Free Republic

Reader "BC" passed on a series of articles about jobs and wages, and matching up graduates with the skills companies seek.  The articles are all in regards to China. Change the names and faces, and the stories sound to me like things you could easily read here. The problems are universal: too many graduates, trained in fields where there are no jobs or few openings.  Job Prospects for China's Grads Bleak Business Times says Job Prospects for China's Grads Bleak.  A record seven million students will graduate from universities and colleges across China in the coming weeks, but their job prospects...

What’s an internship worth? As much as it pays, apparently. Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures had violated federal and New York minimum-wage laws by not paying its production interns. The plaintiffs in the case claimed that they were doing work that paid employees would’ve done otherwise. And they got nothing out of it that paid employees wouldn’t have. The judge agreed: “Undoubtedly, [the interns] received some benefits from their internships, such as résumé listings, job references and an understanding of how a production office works... But those benefits were incidental to working in the...

The regulatory state never sleeps, relentlessly working day and night to tilt the economic playing field in favor of the politically connected. The regulations it imposes on the rest of us may or may not provide wider public benefits commensurate with their costs. But one thing is for certain: They reduce economic growth in two significant ways. First and foremost, they inflict compliance costs on businesses. According to the most recent edition of the Ten Thousand Commandments, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) annual snapshot of the federal regulatory state, these costs amounted to $1.8 trillion in 2012—a staggering sum that...

Federal Reserve officials both expect and want inflation to be higher than it is. So far, that isn’t happening. Consumer price data released Tuesday showed inflation rose a mere 1.4% in May from a year earlier. While the consumer price index isn’t the Fed’s preferred inflation measure — the personal consumption expenditures price index is — the reading is a reminder that price gains are still well below the central bank’s 2% target. Economists at Macroeconomic Advisers say the CPI rise likely translates to an annualized gain of 0.7% in the second quarter — a very weak reading.

<p>My despair as El Reg's resident job expert is that you people sometimes can’t even follow basic simple advice. For example, when I wrote about pay cuts, some arts grad commented that he’d immediately quit.</p> <p>I shall type this slowly so you understand: You... quit... when... it... suits... you. Not out of spite, not for revenge, not out of fear, but in as smooth and rational a transition as you can muster.</p>

You’d think when the Huffington Post’s top writer on finance writes about the tax code, he’d understand at least how the tax code works. But in an age when “finance” editors, like the HuffPo’s Mark Gongloff, are demonstrably anti-business, pro-Occupy and work as shills for progressive ideas, facts take a back seat to ideology, outrage and agendas. The latest outrage Gongloff has taken issue with is how little of the U.S. tax revenue, on a percentage basis, is generated by corporate taxes, as opposed to the good old days of the 1950s. He even has a chart to prove it...

Yesterday, Texas came a knocking. While most would assume that with the Lone Star State’s love of guns would pair the two together better than peas and carrots, Gov. Rick Perry will have to bring more than just a box of chocolates and some bright red roses. He aims to woo them with things like low taxes, fewer regulations and offer an economic incentive package. On top of the sweet talk, Perry has been laying ground work since the National Rifle Association’s annual convention last month (check out his intro video) and, as of his arrival yesterday, with TV and...

We all want a great, high-paying job. To make that happen, it helps to be in an area where there are more jobs to fill than qualified people to fill them. We worked with the folks at job hunting site Bright to scout out the places in the country that have the most tech jobs. Bright sifted through 3.5 million job postings, plus government job data. As you can see from the following maps, some cities post a lot of jobs per capita. Watch each map change to see how the job market changed last quarter.

Paul Krugman has a column today on a topic you don't normally get much of from economists: sympathy for the Luddites. Back in 2001, when I sat in on my last formal economics class, this was about as daring a proposition as "Sympathy for the Devil" was as an album title. ---snip--- But I have started worrying about what's taking place at the bottom of the economy. In much of the industrial world, it seems to be increasingly difficult for people to earn a decent living without a fairly elite set of skills--or an elite set of credentials that mimic...

ModMark wrote: One of the coal plants shut down in Chicago was built ~90 years ago. While upgraded in the 1950's. it still did not meet EPA standards before Obama was elected. These plants were grandfather in when the clean air act was past. These ancient relics should have been converted to natural gas long ago.Do you really want to live next to one of these ancient plants? –in response to Obama Promise Kept: Coal Plants to go Bankrupt with New EPA Carbon Cap Dear Comrade Mark, The building was built 90 years ago, but the actual power plant generating electricity is considerably...

