Miccheck Archives
Tag: Jobs
Money Money Money
Source: flickr/clementine gallot
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Today, H&R Block Inc. announced it will trim 400 jobs and shut 400 underperforming locations as it seeks to reduce costs. The company expects the cuts in its field and corporate support organization will cut annual operating costs by $140 million to $150 million by the end of fiscal 2012. It employs about 133,700 workers overall and operates about 11,000 stores. [AP]
Posted 9:54 AM | Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Bush Who?
How critical are these next eight months? According to statistics, if the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the year thus far, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush's presidency. From February 2001, Bush's first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, total U.S. nonfarm employment grew from 132.5 million to 133.5 million (that's 1 million jobs). From January through April of this year, the economy created 573,000 jobs. Over a full year, that projects to 1.72 million jobs. [National Journal]
Posted 9:26 AM | Friday, May 14th, 2010 | Permalink
Just Plain Cool
Encouraging X-Rated Teens?
According to new reports, several British government-run unemployment offices are offering teenage job seekers a chance to make more than $1,000 a week on x-rated Web sites. The jobs are being advertised at Jobcentre Plus offices in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Shropshire by an adult recruiting agency, Faceclick. The agency encourages applicants to engage in sexually explicit conversations and to perform "activities that you feel comfortable" when naked in front of a camera. How disturbing. [USAT]
Posted 10:40 AM | Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Source: flickr/khteWisconsin
Jobs in America
The Future of Jobs in America
- The Great Recession has continued a long-term trend toward a hollowing out of America's middle class, with job growth at lower and higher incomes. Even after the job losses of the recession are erased, a deeper challenge remains: how to create good, well-paid jobs to sustain and grow America's middle class.
- Last week, The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress held the first of two conferences addressing the implications of the competitive global economy and the future of jobs in America.
Check out a podcast from the event with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Larry Summers, the Director of the National Economic Council.
Fast Facts on Jobs in America
(via The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market paper by David Autor )
Job Polarization
- Job opportunities in the U.S. increasingly continue to be in relatively high-skill, high-wage jobs and low-skill, low wage jobs.
- Key contributors to job polarization are the automation of routine work and the international integration of labor markets through trade and offshoring.
The Recession: The Ultimate Game Changer
- The Great Recession changed the trend toward employment polarization in the U.S. labor market. Employment losses during the recent recession were far more severe in middle-skill white- and blue-collar jobs than in either high-skill, white-collar jobs or in low-skill service occupations.
The Educated vs. The Uneducated
- The earnings of college-educated workers relative to high school-educated workers have risen steadily for almost three decades.
- The rise in the relative earnings of college graduates is due both to rising real earnings for college-educated workers and falling real earnings for noncollege-educated workers, particularly noncollege-educated males.
Posted 10:17 AM | Friday, May 7th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Source: flickr/clementine gallot
More Jobs!
Although the jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent last month, employers stepped up job creation in April, expanding payrolls by 290,000, the most in four years. Part of the rise in jobs is due to the hiring of 66,000 temporary government workers conducting the 2010 census. The rise in the unemployment rate (from 9.7 to 9.9 percent) is mainly because 805,000 jobseekers resumed their search for work. [USA Today]
Posted 9:18 AM | Friday, May 7th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Woe Is The Job Market
Because of the economy, more adults over age 65 are staying in the work force, making it harder for young workers to find jobs. A private report by Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers found that while employment for older workers remained low compared with the rest of the population, the over-65 group was the only one to increase its employment rate over the past decade. Between 2008 and 2009, for those aged 20-24, employment fell by 11.5 percentage points for men and 4.3 percentage points for women. [Reuters]
Posted 12:56 PM | Friday, April 9th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs last month, posting its largest job gain in three years. The unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month. The increase in jobs added is the latest sign that the economy is healing, though the healing is likely to be slow. Most economists don't expect new hiring to be fast enough this year to rapidly reduce the unemployment rate. [CBS News]
Posted 10:20 AM | Friday, April 2nd, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Source: flickr/clementine gallot
Jobless Claims Drop
As the economy starts to generate more jobs, claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week in the U.S. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, nearly matching analysts' estimates. It's the fourth drop in five weeks. Most economists expect jobless claims will soon drop below 425,000, a level that will likely signal job creation. [CBS News]
Posted 10:59 AM | Thursday, April 1st, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
I Need A Job
According to new reports, teens and young adults, who are short on experience, have been giving up the job search at higher rates than other workers are during the recession.Take a look at these numbers: Nearly 1.3 million workers ages 16 to 24 have left the labor force since the recession hit in December 2007, nearly three and a half times the rate of workers ages 25 to 54. Teens and young adults currently have a jobless rate of 18.5 percent. [Mcclatchydc]
Posted 1:11 PM | Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Job Losses
Sad news in the job market today: Jam maker J.M. Smucker Company announced it will cut 700 jobs, about 15 percent of its workforce, and close four plants to cut costs. Plants are being closed in Memphis, Tenn., and Ste. Marie, Quebec, and its coffee plants in Sherman, Texas, and Kansas City, Mo. The company also plans to build a new plant in Orrville, Ohio, and upgrade equipment and technology at its plant in Wisconsin. [Huff Post]
Posted 1:17 PM | Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 | Permalink
Just Plain Cool
Shut Up and Do Your Work
Apparently, if you were born after 1980, your sense of entitlement is making baby-boomer employers CRAZY!
