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U.S. jobless claims jumped unexpectedly last week to their highest level since October, suggesting the labor market is still in a rut despite signs of improvement in the economy.
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to 445,000 from an upwardly revised reading of 410,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months, confounding analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000. Get the full story »
Economic growth continued to expand moderately the last few weeks, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.
In its latest snapshot of regional economic conditions, the Fed reported that manufacturing, retail and non-financial services sectors were strong in most regions. Get the full story »
If you receive a cell phone call or text message during your job interview, don’t answer it. Doing so ranks as job candidates’ most common mistake in an interview, according to a survey of hiring managers.
Indeed, 71 percent of managers surveyed named it as the top blunder, according to a report out Wednesday from online career site CareerBuilder. Other common mistakes: dressing inappropriately and appearing disinterested, each cited by 69 percent of managers, followed closely by appearing arrogant at 66 percent. Get the full story »
Struggling entertainment site MySpace says it is cutting 47 percent of its staff worldwide, or about 500 people.
Mike Jones, the chief executive of MySpace, said in a statement Tuesday that the cuts are “tough but necessary” and have been taken to put the site on a path to growth and profitability. Get the full story »
Fort Wayne withheld $200,000 in payments to Navistar International Corp. after the company relocating operations to suburban Chicago did not provide job data. Get the full story »
Even at times of high unemployment in the past, wages have been very slow to fall, but not in this recession. To an extent rarely seen since the Great Depression, wages for a swath of the U.S. labor force this time have taken a sharp and swift fall.
Many laid-off workers who have found new jobs are taking pay cuts or settling for part-time work when they get new ones, sometimes taking jobs far below their skill levels.
Economists had wondered how far this dynamic would go in this recession, and now the numbers are starting to show it: Between 2007 and 2009, more than half the full-time workers who lost jobs that they had held for at least three years and then found new full-time work by early last year reported wage declines, according to the Labor Department. Thirty-six percent reported the new job paid at least 20 percent less than the one they lost. Get the full story »
U.S. Trust, a private banking unit of Bank of America, continued last year’s hiring spree on Monday as it added five financial advisers in Chicago and Texas.
The New York-based unit added Lisa Adelstein as a private client adviser in Chicago as well as Jay Bartley and Elizabeth Elgie as advisers in Fort Worth, Texas. U.S. Trust also added adviser Jason Garcia in Dallas and Michael Rogala in Houston. Get the full story »
Ford Motor Co. says it will add more than 7,000 workers in the U.S. over the next two years as it begins producing several new vehicles. Get the full story »
A steady decline in layoffs is giving the vast majority of adults who have jobs the confidence to spend more freely and help energize the economy. They no longer worry so much about losing their jobs.
Their renewed confidence has boosted retail sales — just what’s needed to spark what economists call a “virtuous cycle”: Higher consumer spending raises company profits, which spurs hiring, which fuels more spending and growth. Get the full story »
Employers across the country added a modest 103,000 jobs to their payrolls in December, the government said Friday, closing out the year with a bit of whimper instead of the bang that some economists were expecting.
The Labor Department report, however, showed that the unemployment rate dropped dramatically last month to 9.4 percent, from 9.8 percent in November. The drop was likely due at least in part to statistical adjustments, as the government’s count of unemployed workers fell by 556,000 to 14.5 million. Get the full story »
Caterpillar Inc. suspended a plan to build mining shovels at its Aurora facility, which would have created 300 jobs through 2014.
The change of plans is due to the company’s acquisition of South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International, a maker of shovels, walking draglines, drills and other mining equipment. The $7.6 billion deal, which was announced in November, is expected to close in mid-2011.
The company said in a statement that it suspended the all development and capital investment for mining shovels in Aurora “to conserve resources and eliminate business risks associated with internal development.” Get the full story »
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but a decline in the four-week average to a fresh low in more than two years indicated the labor market improvement remained intact.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 409,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, above economists’ expectations for 400,000. The prior week’s figure was revised up to 391,000 from the previously reported 388,000. Get the full story »
Supervalu Inc. has agreed to pay $3.2 million to 110 workers to resolve allegations it systematically terminated disabled employees at Chicago-area supermarkets, one of the largest such settlements under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Jones Lang LaSalle has hired a New York-based office leasing team from rival Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the second addition of a major brokerage from Cushman in less than a year.
U.S. private sector jobs surged in December at a rate three times stronger than forecast, a hiring report showed, the most bullish signal in months that a recovery in the world’s biggest economy is stepping up a gear.
The ADP Employer Services private sector jobs report on Wednesday comes two days ahead of the U.S. government’s closely watched payrolls report. Many economists raised their forecasts for a wider reading of jobs growth on Friday. Get the full story »