MADISON — Secretary of State Doug La Follette wants his fellow Democrats to quit bashing the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. It appears that La Follette’s plea went unheard, as three senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a criminal investigation into the state’s main business subsidy agency. “In some cases, the violations of state statute that took place appear to have risen to the level of criminal offenses,” Democrat state Sens. Bob Wirch of Somers, Dave Hansen of Green Bay and Jon Erpenbach of Middleton wrote in a letter to Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne. “We ask that you investigate...

<p>As Wal-Mart chief executive Mike Duke said Friday at the company's annual meeting, compliance with the nation's laws "is an absolute." He vowed to "do the right thing" and praised the company's foundation of integrity.</p> <p>But while Wal-Mart is meeting the letter of the law in a new hiring practice, it may face additional questions about its motives. That's because the retailer is hiring only temporary workers in many locations, a move that Wal-Mart denies is tied to cutting costs. Yet doing so would allow it to sidestep the need to enroll those employees in company-sponsored health insurance plans under Obamacare.</p>

In a positive sign for the U.S. jobs market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended June 8th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 334,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 346,000. The modest decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had been expecting initial jobless claims to edge up to 350,000. With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell for the second consecutive week, pulling back toward the five-year low of 327,000 set in the week ended...

Workers in Louisiana, at 37%, were the most likely in 2012 to be engaged in their jobs -- meaning they are involved in and enthusiastic about their work. Those in Minnesota, at 25.7%, were the least likely to be engaged at work. These state-level data are based on a total of 151,284 daily surveys conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking from January through December 2012 and include at least 506 employed residents in every state. These findings and more are available in Gallup's State of the American Workplace report, released June 11. Gallup's employee engagement index -- which categorizes...

Documents Reveal that ‘Dreamers’ Order Opened Door to Relatives of Illegal Immigrants, “Inundating” Border Towns with Petitions for AdmissionJudicial Watch announced today that documents obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) abandoned required background checks late last year, adopting, instead, costly “lean and lite” procedures in effort to keep up with the flood of amnesty applications spurred by President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) directive, which grants illegal aliens a two-year deferment from deportation. Acting on a tip from a whistleblower...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a lawsuit against BMW on Tuesday, alleging that one of its facilities in South Carolina adopted a criminal background check policy that led to a disproportionate impact on African-Americans. According to the EEOC, BMW switched contractors at its South Carolina plant in 2008 and instructed employees of the old contractor who had been working at the site to reapply with the new firm. This new firm was instructed to conduct fresh criminal background checks on all applicants. ...The result was that out of 645 experienced employees, 88 were denied rehire, including 70 blacks,...

Federal regulators Tuesday accused two large employers of improperly using criminal-background checks in hiring, the latest salvo in a contentious debate over whether such screening amounts to discrimination against black applicants. In complaints filed in federal courts in Illinois and South Carolina, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said two companies discount retailer Dollar General Corp. and a U.S. unit of German auto maker BMW AG generally barred potential employees based on the criminal checks, when they should have reviewed each applicant. The commission said the policies had the effect of discriminating against black applicants. The suits underscore increasing government scrutiny...

... Obama is calling attention to the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act that aimed to eliminate gender wage disparities, making the case for strengthening the law that President John F. Kennedy signed in 1963. Obama, speaking to an audience almost entirely of women, says women continue to be paid less than men. He says: "This is the 21st century. It's time to close that gap."

This is no longer the old Happy Meal economy of the 1980s, making toys and sneakers.

Countries around the world are blazing past the United States in job creation. That was the New York Times’ conclusion after analyzing the latest round of figures from Friday’s Labor Department report. As of March 2013, U.S. employment was down 2.1% from where it stood at the end of 2007. Over the same period of time, Australian employment figures increased by 8.1%, while “Germany, the biggest economy in the troubled euro zone, has managed a 5.8% gain in employment.” America’s neighbor to the north, Canada, is also outperforming the U.S. Canada’s unemployment rate is half a percentage point lower than...

Barbara1247 wrote:  The Republicans have helped bring us to this sorry state of affairs. - How About More Scandal, Incompetence, Venality, Hubris, Vanity and Error to Start Dear Comrade 1247, You’re a liberal, so even when you are right- like you are now- it’s accidental. So as a public service, let me explain to you, in the simplest terms, what you got right, accidentally. Certainly the GOP has helped establish a track record of what might be the sorriest 25 years of governing in American history. But it’s because they have supported watered-down versions of the Democrat agenda. For every...

