Free Republic

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by 18,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 354,000. Despite the gain, the level remains consistent with moderate job growth. The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average increased by 2,500 to 348,250. Applications are a proxy for layoffs. Since January, they have fallen 6 percent. That suggests companies are cutting fewer jobs. At the same time, hiring has been steady, despite an increase in taxes on Jan. 1 and steep federal spending cuts that began in March. Solid consumer spending and a rebound in housing have helped the economy weather...

Should it be a federal crime for businesses to refuse to hire ex-convicts? Yes, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which recently released 20,000 convoluted words of regulatory "guidance" to direct businesses to hire more felons and other ex-offenders. In the late 1970s, the EEOC began stretching Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to sue businesses for practically any hiring practice that adversely affected minorities. In 1989, the agency sued Carolina Freight Carrier Corp. of Hollywood, Fla., for refusing to hire as a truck driver a Hispanic man who had multiple arrests and had served 18 months...

The gloves are coming off. We're 11 months from full implementation and the real-world impact of Obamacare is hitting the newswires. Taco Bell and Wendy's just cut the hours of hundreds of employees to avoid the Obamacare employer health insurance mandate. These workers will not only not have health insurance, they will have less money to pay for it and may be forced into Medicaid under the individual mandate. Now, the Internal Revenue Service is warning employers not to avoid the employer mandate. The IRS issued a 144-page notice which says they will soon issue proposed regulations with "anti-abuse rules."...

The real knife twist in this USA Today piece is the money quote from Mark Zandi, The One’s go-to "independent" economist: Many businesses plan to bring on more part-time workers next year, trim the hours of full-time employees or curtail hiring because of the new health care law, human resource firms say. Their actions could further dampen job growth, which already is threatened by possible federal budget cutbacks resulting from the tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. "It will have a negative impact on job creation" in 2013, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics…The...

A survey to be released today finds few employers are planning to hire during the fourth quarter, another blow to President Obama, whose re-election may hinge on whether the economy improves before Election Day. “Between the uncertainty in the global economy and the uncertainty of the election, the survey results are really not surprising,” said Susan Fontana, regional vice president at ManpowerGroup, the global staffing agency that interviewed more than 18,000 employers nationwide for the survey. “In an election year, we see more of a stalling pattern. Then businesses start to move forward with their plans.” Of the more than...

A class action lawsuit was filed in California this week alleging that the popular In-N-Out burger chain discriminates against people of color.

My twenty something liberal Obama voter colleague (with a stay at home wife and two young children) cited this tidbit of news which I'm thinking is as pumped up as the "jobs" numbers at the White Hut--Anybody care to debunk? Largest IT employment gains in four years reported Network World (US) The nation's employment outlook for IT professionals has suddenly surged, gaining 18,200 jobs, the largest monthly increase since 2008, according to tech employment-research firm Foote Partners.

American companies are scaling back plans to hire workers and a rising share of firms feel the European debt crisis is taking a bite out of their sales, a survey showed on Monday. Only 23 percent of the firms polled in June plan to add to staff in the next six months, the National Association for Business Economics said on Monday. NABE's prior survey, conducted in late March and early April, had shown 39 percent of companies planning to add workers. Already, hiring by U.S. companies has slowed dramatically in recent months as employers worry about a sagging global economy...

Yesterday, Barack Obama responded to criticism of his plan to hike taxes on those earning as little as $250,000 a year --- a class which includes a large number of small-business owners --- by claiming that those entrepreneurs have no greater friend than the current President. He pointed to a number of tax breaks and credits he championed for small businesses, and dismissed the effects of hiking their taxes now: Now, we can already anticipate — we know what those who are opposed to letting the high-end tax cuts expire will say. They’ll say that we can’t tax “job creators.”...

In case you missed it, hiring fell a staggering 9 percent last month. The hidden secret is how bad hiring has been throughout the “recovery.” Economists say the recovery started in July 2009 — but the jobs picture still looks more like a recession. New hires not only fell during the recession, they’ve kept on falling during the “recovery” — something that isn’t supposed to happen. The economy has added jobs for 20 months, but very slowly. The total number of jobs has grown by just 1 percent during the 36-month “recovery.” In all past recoveries since 1970, the average...

