Free Republic

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage said Wednesday it will cut 332 more jobs at its offices in the Twin Cities. The cuts follow a decline in mortgage refinancing activity throughout 2012 and in early 2013, Peggy Gunn, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, said in an email Wednesday. The cuts will take place over the next 60 days. The layoffs at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage follow an announcement of 350 job cuts in the same division July 18.

A recent negative jobs report for African Americans could provide an opening for Republicans. After five years of nonstop bad news regarding black unemployment, the Obama administration was finally able to celebrate some good news last month, or so it seemed. In July African-American unemployment dipped to 12.6 percent, a small but significant change from June's 13.7 percent unemployment rate -- and substantially lower than the high of 16.5 percent that it reached in January 2010. But any celebration was likely short-lived. While the national unemployment rate decreased slightly in August, to 7.3 percent, reaching a five-year low, that same...

With the latest numbers out this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stating that over 90 million people are out of the work force, I would say that the White House is well on its way to fulfilling its Cloward and Piven dream. One of the main objectives to lead us down the path to a “socialist utopia” is to collapse the welfare system, cause a crisis and then have the government come in and change us into a communist republic.  Yes, I said it. Over the past five years, Barak Obama has “fundamentally transformed America” and we have...

As a former fast-food worker, I can attest to the crazy hours, poor working conditions and rotten pay. I boiled chicken — and repeatedly burned my forearms — in hot pressure cookers in high school for Colonel Sanders’s KFC (now owned by YUM Brands) until I could get a higher-paying job in a department store. The unionized retail clerk’s job wasn’t glamorous, either, but it was a big step up: I sold sporting goods, rang a register (calculating change in my head) and hand-drilled bowling balls. Although the pioneering retail chain (E.J. Korvette’s) at the time was dying a slow...

Five years of the Obama presidency have produced nothing but economic "roadblocks" that inhibit growth and job creation, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., charged in the weekly Republican address on Saturday. He accused the Obama administration of "choking the engines of our economy," singling out the health-care reform law, the administration's energy policy and the government's excessive taxing and spending as areas of particular concern. Republicans have a better plan to "simplify the tax code" and "eliminate excessive regulations," Fitzpatrick said, touting a GOP jobs plan that would break down "the government roadblocks that are hurting our economy." "People want Congress...

WASHINGTON—The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes fell in July for the second consecutive month, the latest sign that higher mortgage rates are starting to drag down the housing recovery. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its seasonally adjusted index for pending sales of existing homes fell to 109.5 in July, 1.3% lower than the June reading and a slightly steeper decline than the 1% drop forecast by economists. The July index was 6.7% higher than its level a year earlier. Because of the way pending home sales are tallied—at the signing of a...

(WASHINGTON) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week after reaching the lowest level in nearly six years. But the broader trend suggests companies are laying off fewer workers and could step up hiring in the months ahead. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for first-time benefits rose 13,000 in the week ending Aug. 17 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000. The four-week average, which smooths week to week fluctuations, fell to 330,500. That’s the sixth straight decline and the lowest for the average since November 2007. At the depths of the recession in March 2009,...

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, who are underemployed, unemployed, and employed full-time for an employer, without seasonal adjustment. Due to the lack of Arima-X 'magic' the results are specifically not comparable to the BLS data, but, as the chart below suggests, the correlation is high. What is most worrying about the latest data is the rapid rise in both unemployment and underemployment that the Gallup poll finds (to 8.9% unemployment and 17.9% underemployment. Unemployment rates have jumped notably in the last month to their highest in 13 months. Will the Fed 'allow' this...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The number of people who applied for new U.S. unemployment benefits climbed by 13,000 to 336,000 in the week ended Aug. 17 but remained near a post-recession low, according to the latest government data. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to rise to 330,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Wells Fargo & Co, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, will cut 2,300 jobs in its home loan business because fewer customers are refinancing as interest rates rise, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters. The cuts would represent around 3.3 percent of the bank's consumer lending employees, the bank said. Although the bank does not disclose how many of its staff work in home loans specifically, Wells Fargo had over 11,000 mortgage loan officers on its payroll at the end of March. Mortgage refinancing made up more than 70 percent of U.S. home lending volume in...

Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an "economic recovery", but the truth is that things have not gotten better under Obama. Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded. If we are really in the middle of an "economic recovery", why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years? Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama...

Barack Obama wanted to fundamentally change America. He is. The Obamacare law is already destroying full-time jobs in America. Democrats rammed through a law that will destroy at least 2 percent of all full-time jobs in America. We are already seeing jobs disappear. Even Reuters can’t hide the truth any longer: U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid. Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern that President Barack Obama’s signature health...

The numbers reflect frustratingly slow economic growth. Employers have been adding jobs but the pace hasn’t been fast enough for the 11.5 million Americans who want a job but can’t find one. Monday’s figures also highlight the lingering fallout from the financial crisis. The unemployment rate in Nevada, a state hit hard by the housing bust, remained the highest in the nation at 9.5%. The state shed 10,200 jobs last month, the biggest loss since early 2009. ... The country’s energy boom, meanwhile, is helping keep the jobless rate well below the national average in North Dakota, at 3%, and...

If discount every-day necessities can’t tempt shoppers into stores, it’s a clear signal that consumers feel stifled by a tough economy at home and overseas. That’s the picture provided this morning by Wal-Mart’s latest quarterly report. The world’s largest retailer cut its annual profit and revenue outlook and reported second-quarter figures that missed expectations. Wal-Mart, operating 10,800 stores across 27 countries, is seen as an economic bellwether because it’s a go-to spot for so many households, where they shop for groceries, home supplies and gasoline. Nonexistent wage gains and a sluggish recovery are hampering spending in America and Europe, while...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Gallup. Now, the headline to this story: "Obama's Economic Approval Slips to 35%." That's not the way to look at this, because they have a chart here. Let me read to you the lead from the story. "Despite President Barack Obama's renewed focus on the nation's economy this summer, he scores worse with Americans on the economy than he did in June. His approval rating on the issue, now 35%, is down seven percentage points, and his ratings on taxes and the federal budget deficit are each down five points. During the same period, his overall approval...

Walmart (WMT) reported earnings of $1.24 a share this morning on revenues of $116.2 billion. Analysts had been expecting $1.25 on $118.5 billion. Sales in stores open more than a year declined 0.3%. Walmart also guided lower for the full year citing a "challenging sales and operating environment." The stock is off sharply and at risk of going negative for the last 52 weeks. Those are the numbers, but not the whole story. Walmart is the thermometer of the American economy. Disregard the government data. Jobs and GDP and all the rest are at best inaccurate measures of the economy...

Cisco's chief executive John Chambers said that "the economic recovery is slower and more inconsistent". The cuts come as the company looks to reduce costs as it sees demand for its networking equipment remain uncertain. Cisco also predicted that its revenues in the current quarter would be at the lower end of analysts' forecasts. Its shares fell more than 9% in after-hours trading. ... Mr Chambers said the job cuts were due to weaker sales in Japan, China and Europe, which had weighed on revenue growth. "The environment in terms of our business is improving slightly but nowhere near the...

The percentage of Americans that are economically independent has dropped to a stunningly low level. In order to be economically independent, you have got to be able to take care of yourself without any assistance from anyone else. Unless you are independently wealthy, that means that you either have your own business or you have a full-time job. Unfortunately, as you will see below, the percentage of Americans that are self-employed is at an all-time record low and the percentage of Americans with a full-time job has declined to a level not seen in about 30 years. As a result,...

Pratt & Whitney officials said the company is cutting 400 positions company-wide, with about half of them coming from the Connecticut workforce. Officials at Pratt & Whitney said it was a tough decision to make, but was necessary to remain competitive. According to Pratt & Whitney officials, those affected will receive severance pay, outplacement help, continuation of group insurance and employee scholar program benefits and other services. The job cuts are effective immediately.

According to Nick Colas, the chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, recent graduates under 25 years-old are in a particularly bad spot right now. "It's usually college grads that do well," Colas says in the attached video."They get the first time jobs, they're pretty cheap to employ, and generally have pretty high job satisfaction." But, he says since the recession new government data shows that this unlucky group stands out in three key ways like never before. Overqualified: 52% of recent grads are in jobs where a college degree is not required. Colas calls this the "most startling" new problem,...