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By Ameet Sachdev | The Lovells law firm plans to close its Chicago office by the end of
October, sending 22 lawyers and 25 other employees scrambling to find
work.
The London firm is set to merge with Washington-based Hogan &
Hartson on May 1, creating one of the world’s largest law firms with
$1.8 billion in revenue and 2,500 lawyers in 40 offices. But the new
firm, to be called Hogan Lovells, will not have a presence in Chicago.
Dow Jones Newswires | Current U.S. monetary policy remains
appropriate given subdued inflationary risks, but unemployment is a
serious concern, the president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said
Tuesday.
Speaking at a media briefing in Hong Kong, Charles Evans said U.S.
unemployment could top 9 percent by the end of this year and could
still be at 8 percent by the end of 2011, according to Reuters. The
jobless rate ultimately should fall back to around 5 percent as the
economy recovers, Evans said.
Associated Press | Unemployment in Illinois rose slightly from
January to February. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate for February
was 11.4 percent. That compares to 11.3 percent in January. There were
900 fewer jobs in Illinois in February.
Illinois Department of Employment Security Director Maureen O’Donnell
says she’s encouraged that the job loss pace is slowing in the state.
She says a few more months of data are needed before it’s possible to
assess the path of recovery.
By Wailin Wong |
Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ-FM 91.5) is taking part in a $10.5 million
local journalism initiative by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
that will create approximately 50 new jobs, including five positions in
the Midwest.
The CPB is setting up seven Local Journalism Centers with participating
stations around the country. These centers will hire multimedia
journalists, whose reports will be broadcast on radio and television, as
well as “digital platforms” and “community engagement programs,” the
CPB said.
(AP Photo/The Day, Sean D. Elliot)
By Greg Burns
| For millions of Americans laid off in the devastating recession, the job
search just isn’t clicking.
And here’s the really bad news: Almost no one will be able to recover
the financial ground they’ve lost.
That’s the inescapable conclusion from years of academic research into
the last big recession of the early 1980s, and job shocks thereafter.
By Ruth Fuller and Ted Gregory | A pair of job fairs drew sizable crowds in the Chicago area on Tuesday, underscoring an economic climate that’s prompting hundreds of teens and adults to hustle and apply for whatever work might be available to them.
More than 1,000 people attended a student job fair at North Central College’s Merner Field House in Naperville. And in Gurnee, about 200 people showed up in the afternoon and more were expected in the evening to seek the 1,000 positions Six Flags Great America has left to fill before its season begins April 24.
Read the full story: Six Flags job fair in Gurnee draws a crowd.
From Marketwatch | A MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures study predicts there will be too few workers to replace baby boomers as they retire en masse during the next 10 years. Critics suggest technology and globalization could slow job growth and create fewer openings.
Get the full story: marketwatch.com
From the Louisville Courier-Journal | More the 150 furloughed workers from Ford’s Louisville plant are expected to come to Chicago as the South Side plant adds a second shift to produce the Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS. It may add a third when it begins producing the redesigned Ford Explorer at the end of 2010. The Louisville Assembly Plant is expected to close for nearly a year for a renovation.
Get the full story: courier-journal.com
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Governor Pat Quinn told Caterpillar Inc.’s incoming CEO Doug Oberhelman on Thursday that he wants Illinois to be in the running for a new plant Caterpillar may build.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
President Barack Obama signs the HIRE act jobs bill as members of Congress stand behind him in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, March 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Barack Obama used a jobs bill signing ceremony today to
lobby for his health care overhaul and to argue that bipartisanship can
get things done. In a Rose Garden ceremony, Obama signed bipartisan
legislation that includes about
$18 billion in tax breaks for employers and injects about $20 billion
into highway and transit programs.
Get the full story from the Tribune’s Swamp blog.
Associated Press | The number of newly laid-off workers requesting jobless benefits fell
slightly last week for the third straight week. But initial claims
remain above levels that would signal net job gains.
The Labor Department says new claims for unemployment insurance fell
5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000. That nearly matched analysts’
estimates of 455,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., center, accompanied by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington today, after the Senate passed the jobs bill. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)
By James Oliphant | The Senate today passed by a 68-29 margin a $17.6 billion measure
intended to spur hiring nationwide, sending the bill to the White House
for the president’s expected signature.
Once the bill becomes law, it would mark the first significant piece of
job-creation legislation to pass since President Barack Obama and the
Democratic Congress earlier this year declared that they would “pivot”
and focus on reversing widespread unemployment.
From the Greenville News | Caterpillar Inc. said it would hire about 500 people starting this year to man its expanded Newberry operations that make diesel generators in Greenville County, S.C.
Jim Dugan, Caterpillar spokesman, said the expansion would be “a significant investment” that would increase the range of generator made at the plant.
Get the full story: greenvilleonline.com
Chicago area residents wait in line to enter a job fair in Chicago in February.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
By Ameet Sachdev | IIllinois’ January unemployment rate rose to 12.2 percent — it’s highest level in 27 years — as the country’s economic woes pressured the state’s job market last year.
The state’s monthly jobless rate, which soared from last years up from 8.7 percent, outpaced the national rate of 10.6 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate in January 2009 was 8.5 percent. The rates are not seasonally adjusted.
By Kiah Haslett |
Decatur and Peoria saw a spike in their unemployment rate in December
from the year-ago period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’
latest data released Wednesday.
Decatur, headquarters of Archer Daniels Midland Co., posted a 5.1
percent increase in joblessness in the 12 months since December 2008,
bringing its jobless rate to 12.9 percent. Peoria, home of Caterpillar
Inc. and Ameren Illinois Utilities, had a 5 percent increase, to 11.2
percent.