But we'll blame your parents for giving you that 9th-place trophy for that basketball tournament in 4th grade. [Wall Street Journal]
Posted 3:58 PM | Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
MORE JOBS ON THE HORIZON?
Job openings rose sharply earlier this year, just one sign that employers may be ready to hire more workers. The number of openings in January rose about 7.6 percent, to 2.7 million, compared with December. Currently, there are now about 5.5 unemployed people, on average, competing for each opening. This number is still higher than the 1.7 people who were competing for each opening when the recession began. [AP]
Posted 12:43 PM | Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
I WOULD WALK 500 MILES…
No this isn't a story about the hit song from the 90s, but it is the true life story of a man who's willing to go the distance to find a job. GM worker Steve Kerl was layed off after the GM assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin was shut down. Luckily, he was fortunate enough to be offered jobs at another GM plant, which he took. The catch? The job is more than 1,000 miles away in Arlington, TX. Talk about a commute. [CNN]
Posted 12:09 PM | Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | Permalink
Right Wing Wackiness
Source: wikipedia/wikipedia
Delay looking for a job
Boy, how we've missed former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Last week, Sen. Jim Bunning stood on principle and continually blocked an extension to unemployment benefits in the Senate. In case you missed this yesterday, DeLay says Bunning was "brave" for blocking the benefits package. Why? DeLay subscribes to the notion that people only try to find jobs when their benefits run out. Here's his exchange with CNN's Candy Crowley: "There is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits, keep people from going and finding jobs," said DeLay. "In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don't look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out," he argued. People are unemployed because they want to be? " asked Crowley. "Well, it is the truth. And people in the real world know it," said DeLay. [Rawstory]
Posted 4:22 PM | Monday, March 8th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Source: flickr/karpidis
PAYS TO WORK FOR UNCLE SAM
A new analysis released by USA TODAY found that federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations. According to statistics, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector in 2008 was $60,046. [USA Today]
Posted 12:31 PM | Friday, March 5th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Good news: the U.S. economy shed fewer jobs than expected in February and the unemployment rate was steady at 9.7%. The government was concerned that stormy weather on the East Coast last month may have temporarily hit payrolls and work hours, but instead of 75,000 jobs lost, the economy shed only 36,00 jobs. [WSJ]
Posted 9:27 AM | Friday, March 5th, 2010 | Permalink
Political Junkie
Helping Working Americans
The Obama administration is planning to use the government’s enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, while disqualifying more companies with labor, environmental or other violations. This would give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage and other benefits. Sound familiar? That's because it's based off a Center for American Progress report. [NY Times]
Posted 9:28 AM | Friday, February 26th, 2010 | Permalink
Political Junkie
JOBS BILL PASSED
Earlier today, the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs package bill by a vote of 70 to 28. The bill, which is being sent to the House of Representatives, includes a $13 billion payroll tax break for businesses that hire unemployed workers and also extends the highway-construction fund through the end of 2010. [Reuters]
Posted 2:00 PM | Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
How Stimulating!
The right wing loves to dismiss the stimulus measure from last year (also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) as "failed" or not creating "one new job." Au contraire, our little conservative friends! In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Office joined other official estimates Tuesday with a report saying the ARRA is responsible for 2.1 million jobs in the 4th quarter of '09. [CRO]
Posted 6:17 PM | Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
We Work Hard For Our Money (So Hard For It Honey)
The so-called "skinny" jobs bill cleared a huge hurdle in the House yesterday after five Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with their Democratic colleagues for cloture (the motion to block a filibuster, which requires 60 votes.) Voting to allow the bill to continue: the newest member of the body, Sen. Scott Brown (R., MA), Sens. Susan Collins & Olympia Snowe (R., ME), George Voinovich (R., OH) and Chris Bond (R., MO). Stay tuned for an upcoming final vote. [NYT]
Posted 12:33 AM | Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Permalink
Money Money Money
WOE IS THE ECONOMY
Although the economy is slowly rebounding, experts predict the human toll of the recession will continue grow, with millions of Americans remaining out of work and out of savings for years. Several economists fear that the recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, due to the low number of job creations. The economy needs 100,000 new jobs a month to absorb entrants to the labor force, according to the Labor Department. Currently, more than 15 million people are officially jobless in America. [NYT]
Posted 12:05 PM | Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Permalink
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