In case you missed it, hiring fell a staggering 9 percent last month. The hidden secret is how bad hiring has been throughout the “recovery.” Economists say the recovery started in July 2009 — but the jobs picture still looks more like a recession. New hires not only fell during the recession, they’ve kept on falling during the “recovery” — something that isn’t supposed to happen. The economy has added jobs for 20 months, but very slowly. The total number of jobs has grown by just 1 percent during the 36-month “recovery.” In all past recoveries since 1970, the average...

NEW YORK (AP) — Business has picked up. Yet American companies are too nervous to step up hiring. The economy seems so gripped by uncertainties that many employers have decided to manage with the staff they have. They aren't convinced their customer demand will keep growing. Or they worry that Europe's festering debt crisis could infect the global economy. Or they aren't sure what Congress will do, if anything, about taxes and spending in coming months. All that helps explain why U.S. employers added just 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year and the third straight month of...

How bad will Friday's employment for April be? The ADP report, which usually paints a rosier picture of private-sector job gains, shows a decline in growth of almost half from their March report: Employment in the U.S. nonfarm private business sector increased by 119,000 from March to April on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated gain from February to March was revised down modestly, from the initial estimate of 209,000 to a revised estimate of 201,000.Employment in the private, service-providing sector increased 123,000 in April, after rising 158,000 in March. Employment in the private, goods-producing sector declined 4,000 jobs in...

Business trends at privately held companies, those millions of businesses that drive job creation and the U.S. GDP, confirm that things are turning around from the worst economic climate in generations. Sageworks Inc. used its proprietary database of financial information on thousands of privately held companies to examine 2011 trends within key metrics of a company’s health: sales, net profit margin and debt-to-EBITDA. For the full year in 2011, revenue for all privately held U.S. companies analyzed increased about 8%, on average, accelerating from the nearly 5% increase in 2010. Sageworks’ data shows manufacturing and wholesale merchants led the growth,...

We’ve submitted last year’s blockbuster investigation for an award. Click here to review the entire series. Last year, PJ Media published an eleven-article series titled “Every Single One”, the result of a year-long investigation of — and legal battle with — the Department of Justice. Our correspondents — PJ Media Legal Editor J. Christian Adams and Hans von Spakovsky — discovered the Eric Holder DOJ had used an ideological litmus test when evaluating applicants for employment within the Civil Rights Division. The Civil Service Reform Act, a law dating to President Chester Arthur, prohibits federal hiring based on political...

Gallup polled small-business owners (value under $20M) about their expansion plans in early January, which for some strange reason didn’t get reported until today. Among those who do not plan to hire — 85% of the entire sample — almost half of all such businesses cited expected costs from health care coverage and government regulation: U.S. small-business owners who aren’t hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly...

The preacher shares his final words, steps down from the pulpit for the last time, and after gathering his things leaves the building for good.  Preachers come and go, often more frequently than they should.  The Church moves forward with or without a regular preacher, because the ability to worship God does not rely upon the presence of any particular man.  Yet, this does not dismiss the wisdom of having a local preacher.  A sound preacher blesses a congregation in many ways a typical member does not.  When the preacher leaves, how should the Church replace him?In the interim, congregations...

I could hire 12 people with €760 net salary, but I don't. I tell you why. You could work for my service provider company in a nice office. It's not telemarketing, it's not a scam. You would do serious work that requires high skills, 8 hours daily, only weekdays. I would employ you legally, I would pay your taxes and social security. I could give such a job to a dozen people, but I will not, and here I explain why. I wouldn't hire a woman.The reason is very simple: women give birth to children. I don't have the right to ask...

12/13/2011 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- The freeze, preceded by hiring controls, was one of several measures implemented in 2011 to bring manning down to mandated 2010 levels. In addition, voluntary separation incentives were recently offered, with employees expected to separate by Dec. 31. "We have made significant progress in reducing manning levels through various programs," said Michelle LoweSolis, the AFPC civilian force integration director. "But in some areas we are still short of the goal, so the freeze was extended in those targeted areas to help us work toward that end. "Even with the hiring freeze...

He doesn’t think it’s too much to ask of a job seeker. A resume, a statement of salary expectations and a single written paragraph that answers a question like, “What do you believe a good customer service representative’s attitude should be?” (snip) Stories are legion of inept or half-hearted applicants who submit resumes marred by misspellings, show up at interviews dressed for a beach party, make inappropriate jokes, fail to learn basic details about the job and company in question, and otherwise leave hiring managers aghast. (snip) “Who the hell is going to hire these people?” asks Heinemeier Hansson. “Who...