Free Republic

".....[Donald Trump's] detractors will no doubt see his China-bashing as another example of Trumpian buffoonery. Most students of U.S.-China trade will tell you that both countries benefit from the flow of goods and services across the Pacific, and that although China is guilty of imposing nontariff barriers, subsidizing its exporters in violation of global trade rules, and failing to respect the intellectual property rights of U.S. entities, the pros for American investors, workers, and consumers massively outweigh the cons. There is a problem with that view, however....[snip]......Of all the wackadoo ironies of Trump's emergence as tribune of America's white working...

But nothing compares to the latest farce released recently by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the same guys whom we caught fabricating jobs data back in September 2013. As everyone knows, one of the biggest question marks surrounding the US labor market is the 95 million of Americans not in the labor force, resulting in the lowest labor force participation rate since the mid-1970s... For Americans between the ages of 20 and 24, the share of those sidelined over the past decade because they were in school increased, unsurprisingly, during the decade that included the Great Recession. What's more unusual...

MOULTRIE, Georgia - "All you black American people, *uck you all ... just go to the office and pick up your check," the supervisor at Hamilton Growers told workers during a mass layoff in June 2009. The following season, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, about 80 workers, many of them black, were simply told: "All you Americans are fired." Year after year, Hamilton Growers, which has supplied squash, cucumbers, and other produce to Wal-Mart and the Green Giant brand, hired scores of Americans, only to cast off many of them within weeks, according to...

Illinois losing 1 resident every 5 minutes to out-migration The U.S. Census Bureau report released Dec. 22 is compelling evidence that Illinois needs pro-growth, pro-jobs reforms. The report shows that Illinois recorded its first six-digit loss of residents to other states, with Illinois losing 105,000 more people to other states than it gained from July 2014 to July 2015. The border war losses were so bad that Illinois total population shrank by 22,000 people on the year, the worst ever. Similar to last year 2013-2014 data, Illinois is the only state in the region to have a shrinking population. The...

. GOP Washington Cartel : New Spending Omnibus Bill to SECRETLY increase Quadruple H1B Visas is 2016 ! The House omnibus bill, released last night, includes a provision that would quadruple the number of H-2B visas for low-skilled guest workers. The measure would increase the number of H-2B visa workers allowed in the U.S. in 2016 from 66,000 to around 264,000. The new provision does not increase the current H-2B visa cap of 66,000 but would exclude any worker who has already received an H-2B visa in the last three years. SEC. 565. Section 214(g)(9)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality...

Many people may be adding "find a new job" to their list of resolutions in 2016, and the good news is that it's a job-seekers' market. The national unemployment rate dropped to 5% last month, the lowest it's been since 2008. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 271,000 new jobs were created, many of which were in technology, health care, and retail, building on a trend that's been gaining steam this year, as twice as many employers are looking to fill jobs as there are candidates who are applying. To determine which jobs are most in demand heading into...

GOP upstart shocks with outreach to blacks, the real reason for MSM vitriol Donald Trump's outreach effort to black leaders this week was portrayed as a botched and bungled meeting, a circus in which the mouthy billionaire declared that the 100-plus pastors in attendance would be endorsing his bid to grab the GOP presidential nomination, only to have the men of God themselves say, not so fast, Donny T. The cables and the networks and the newspapers mocked the meet-and-greet, even before it happened. And here's why: Trump had shocked again. This non-candidate who has no business running for president...

Should computers decide who gets a job? That’s a question recently asked by Government Executive Magazine which looked at a study of hiring practices and how much hiring recommendations generated by standardized testing differed from managers who “went with their gut” in terms of eventual employee performance and retention. The results were, at least as I read it, a bit muddled.First of all, the test subjects they looked at were all applicants for low skill service jobs. (Such as you’d find for new hires at call centers or data entry firms.) They were all given standardized tests and those results...

Crude oil just capped off a third straight week of declines, as WTI nears the $40 per barrel threshold. Goldman Sachs is once again raising the possibility of oil dipping into the $20s per barrel. That spells more pain for the energy sector. Many companies have already slashed spending and culled their payrolls, but the total number of job losses continues to climb. According to Graves & Co., an industry consultant, oil and gas companies have laid off more than 250,000 workers around the world, a tally that will rise if oil prices remain in the dumps

In the US, the internet has become a job seeker's most important resource. People are researching, finding, and applying to jobs online with relative ease. A Pew Research Center report released Thursday (Nov. 19) shows most American adults who have looked for a job in the last two years turned to online resources more than they used personal and professional connections, employment agencies, ads, or job fairs, the traditional avenues of a career hunt. A third of respondents used social media to either research or look for a job. Relocating job hunting to the internet is an obvious outcome,...