On the first Friday of each month, the financial markets, the mainstream media, and, in fact, the whole world eagerly await the U.S. monthly jobs report.  Tony Slydini, Doug Henning, Ricky Jay, Warren and Annabelle, and even Harry Houdini (some of the greatest magicians of all-time, apologies to others), would be truly proud of the art of misdirection repeatedly achieved by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and subsequently via the Obama administration.  In the 1970s, inflation was so rampant — created by the move to fiat currency while totally abandoning the gold standard — that instead of dealing with...

Initial Reaction The establishment survey showed a gain of 175,000 a reasonably good but not spectacular print. The bright spot was involuntary part-time employment only rose by 26,000 so most of the jobs were (for a change) full-time jobs. The civilian labor force rose by 420,000 for a change, enough to raise the unemployment rate 0.1 percentage points to 7.6%. The Participation Rate rose 0.1 to 63.4%, just off the low of 63.3% dating back to 1979. Obamacare Effect Given there was not a huge jump in part-time employment this month, the bulk of the Obamacare effect of employers reducing...

When President Richard Nixon collided with the Watergate scandal, he was a very unpopular man. The nation at the time was suffering one of the worst recessions in history and one of the highest inflation rates, too. So Watergate sunk Dick Nixon, but for good measure, the economy sunk him even more. Roughly 25 years later, Bill Clinton was impeached because he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. But despite his personal transgressions, he never really lost his popularity. Why? The economy was roaring. So you might say scandals are less scandalous during prosperity and more scandalous during recession....

The headline numbers for the May jobs report are about what you would expect for a New Normal economy stuck in 2% growth mode: 175,000 net new jobs last month, the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.6%. No broad signs of acceleration; just the opposite, in fact. As Barclays bank points out, the three-month average increase in nonfarm payrolls through May is now 155,000 vs. a first-quarter average of 207,000. (And at May’s pace of job creation, it would take another 58 months to get back to 5% unemployment.)In addition, hours worked grew at a 1.9% annualized rate in...

In the sixth month of his second term, President Obama is still trying to figure out what he wants to do in the remainder of his presidency. Thus far, Obama -- who appears to spend most of his time delivering speeches -- doesn't have a clue. He has become the "Podium President" whose only agenda is to avoid dealing with the economy. While polls show that the economy remains the number one concern for the American people, it has become "the quiet crisis" in Obama's government -- unheralded, unspoken, unnoticed and untreated. No one talks about it, least of all...

Although somewhat better than expected, the 175,000 net jobs created in May continues the historically tepid jobs growth trend that has come to characterize the now four-year old economic recovery. The result has been continued high unemployment, a vast pool of long-term jobless, and unprecedented number of people who've dropped out of the labor force. Highlighting the weakness of the May report is the fact that the number of unemployed climbed by nearly the same amount as jobs created — 101,000 — nudging the unemployment rate up to 7.6%. As a result, there are still 2.4 million fewer people working...

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. It is still below the 200,000 levels that economists think constitutes a real recovery. 7.6% unemployment is extremely high, still at the highest point since 1984. And U6 full and partial unemployment fell slightly to a whopping 13.8%. Great news … unless you consider that 89,705,000 people are NOT in the labor force. AND the fastest job growth is in the 55 and over age segment (blue). Compare it to 16-19 (red) and...

While the administration and media are trying their best to declare May's mediocre job report a success, there is word up north that conservative principles at work can create jobs. This month, the United States created 175,000 jobs and its unemployment rate increased to 7.6%. While the initial number may seem at least somewhat impressive, it really only keeps up with natural population growth. Meanwhile, on the other side of our northern border, Stephen Harper's Conservative government is providing results lacking in the states. Canada has just over 10% of the population of the United States and economists were predicting...

Employers stepped up hiring in May in a show of economic resilience that suggests the Federal Reserve could begin to scale back the amount of cash it is pumping into the banking system later this year. The United States added 175,000 jobs last month, just above the median forecast in a Reuters poll, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The unemployment rate ticked a tenth of a percentage point higher to 7.6 percent, in a relatively hopeful sign as it was driven by more workers entering the labor force.

No one wins a trade war. Ever. Not countries, not companies, and certainly not consumers. Yet, here we go again. People's Daily says China has more cards to play in EU trade dispute. China still has plenty more cards to play in an increasingly ugly trade dispute with the European Union, the official People's Daily newspaper said on Thursday, accusing Europe of not realizing that its global power was waning. The EU will impose duties on imports of Chinese solar panels from this week, a move that infuriated Beijing despite European attempts to soften the blow with a reduced rate....

