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He’s mad as hell, and he’s not gonna’ take it anymore: Sounding very much like a candidate for president, today Vice President Joe Biden spoke at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Pa. "I'm mad, I'm angry," Biden thundered, attacking the U.S. economy as "devastating for workers."  - Doug Ross: Joe Biden Blasts the Obama-Biden Economy Ripping on everything from the tax code (“Let me tell you something, man, the tax code's not fair. The wealthy aren't paying their fair share.”) to the destruction of the middle class (Biden said Tuesday that the middle class has been “buried” for...

698K Native-Born Americans Lost Their Job In August: Why This Suddenly Is The Most Important Jobs Chart After the Fed admitted over a year ago that the US unemployment rate (which in 2012 was supposed to be a rate hike "threshold" once it hit 6.5% and is now at 5.1%) has become irrelevant in a country where a record 94 million people have left the labor force, and with the Fed poised to hike rates even though US hourly wages have not only not increased for the past 7 years, but for the vast majority of the labor force continue...

167 Monday at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Vice President Joe Biden ranted about the economy as it pertains to the American labor force. Biden said, “We can’t let the changes that have taken place and crept in for the last twenty years— but they have been devastating for workers. I hope everybody in America has a chance to become millionaire and we need billionaires. But let me tell you something, man, The tax code’s not fair. It’s simply not fair. The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share. It used to be one America everybody was in on...

In honor of Labor Day, tell us a little bit about your first job.

In a Labor Day message, posted to YouTube by The White House on Saturday, President Obama called on Americans to remember what the upcoming holiday is really about. “I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about the real meaning of Labor Day – a day we set aside every year to honor the hardworking men and women who fought for so many of the rights that we take for granted today. “Among those rights, the president highlighted “the eight hour work day, 40-hour work week, weekends, overtime pay, a minimum wage, safer workplaces. health insurance, Social Security,...

The Obama administration is telling us that the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen to 5.1 percent, but does that number actually bear any resemblance to reality? On Friday, news outlets all over America celebrated the fact that the U.S. economy added 173,000 jobs in August. We were told that the unemployment rate has fallen to a seven year low and that wages are going up. So everything must be getting better for the middle class, right? After all, isn’t that what the official numbers are telling us? The financial markets are buzzing over this news because...

President and first lady Michelle Obama's bid to cut kid obesity through new demands for more costly but healthier food is financially crushing the nation's school cafeterias, forcing staff cuts, boosting waste and killing plans to buy new equipment, according to an industry association. A new survey from the School Nutrition Association reported that 70 percent of the nation's lunch programs have been financially "harmed" by the new low-salt, low-sugar menus and that a stunning 93 percent report fewer students buying the chow. "Meeting these mandates has harmed the financial health of nearly 70 percent of school meal programs surveyed,...

While the kneejerk headling scanning algos are focusing on the seasonally-adjusted headline monthly NFP increase which came in a worse than expected 173K, the presidential candidates - especially the GOP - are far more focused on another data point: the labor force participation rate, and the number of Americans not in the labor force. Here, they will have some serious ammo, because according to the BLS, the main reason why the unemployment rate tumbled to the lowest since April 2008 is because another 261,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force, as a result pushing the total number of...

U.S. employers added 173,000 jobs in August, fewer than widely expected, but the unemployment rate still edged down to 5.1 percent, its lowest level since April 2008, the Labor Department said Friday. Meanwhile, wage growth -- which has been stagnant for years -- edged up slightly more than anticipated to 2.2 percent. Somewhat troubling, though, the labor force participation rate continues to drop, which indicates more Americans giving up on finding work. The report was forecast to show employers adding 220,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate was expected to fall to at 5.2 percent, according to analysts polled...

Donald Trump says he has great affection for Ben Carson, but he’s not so sure Carson has the right experience to be president. The billionaire businessman and Republican presidential frontrunner explained why in an extensive interview with The Daily Caller that covered a wide array of subjects. The interview will be published in sections over the coming days. A Monmouth University poll of Iowa released Monday showed Trump tied with Carson for first place — though Trump is quick to note that it was just one poll and that he leads the field, including Carson, in all the other recent...