The most quoted jobs metric in the world is misleading Many of the truly unemployed are considered self-employed About 3 billion people who want a great job don't have one What the whole world wants is a good job. That was the breakthrough finding from Gallup's first global survey 10 years ago, and it continues to be true. However, there is a problem with how the world defines and measures what a good job is... [snip] How Global Agencies Define Work Here is the heart of the problem... [snip] Global_employment Let's consider a real job or a good job --...

Every day brings new headlines, ignored by the Washington press corps, of U.S. workers losing their livelihoods to cheap H1-B visa replacements. Just this week, Computerworld reported: "Fury and fear in Ohio as IT jobs go to India." Yet, it remains an article of faith among Big Business flacks and Beltway hacks that H-1B not only protects American jobs, but also fuels miraculous job growth. The myths are recycled and regurgitated by the likes of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who claims that "foreign-born STEM workers complement the American workforce, they don't take American jobs." Bill Gates, citing the National Foundation...

We received considerable feedback on our article last week about Walmart’s Project Greenlight. To be clear, nobody is suggesting that Walmart should be boycotted, we do not believe Veterans should be “offended” by people putting up green lights and we are not questioning the fact that Walmart does give a considerable amount of money for Veteran issues. However, unfortunately, the problem of Veteran Unemployment will not be resolved by re-branding the yellow ribbon campaign or by coining a new phrase such as “greenlighting.” So, today’s article we will dive a little deeper into the issues affecting Veteran Employment. The Reality...

On Monday, President Obama is announcing a new order to reduce potential discrimination against former convicts in the hiring process for federal government employees. It is a step towards what many criminal justice reformers call "ban the box" - the effort to eliminate requirements that job applicants check a box on their applications if they have a criminal record. While the rule was once seen as a common sense way for employers to screen for criminal backgrounds, it has been increasingly criticized as a hurdle that fosters employment discrimination against former inmates, regardless of the severity of their offense or...

“We’re feeling a little bit of the tightness in the market,” said Tim Grace, the global chief talent officer for Toys “R” Us. Mr. Grace said the retailer is on track to meet its goal of hiring 40,000 seasonal workers, but added that “we are not getting as many applicants as we have in the past.” With unemployment at a seven-year low, hourly retail work is becoming less attractive to job seekers who now have more options. The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons—those who want to work full-time but can only get a part-time job—has shrunk by...

On The Laura Ingraham Show, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) refused to say whether he supports curbing immigration levels. Jordan cited concerns of employers that the United States may need more workers because too many Americans are on drugs. “I hear from all kinds of employers, they say they can’t find people to work,” Jordan said, “And one of the reasons they cite… is that there’s a number of people who can’t pass the drug screen.”

Akin OyedeleOctober 31, 2015We recently detailed why some economists are spooked about the economy. Harvard professor Larry Summers also noted that the consensus of economists has failed to forecast a recession one year in advance in post-war America. So, once again, we may not know for sure until we are really close to an economic downturn, or even in one. However, it doesn't exactly look like we're there. If you were, however, trying to build a case that we're near recession, the manufacturing sector is where you'd start. It's A Services Economy "We are seeing questions come up as to...

Analysis: With $15 minimum wage campaign gaining political traction, group says workers need more for a living wage. As the nationwide campaign for a $15 hourly minimum wage gains traction, some labor groups have set their sights on an even higher number: $16.87 — a demand that could help push the $15 figure closer to the mainstream of American politics. A new report, published Tuesday, from the Alliance for a Just Society, a coalition of labor organizations, argues that $15 an hour is less than a living wage in most states. A single, childless adult earning $15 per hour would...

Minimum-wage jobs are meant to be the first rung on a career ladder, a chance for entry-level workers to prove themselves before earning a promotion or moving on to other, better-paying jobs. But a growing number of Americans are getting stuck on that first rung for years, if they ever move up at all. Anthony Kemp is one of them. In 2006, he took a job as a cook at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Oak Park, Illinois. The job paid the state minimum wage, $6.50 an hour at the time, but Kemp figured he could work his way up....

The federal government uses very carefully manipulated numbers to cover up the crushing economic depression that is going on in this nation. For the month of September, the federal government told us that 142,000 jobs were added to the economy. If that was actually true, that would barely be enough to keep up with population growth. Sadly, the truth is that the real numbers were actually far worse than that. The unadjusted numbers show that the U.S. economy actually lost 248,000 jobs in September and the government added more than a million Americans to the “not in the labor force”...