Free Republic

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...

SF plan would offer tax break for hiring felonsRachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer October 18, 2011 04:00 AM San Francisco businesses that hire people with felony convictions would get a tax break, under legislation expected to be introduced today. "Ex-felons are among the most challenged populations in getting work," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is crafting the plan. Persuading an employer to hire a convicted felon, particularly in this economy when the unemployment rate is hovering just under 10 percent, is difficult, especially when there's a wide pool of job applicants without felony records.

Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Howard Schultz, who has been on a mission to cut the national debt and boost job creation, has pledged to donate at least $100,000 of profits annually from two Starbucks stores in low-income areas to boost jobs in those communities. Profits from Starbucks stores in the Harlem section of Manhattan and the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles will go toward two community organizations that work to improve education and job training for young adults in those areas. High-school students in those neighborhoods also will receive barista training at the Starbucks shops. "We can't wait for Washington....

Top business executives feel less confident about the U.S. economic outlook and their ability to hire new workers than in previous quarters this year, according to a survey released Thursday by Business Roundtable. Only 36% of chief executives thought their company's U.S. employment would increase in the next six months and 24% thought it would decrease, according to a survey of 140 chief executives conducted by Business Roundtable between Aug. 29 and Sept. 16. By contrast, in the second quarter poll, 51% of executives thought their company's U.S. employment would increase and only 11% thought it would decrease.

When Linda Evans announced that she would get no more parts because she was an outspoken conservative, National Review charged in to defend Hollywood against any charges of discrimination. Nobody gets more excited defending the left than respectable conservatives do. The fact is that a Marxist MUST hire only his own kind. Lenin never had to do a day?s work. Revolution was a full-time job, and revolutionaries were REQUIRED to marry for money when the Party needed it. It is amazing what little even those who talk about ?a Marxist analysis? know about Marxism. Marxism states as it first principle...

Some might consider it an ugly truth that attractive people are often more successful than those less blessed with looks. But now our appearance is emerging in legal disputes as a new kind of discrimination. ‘Lookism’, it is claimed, is the new racism, and should be banished from civilised societies. It is currently the subject of several court actions in America, and some experts say similar cases should be considered here too. Economist Daniel Hamermesh argues that ugliness is no different from race or a disability, and suggests unattractive people deserve legal protection. ‘My research shows being good-looking helps you...

According to every outlet of the establishment media, it was a near-earthshaking scandal when the Bush Justice Department rejected some applicants for “career” (officially non-political) jobs because the applicants were too liberal. “The entire Justice Department and all Americans were harmed” screamed the Washington Post. The New York Times, in high dudgeon, wrote that “the strength of American democracy depends on our ability to be shocked by abuses like these — and to punish them appropriately.”The Post and the Times were crying crocodile tears. It wasn’t hiring bias to which they objected; it was merely conservative hiring bias that bothered...

Bankrupt Country Club Hills police chief part of failed ventures By Lauren FitzPatrick and Casey Toner Jul 16, 2011 The police chief of Country Club Hills, who with her husband earns more than $200,000 courtesy of city taxpayers, apparently is broke. Thanks to a series of failed businesses, including theaters they ran on Chicago’s South Side and in Dolton, Regina Evans and her husband, Ronald Evans, the inspector general of the city of 16,000, have declared personal bankruptcy. When Regina Evans, a retired Chicago police lieutenant, was hired in 2009 by Mayor Dwight Welch, she already was deeply in debt....

WASHINGTON—The U.S. labor market could stay sluggish for a while, with small-business executives reluctant to hire amid the murky economic outlook. Almost two-thirds—64%—of small-business executives surveyed said they weren't expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year and another 12% planned to cut jobs, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report to be released Monday. Just 19% said they would expand their work forces. This comes after a Labor Department report Friday showed employers added few jobs in June, and unemployment rose to 9.2%. The bleak figures joined other data showing the recovery losing momentum in recent...

This is a companion piece to Kathy Fettke's piece today titled: "Where the Jobs Are" This is the second part of a two-part interactive map series on jobs. For part one, please see Interactive Map: Employment History Since 2001 by Job Type (Healthcare, Education, Mining, Construction, Finance, Real Estate, etc) Part two has a focus on job creation and losses during the economic recovery. Please consider the following interactive map, using Tableau Software, with data courtesy of Economic Modeling Specialists. In a previous article I noted that when it comes to jobs, this is the weakest recovery ever except for...

If you’re still not using any of the privacy settings on Facebook, here’s the most compelling reason why you need to change that as soon as possible. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given the thumbs up to Social Intelligence Corp, which keeps files of Facebook users’ posts as part of a background-checking service for screening job applicants. The FTC decided Social Intelligence complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the same set of rules that keeps your bill-payment records on file with the consumer bureaus for seven years, according to Forbes. That’s how long your social media postings remain...

DURHAM, N.C. - Optimism among chief financial officers in the U.S. has fallen, but spending plans indicate continued moderate growth over the next year. Hiring will be minimal - less than 1 percent over the next year - though many companies plan to reinstitute some employee benefits. "CFOs are telling us we are stuck at 9 percent unemployment for the next year," said Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke's Fuqua School of Business and founding director of the survey. "One leg of the economy is shackled by extraordinarily high unemployment and the other by the housing market still...

Last week, I noted that various forms of the word “unexpected” almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday’s shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent. But with news that bad, maybe bad economic numbers will no longer be “unexpected.” You can only expect a robust economic recovery for so long before you figure out, as Herbert Hoover eventually did, that it is not around the corner. Exogenous factors explain some part of the...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Job growth decelerated sharply in May, the Labor Department said Friday. Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 54,000, much lower than the 125,000 gain expected by Wall Street economists. This is the smallest increase in nonfarm payroll since September. The unemployment rate ticked higher 9.1% in May from 9.0% in the previous month.