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The Labor Department just released statistics that show that job openings in June are at a 13-year high. But while hiring is also up, it's not nearly at the levels that the job openings are. For job-hunters, the disconnect can be frustrating and painful. What's going on, and how can you get around this? * Not all jobs posted will be filled. Sometimes businesses post jobs with no intention of actually filling them. They're looking for applicants to put in their files so that they have a supply of candidates when a job does open up. Sometimes, positions are posted,...

If you want to know why economics is so important to understand, this is the series for you. In our day and age, it’s a message every Christian needs to hear.

According to a new report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Americans are earning 23% less today than what they made before the 2008 recession for the same jobs. This terrible statistic doesn’t even take into account Americans still struggling with unemployment, and please remember that the real unemployment rate is over 20%. That figure reflects all the Americans who’ve given up even looking for jobs that just aren’t there in Obama’s economy. This issue of middle class wage stagnation is directly related to the current debate about amnesty. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 70% of Americans believe illegal...

While President Obama works on his golf swing, British Prime Minister David Cameron has cut his summer holiday short to preside over an emergency crisis meeting about the Islamic State in Iraq. Perhaps Cameron's mind has been concentrated by stories like this one - a transcript of an interview with a British-born jihadist on the popular teenage chat-room Ask.fm. Here are some of the questions British kids were dying to ask of this exciting role model - together with his somewhat terrifying answers. Q: Are there gun stores there?A: Yep, u can buy loads of stuff. Q: Are bulletproof vests...

Hotel rooms for the introverts among us are an anti-social haven. Nothing beats a hot shower, followed by settling into a freshly made bed in a terrycloth robe to watch mediocre television with a glass of wine. No one bothers you and for an exquisite moment in time, you have nary a care in the world. Then the realization hits. You’ve forgotten your toothbrush at home! You’re going to have to call the snooty concierge. You’re going to have to smile and tip and say thank you. You’ll have to deal with people. The chain of hotels has introduced the...

New applications for unemployment benefits rose last week but remained near eight-year lows. Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 311,000 in the week ended Aug. 9, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was more than the 295,000 new claims forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and the highest level since June. Claims for the previous week were revised up slightly to 290,000. Applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, have been trending lower this year. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, increased by 2,000 to...

SAN FRANCISCO — Cisco Systems may be doing a little better than Wall Street expects, considering its technology and sales challenges. But that doesn’t mean the company will avoid layoffs in the coming months. On Wednesday, Cisco released fourth-quarter earnings that illustrated its troubles as one of the tech industry’s giants competing in a rapidly changing environment. Fourth-quarter revenues, Cisco said, were $12.36 billion, down from $12.42 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Net income was $2.25 billion, or 43 cents a share, down from $2.27 billion a year ago. Using nonstandard accounting common to many tech companies,...

On the surface, California's job market is booming. The state has now recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, and done so at a faster pace than all but five states. The growth, though, belies a troubling imbalance. The fastest job creation has come in low-wage sectors, in which pay has declined. At the high end of the salary scale, a different dynamic has taken hold: rising pay and improving employment after rounds of consolidation. Most distressing, middle-wage workers are losing out on both counts. "People talk about it like an hourglass," said Tracey Grose, vice president of the...

As he stepped out on stage last year to hawk his big TV comeback in front of advertisers, comedy great Robin Williams joked it was 'nice to have a job where the checks will clear.' After making his name as the eccentric and beloved alien on 1970s TV hit Mork and Mindy, Robin transferred his attentions to Hollywood with a stream of box office hits. But after acclaim and an Oscar, the movie career started to dry up and the actor signed up for CBS show The Crazy Ones, a small-screen comedy about a 'renowned and slightly unhinged' advertising genius/madman....

The share of unemployed Americans competing for each open job hit a six-year low in June, suggesting a labor market tightening that could give way to faster wage growth. The Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released on Tuesday gave an upbeat assessment of the job market that could sharpen the debate on the timing of the first interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve. The number of unemployed job seekers per open job fell to 2.02 in June, the lowest level since April 2008. The ratio was at 2.14 in May and is now below the...