Moments ago Challenger reported August job cuts, which at 41,186 were a 60% drop from the 115,730 reported last month (the highest since September 2011), which however was driven by a one-time mass layoffs last month in military staffing. Putting August in its correct perspective, the number was 2.9% higher than the same month a year ago, when 40,010 planned job cuts were announced. What is troubling is that this marks the seventh month this year that the job-cut total was higher than the comparable month from 2014.What is worse is that for all the euphoria about initial claims...

Since the end of the Great Recession, Michigan has experienced the largest decline in unemployment of any state, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Michigan’s unemployment rate has fallen 9.6 points from its June 2009 high. The rate was 14.9 percent then, while the current rate is 5.3 percent (as of July). The state also leads the nation in the percentage decline of the number of people who are unemployed — a 66 percent drop over that same time period. Indiana’s unemployment rate fell six points, the nation’s second-largest decline after Michigan. Idaho saw a 55...

Leading into this year's Labor Day holiday, 52% of U.S. union members approve of President Barack Obama's job performance, down slightly from 56% in the first quarter of 2015 and one percentage point above his personal low among this group. At the same time, the average rating of the president among those who are not union members has been flat at 46%. .....Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted July 1-Aug. 30, 2015, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 25,795 working adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S....

Myles UdlandSeptember 2, 2015Deutsche Bank's Torsten Sløk thinks the labor market is more than strong enough to justify interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve In an email on Wednesday, Sløk writes that he continues to talk to clients who don't believe the US economy is anything other than weak, "not good," or on the verge of recession. But the indicators Sløk is looking at show nothing of the sort. In fact, the opposite. Last week, we highlighted charts from Sløk that showed, to him, an economy picking up steam. On Wednesday, Sløk turned his focus to the labor market,...

Following its disapppointing tumble in July (having missed expectations for 6 of the last 7 months), August ADP printed another miss at 190k against expectations of a 200k rise with last month revised lower. As the energy sectyoir continues to bleed jobs at a rate of 10k per month, ADP's Zandi notes that manufacturing jobs growth is all auto-related (which is extremely worryinmg given the size of inventories). Job groiwth was largely driven by small businesses (85k) as opposed to large business (40k) with Service-producing goods drastically outpacing manufacturing job growth (173k to 17k). Perhaps most notably, ADP jobs...

Go to original link to watch a heartwarming video -- how one brother has stepped up to help autistic young adults find dignity. The Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida, has a very unique set of employees that will provide you with a clean car you’ll feel great about. It is wonderful to see individuals with life long challenges find a meaningful way to participate in the everyday activities of life and get paid for it. If I had a car wash like this in my area I would definitely make it my go-to place for a clean car....

Unemployed individuals in America are more likely to go shopping, watch TV, or play sports on an average day than to look for a new job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Less than one in five of America’s unemployed, or 18.2 percent, participated in job search and interview activities on an average day, according to the BLS data from the American Time Use Survey. Yet 40.8 percent of the unemployed shopped on the average day by store, telephone, or Internet. Of those who shopped, 21.5 percent of those shopped for items other than groceries, food, or...

GE Oil & Gas is closing a plant in Lufkin and eliminating 262 positions at the plant and at one other facility. This is the third major job reduction by GE’s Lufkin Industries this year and the second at its Foundry plant, which is being closed through this mass layoff, the company said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission. Many oil field services companies have implemented major job cuts during the ongoing oil downturn. The reduction of 176 of the 187 jobs at the Foundry plant will begin Sept. 10 and conclude at the end of the month....

In the event that there are more “Vester Lee Flanagans” out there in the Untied States of The Overly Offended who're ready to snap because the world won’t recognize them as God’s gift to humanity, and yet, you’re not completely sold on the murder/suicide option: herewith are six surefire points to move you back into reality and officially remove you from being The Mayor of Mangina-town and into the rarefied air of a combobulated human. 1. Drop the “poor you” crap, especially, if you live in America. If you live in the USA you ... are ... not ... suffering....

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits decreased modestly in the week ended August 22nd, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 271,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 277,000. Economists had expected claims to dip to 270,000. With the drop, jobless claims partly offset the modest increases seen over the past weeks, although they remain above the more than forty-year low of 255,000 set in the week ended July 18th. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average ticked...