MIKE O'ROURKE: Here's The 'Bearmageddon Scenario' That Would Be A Nightmare For The Stock Market And Bernanke Joe Weisenthal Jun. 7, 2013, 5:23 AM Strategist Mike O'Rourke of JonesTrading has a section of his latest note describing the "bearmageddon scenario" for stocks and the Fed. He doesn't say that this is his base case, but he thinks it's worth pondering a possible path forward that sees the economy weaken, and the futility of QE exposed, boxing in everyone. He writes: The Bearmageddon Scenario is one where the economic data rolls over and turns negative. The reason we are mentioning it...

JOBS REPORT BEATS AT 175K, UNEMPLOYMENT RISES TO 7.6% Joe Weisenthal and Matthew Boesler June 7, 2013, 8:29 AM It's a beat! The change in nonfarm payrolls in May's jobs report came in at 175,000, better than expectations for 163,000. Last month's number was revised down to 149,000 from 165,000. The unemployment rate actually edged up from 7.5% to 7.6%. The change in private payrolls was 178,000, which beat expectations for a 175,000 gain. Last month's private payrolls number, however, was revised down to 157,000 from 176,000. Manufacturing payrolls fell by 8,000. Economists were predicting a gain of 4,000. Average...

As the world waits breathless for some Goldilocks print in tomorrow's non-farm payroll data, Gallup's most recent survey of employment trends does not paint a pretty picture for the real economy. Though, by the 'adjustment bureau' and their Arima-X goal-seeking, nothing is ever clear, not only is the payroll-to-population (the number of people working) worse than a year ago but the unemployment rate is also rising with under-employment - at 18.0% - near 15 month highs. If the NFP print plays out in line with this, the estimate of 165k will be woefully over-optimistic, leaving the question of whether...

Boeing Co. is seeking a new local factory to house engineers and assembly workers for the 737 MAX work it is bringing to the Lowcountry. The company began soliciting bids from a small group of real estate developers and landlords for the project about a month ago. . The firm that wins the job won’t have much time. Boeing wants to move in to the proposed plant by next June, according to its request for proposals. The company said it needs a site that can accommodate a 220,000-square-foot building and have enough land to expand the structure to 600,000 square...

Fewer Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, pointing to more slow and choppy improvement in the job market. About 346,0000 people filed initial jobless claims last week, 11,000 fewer than a week earlier, the Department of Labor said. Jobless claims are a volatile indicator from week to week, but nevertheless are considered a key measure of layoffs. Economists often prefer to look at a four-week moving average, to smooth out some of the choppiness, and that measure rose slightly last week. Some turnover is normal in the job market. In early 2007, before the recession began, it...

Inquiring minds are digging into the stunningly bad Quarter-Over-Quarter decline in wages and real wages across all sectors as noted in the Revised First Quarter BLS Productivity and Costs report.   Sector Nonfarm Business Business Manufacturing Durable Nondurable Productivity 0.5 2 3.5 3.6 3.9 Output 2.1 3.1 5.3 6.4 4.2 Hours 1.6 1.1 1.8 2.8 0.2 Hourly compensation -3.8 -3.1 -6.9 -8.1 -4.9 Real hourly compensation -5.2 -4.6 -8.3 -9.4 -6.4 Unit labor costs -4.3 -5 -10 -11.2 -8.5 Year-Over-Year numbers are still positive but the revised quarterly numbers shown above are an unmitigated disaster. The BLS notes "Unit labor...

IF you were the leaders of the State of California and you were hemorrhaging businesses, with entire industries leaving as fast as they could pack and taking jobs with them, what would you do? Assist with job training? Offer tax credits? Ease regulations? Wrong. The State of California didn't do that. Instead, they looked at the few still struggling industrial businesses dumb enough to want to still operate in this hostile environment and asked why? Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/california_to_industry_get_lost.html#ixzz2VRWtWLXw Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

An economic forecast says the country’s expected “Great Recovery” hasn’t materialized and the economy’s fallen short of even normal growth. The Los Angeles Times reports the gloomy picture appears in the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday. It says that real gross domestic product growth – the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced – is well below the 3percent growth trend of past recoveries. The forecast says the country isn’t creating enough good jobs. However, the forecast also says a housing market recovery should boost the GDP over the next two years and bring down unemployment, falling to 6.9...

<p>"It's not a recovery. It's not even normal growth. It's bad," UCLA economist Edward Leamer says.</p> <p>The country's tepid growth in its gross domestic product isn't creating enough good jobs to build a strong middle class, according to a UCLA report released Wednesday.</p>

Sailors on Lake Michigan know they're approaching the south side of Milwaukee when they spot the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower. But the building beneath the tower acts as a marker of another sort: the structure originally built to be a manufacturing plant is now filled with white-collar professionals. As the global headquarters of Rockwell Automation, the Allen-Bradley building provides office space for 3,100 employees who range from product development engineers to sales and marketing teams and corporate executives. They're in the manufacturing business, but it's not quite the same business that once made Milwaukee prosperous. Rockwell Automation sold over $6 billion...

