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overnment needs a mediator. The stakeholders virtually all agree the General Schedule (GS) system needs to be replaced but each needs to see something different for the planning to move forward. The July 15 congressional hearings made two key points clear: No one defended the GS system, but no one is ready to take the lead to develop a replacement system. With budget cuts through 2021, government could be stuck with a deteriorating work environment. Another point is increasingly clear — in the current political climate the GS salary ranges will not be increased by more than a nominal percentage...

In the week ending July 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 302,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 304,000 to 305,000. The 4-week moving average was 309,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since June 2, 2007 when it was 307,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 311,500 to 312,000. There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that invalidated three appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board has thrown hundreds of the board's decisions into question. The board that rules on labor disputes is now scrambling to determine the impact of the high court decision. At issue is whether board decisions made when the now-invalid appointees were participating will have to be re-decided under the current NLRB.

There is rarely a good time to do hard things, and America won't advance if legislators act like seat-warmers. When I learned that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had lost his Republican primary, my heart sank. Not simply because I think he is an intelligent and talented member of Congress, or because I worry about the future of the Republican Party. Like others who want comprehensive immigration reform, I worried that Mr. Cantor's loss would be misconstrued and make Congress reluctant to tackle this urgent need. That would be the wrong lesson and an undesirable national consequence of this single,...

New horizontal expansion includes government-funded Bachelors and Masters programs wherein students pay Digital Domain to work for Digital Domain Soon after my tweet I get an email from a new VFX blogger called OccupyVFX who was able to find audio of the presentation given by Digital Domain’s CEO John Textor. The whole 22 minute presentation is posted above but the surprising part starts around 15:40 when Mr. Textor talks about their new VFX school in Florida called Digital Domain Institute: Classes starting in the education space, what’s interesting is the relationship between the digital studio and the college. Not only...

Employment in Canada's oil sands sector expects to reach around 98,380 jobs over the next decade. More than 98,000 oil sands construction, maintenance and operations jobs will be generated over the next decade, according to a new report “the Oil Sands Construction, Maintenance and Operations Labour Demand Outlook to 2023”. “Accurate labor market information gives us a clear understanding of the workforce issues affecting oil sands development, and helps ensure that $172 billion in wages and salaries continues to generate economic benefits right across this country. This new information helps government and industry make the best possible decisions, and helps...

Big Labor's VA Choke Hold How Democrats put their union allies before the well-being of veterans. By Kimberley A. Strassel May 29, 2014 We know with certainty that there is at least one person the Department of Veterans Affairs is serving well. That would be the president of local lodge 1798 of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that mediates federal labor disputes, earlier this month ruled in favor of this union president, in a dispute over whether she need bother to show up at her workplace—the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg,...

Nigel Farage tonight claimed victory in the European elections, becoming the first 'insurgent party' to top a national vote. With results still being declared, Mr Farage broke cover to predict he will humiliate the Westminster parties, pushing Labour and the Tories into second and third. Support for Ukip has surged by more than 12 per cent, outstripping a more modest boost in votes for Labour, while the Lib Dems faced near-wipeout, with some calling for Nick Clegg to resign. Mr Farage said: 'Ukip is going to win this election and yes that will be an earthquake because never before in...

The Obama administration’s Department of Labor, which is supposed to represent the needs of U.S. workers, said Monday that the government needs to find ways to get more skilled foreign workers into the country.“We also need to fix our broken immigration system to encourage more highly educated foreign-born workers to come to the United States,” Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu said in a blog post. “If we are to compete in a global economy, we must continue to attract and retain the world’s brightest minds.” “Too many foreign students – many from Asian countries – come to the...

Now that Detroit has been sucked dry by Democrat criminality and union greed, the Chinese are eager to become America’s new wave of “homesteaders.” As Detroit continues to crumble and disappear in its current form a “Chinese Phoenix” may be rising out of the ashes. Chinese buyers are scooping up dilapidated homes throughout the once great Motor City in hopes of turning the town into a “little Beijing.” The question here becomes: How is this happening? The governor of Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder, has already made a formal request to Obama’s Homeland Security for 50,000 special immigration visas to accommodate...

