The Problem Solver.
Allstate to close Wisconsin claims office
From the Greater Milwaukee Business-Journal | Allstate Corp. notified the state of Wisconsin that it intended to close its Brookfield, Wis. Midwest claims office by June 1, laying off the 54 workers there.
Get the full story: bizjournals.com
Chicago-area unemployment rate still 10.9%
By Kiah Haslett
|
The Chicago-area unemployment rate for March remains unchanged since February, holding at 10.9 percent. The unemployment rate for the state of Illinois increased a tenth of a percent to 11.5, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
This is still lower than the February 1983 unemployment high of 12.9 percent. The lowest unemployment has been for Illinois was February 1999.
The national unemployment rate for March was 9.7 percent.
See what Fortune 100 companies are hiring
From CNN | Sears and Abbott Labs are two local companies that are hiring, according to a study by CNN and Fortune that asked company representatives what kinds of employees they’re looking to take on. According to the report, Sears has 21,800 positions open, while Abbott Labs has 346. The positions at Sears range from hourly cashiers to corporate vice presidents, while Abbott says it is hiring in areas such as research and development, regulatory affairs, sales, and IT.
Read the full story: money.cnn.com.
Muslim woman files McDonald’s EEOC complaint
From the Royal Oak, Mich. Daily Tribune | A Muslim woman filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that she was denied the chance for a job at McDonald’s because of her religious head scarf. McDonald’s had no comment on the complaint.
Get the full story: dailytribune.com.
Obama signs $18B bill extending unemployment
Associated Press | Just hours after Congress passed an $18
billion bill to restore unemployment benefits for the long-term
unemployed, President Barack Obama made it the law of the land.
The measure comes as welcome relief to hundreds of thousands of people
who lost out on the additional weeks of compensation after exhausting
their state-paid benefits. They now will be able to reapply for
long-term unemployment benefits and receive those checks retroactively
under the legislation.
Illinois unemployment edges up to 11.5%
By Kathy Bergen | The Illinois unemployment rate edged up to 11.5 percent in March, the
highest level since July 1983, the Illinois Department of Employment
Security reported today. The seasonally adjusted rate was one-tenth of a percentage point higher
than in February, and continued to outstrip the national rate, which
was 9.7 percent in March.
Jobless claims make surprise jump for 2nd week
Associated Press | The Labor Department reported Thursday that first-time requests for jobless benefits rose by 24,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the highest level since late February. Economists were predicting claims would fall. It marked the second week that claims took an unexpected leap. In the prior week, claims rose by 18,000 to 460,000.
Senate taking up $18B extension of jobless benefits
Associated Press | A measure restoring jobless benefits to
people struggling to find work is back on track in the Senate. The $18
billion measure could pass Thursday and prevent even more people whose
26 weeks of state-paid benefits have run out from losing an average of
$335 a week in federally funded benefits.
Labor issues loom for US Airways and United
United Airlines pilots and flight attendants picketing outside a board of directors meeting in 2009. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)
From Reuters | Airline industry analysts say that dissatisfied pilots, flight attendants and ground workers are a huge obstacle to the success of a merger between UAL Corp’s United Airlines and U.S. Airways. “If anyone thinks that sitting these groups down together and coming up with a single contract is going to be easy, they’re not reading the tea leaves,” Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Reuters. “I’m not even talking about what’s happening with the pilot groups — that’s another train wreck waiting to happen.”
Get the full story: reuters.com.
Law firm Mayer Brown lays off more lawyers
By Ameet Sachdev | Mayer Brown continues to hemorrhage lawyers, despite what the Chicago law firm says are “encouraging signs” for 2010.
The international firm said Thursday that laid off 28 lawyers in its U.S. offices, which represents 3 percent of the approximately 925 U.S. lawyers. The layoffs did not affect partners, only associates and lawyers known as “counsel” who are not on partnership track.