If you find yourself changing careers, out on the streets looking for a new job, you probably will learn what other job seekers have discovered: it is a cruel and ugly world out there. And, it is especially difficult if you have not looked for a job in several years. That is particularly true for the 166 terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Make that the 166 individuals detained as terrorists. Many of those detainees went on a hunger strike a few months ago to protest their living conditions and the fact that some of them have been in Gitmo...

Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index increased to 22 in May, the highest score for any month since April 2008. The Job Creation Index is now much improved from the all-time monthly low of -5 recorded in February and April 2009. The net job creation score is based on 37% of workers telling Gallup that their employer is hiring new people and expanding the size of its workforce, and 15% saying their company is letting people go and reducing the size of its workforce. The percentage "hiring" is the highest since August 2008 and the percentage "letting people go" is the...

OK, to edumacate (lol) some liberals. Too little, too late but better than nothing. Now I do NOT agree with everything Chuck teaches - especially the silly "Nephilim" thing. But he's quoting Porter Stansberry here - and it's pretty dead-on. Worth watching. I'll put the link in the thread, too.

MISS: US COMPANIES ADD ONLY 135,000 JOBS Sam Ro June 5, 2013The ADP jobs report is out, and it's a miss. US companies added only 135,000 jobs in May, which was well below the 165,000 expected by economists. The April measure was also revised down to +113,000 from a prior reading of +119,000. "Notably, a gain of 5,000 jobs in the construction industry during May was offset by a decline of 6,000 lost jobs in the manufacturing industry," said ADP's Carlos Rodriguez. Here's a break down by company size: * Small (1-49 employees): +58,000 * Medium (50-499 employees): +39,000 *...

Question: I read your article titled "Keep Your Salary Under Wraps," and I agree completely that there is no good reason (from the employee's perspective) to disclose your current salary to a future employer. A competent business should be able to independently assess a prospective employee's worth without being biased by another data point. Judging from your article, however, you may not be aware that employers require salary information. For instance, online applications frequently make the "current salary" field mandatory. You cannot proceed without entering a numeric value. Human resources representatives almost always ask about current salary during the initial...

Men In America Aren't Keeping Up With The Economy Blaire Briody, The Fiscal Times Jun. 4, 2013, 11:22 AM Men – once the dominate sex in nearly every sector of society – seem to be falling far and fast. A new Pew report finds that 40 percent of households with children under 18 have mothers who are the primary breadwinners – a dramatic rise from just 11 percent in 1960. Women now earn about 60 percent of university degrees in America and Europe. Single women are increasingly becoming homeowners and a survey by Harris Interactive and Mortgage Marvel this week...

What you are now hearing across the land is a collective whine. Blue-state Democrats are upset that Texas governor Rick Perry dares come and play in their sandboxes, and, worse, threatens to “poach” jobs from their states. The website Politico reports that Perry’s attempts to lure jobs to Texas are “infuriating to prominent Democrats around the country.” Governor Jerry Brown of California — a state that is Perry’s foremost target — has dismissed Perry’s handiwork in scatological terms. Democrats from another target, Illinois, huff and puff about the temerity of it all. “He better not take our businesses away,” Senator...

DagNabbit wrote: Ransom cracks me up: This is the same guy that screams "Burn more oil!" at the top of his lungs every week. You want to F the Saudis? Stop buying their oil. (PS: Now I'll make the Sunday edition where he goes on and on about how the Keystone pipeline will free us from the Saudi trap. Hint: It won't). - Red, White and Saudi PrivilegeDear Comrade DN,I don’t scream, “Burn more oil!�I scream: “Drill more oil.�Comrade, it may come as a big surprise, but despite the wishes of liberals like you, our economy depends upon oil. That’s not a fact that’s...

Gov. Rick Perry’s high-profile efforts to lure jobs to Texas from other states may be good business and smart politics back home, but they’re infuriating to prominent Democrats around the country. And now at least one Republican business leader says Perry’s taking the Lone Star swagger a little too far. Perry’s forceful recruitment campaigns, featuring radio and magazine ads as well as personal appearances, promise low-tax, pro-growth policies in Texas —and they also trash the business climate in places like California (“…I hear building a business in California is next to impossible”) and Illinois (“…an environment that, intentionally or not,...