What state is adding technology jobs at the greatest rate? My guess would have been Washington, where Seattle has become a center for cloud computing....[but it is behind]....No. 1, Texas, No. 2, Florida,

At 6.2%, the unemployment rate remains uncomfortably high.  And yet, companies are increasingly saying they're having a hard time finding workers.This statistic from the latest NFIB small business optimism survey really drives home the disconnect. Note the highlighted part of the text below:NFIB owners increased employment by an average of 0.01 workers per firm in July (seasonally adjusted), the tenth positive month in a row and the best string of gains since 2006. Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of the owners (up 1 point) reported adding an average of 2.9 workers per firm over the past few months. Fifty-three percent of...

Would you like to own a small business someday? If so, sorry — the Service Employees International Union would rather you didn’t. The SEIU has convinced the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to eviscerate the franchising model that many small-business owners rely on.Under the current model, these small-business owners pay for the right to use a corporate brand. The franchising corporation researches appealing products. It also does marketing to promote the brand. In return, the local franchisees agree to produce those products to fit certain price and quality specifications. The local franchisee handles all the hiring and employment.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story titled “Freelance Workers a Growing Segment of California Economy” lamenting that millennials working part-time costs California $17 billion a year in tax revenue. Apart from the Times' bizarre comment that young people are somehow shirking their responsibility to pay more taxes by working odd jobs to survive, the real issue is that higher tax rates, labor rules and anti-business regulations, and Obamacare mandates have made hiring millennials for full-time work much more expensive. Businesses are increasingly adapting to higher government costs burdens by hiring the over 65-year-old seniors who are exempt from ObamaCare.The...

While the labor market has improved significantly since the depths of the recession in 2009, high underemployment may be an indication that the economy is still struggling. As of the first quarter of 2014, 13.4% of the nationÂ’s labor force was considered underemployed, meaning they were unemployed, were working only part-time despite wanting full-time jobs or would like a job but had given up on actively looking. The underemployment rate has dropped from its peak of 16.7% in 2010, which indicates that the labor market has improved. However, underemployment is still well above its pre-recession levels. Based on underemployment data...

Entry-level work isn't what it used to be. Companies bruised by the recession have stayed lean by automating and outsourcing core functions while slashing training budgets and payrolls. But in an effort to cut costs, some companies also have cut entry-level jobs that serve as a crucial first step on the path to a professional career. And others have made the responsibilities for first-timers more sophisticated, raising the bar for new graduates, who are expected to arrive job-ready from day one. These developments may be making it more difficult for some young adults to gain a foothold in the labor...

The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fuelling optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday. In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 2 decreased by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 from the previous week’s total of 303,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 305,000 last week. Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 26 fell to 2.518 million from 2.542 million...

In 2009, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm hailed Suniva as a company that would help turn the state into the “epicenter” of manufacturing green energy products. She said Suniva was opening a photovoltaic plant in Saginaw Township that would create 500 jobs over the next five years. That plant never came to fruition, joining several other solar projects that didn't work out in Michigan. But the process is starting again with more job predictions and state subsidies if they come through this time. Suniva, a Georgia-based company, was going to invest $250 million in 2009 and would get a $15 million...

Barack Obama has raised the deficit by more than 7 trillion in six years. Let me repeat: Barack Obama has accrued a 7 trillion dollar deficit in only six years of office! And the man still has two years remaining! It’s nearly beyond comprehension and more than the first 42 Presidents combined; nearly twice as much George W. Bush who presided over the economic fallout from 9/11, a war on two fronts, the credit collapse and subsequently was besieged by Democrats as “unpatriotic” and “incompetent” for wasting taxpayer money. So why isn’t anyone being held accountable for such reckless incompetence?...

Another month, another case where the primary age group of the US work force, those aged 25-54, gets shafted. According to the BLS' household survey, while overall July jobs rose, if modestly less than the 209K revealed by the establishment survey, there was no joy for those aged 25-54: historically the most important and highest earning age group (in case anyone is wondering where all that missing average hourly earnings growth is) within the US labor force. As the chart below shows, while all other age groups posted a jobs uptick, it was those 25-54 that saw a 142K...