Secretary of Labor Tom Perez dismissed today’s reported drop in the labor participation rate this morning on CNBC. According to the Department of Labor the economy created 288,000 jobs in the month of April, but the labor participation rate dropped 0.4 percentage points back to a historical low of 62.8 percent. Host David Faber put it to Perez directly, noting the labor participation rate drop is not due to people retiring given the participation rate for individuals 55 and older actually increased. “The civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 in April. The participation rate down by 0.4 percentage points, lowest...

The household survey is simply insane. Do not pay any attention to it. Do not make eye contact. Just calmly walk away. It’s simply not believable that the labor market contracted so violently according to one survey, while at the same time a separate survey of business establishments showed strong payroll growth of 288,000. Consider this: The jobless rate fell because 733,000 fewer people were considered unemployed. That’s the largest one-month decline since 1949, when unemployment fell by 920,000 when two large national strikes concluded. Nothing like that happened in April.

Technological change is not a tide that lifts all boats in our economy. The truth is that it’s more like a tsunami. It threatens to overturn all the boats and drown their occupants, sparing only the lucky few who have already reached safety in the hills. That’s the kind of admission you won’t often see here in the pages of Xconomy. The X in our name, after all, stands for exponential, a reference to the stunning pace of technological progress and economic growth over the past 75 years—growth attributable largely to advances in computer hardware and software and the organizational...

Unions and employers in France have come to a labor agreement that employees are not allowed to check their work-related emails once the work day is done, the Guardian reports. Although the country adopted the 35-hour work week in 1999, workers have complained about having to clock in at home. The deal, which is legally binding, affects 250,000 employees in the tech and consultancy industries, including workers at the French branches of Google, Facebook, and Deloitte. Under the new law – which does not have a particular time requirement – employees cannot look at their computers, phone, or anything else...

Alabama representative Martha Roby, a Republican from Montgomery, is concerned that the U.S. Department of Labor is targeting Southern vehicle and auto-parts manufacturers because of their failure to unionize. Automotive manufacturers in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi are all now subject to in-depth inspections, part of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regional emphasis program that went into effect on January 15. This increased scrutiny comes a year after the agency also issued a rule clarification in response to a question from organized labor, newly allowing union staffers to accompany OSHA officials on inspections to non-union sites. “I find the...

Day before yesterday I heard on the news that the National Average Labor Participation Rate hit a record low of 63.2%. I checked it on the Dept of Labor site this morning and that report was unavailable - even though it was a Google search result, indicating at one time it WAS available. Again, Obama cleans up his ugly mess.

(CNSNews.com) - The average annual labor force participation rate hit a 35-year-low of 63.2 percent in the United States in 2013, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The last time the average annual labor force participation rate was that low was in in 1978, when it was also 63.2 percent. Jimmy Carter was president then. The BLS bases its employment statistics on the civilian noninstitutional population, which consists of all people in the United States 16 or older who are not on active duty in the military or in an institution such as a prison, nursing...

HOUSTON, TX – The nation’s leading labor union will plan to spend $300 million in 2014 trying to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four other Republican Governors. More: AFL-CIO to Target Walker, Other Governors People’s World reported that the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday morning during a press conference in Houston that they would spend money trying to unseat Governor Walker. Other Governors that the labor organization is targeting are John Kasich (R-Ohio), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Rick Snyder (R-Michigan), and Rick Scott (R-Florida). The American Federation of Teachers backed the AFL-CIO’s plan. President Randi Weingarten said: “In many ways it...

Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich revealed in a press conference that the Government offered teachers unions a 22 percent salary rise during today’s bargain negotiations. The offer included a “perfect attendance” plus that could raise the increment to reach 26.8% if respected. “Teachers unions claimed 61% and 35% salary increments. This is impossible,” said the Cabinet Chief, and added that the Government “hopes to near positions with the unions and close a deal next Monday or Tuesday”.

Union Suffers Big Loss at Tennessee VW Plant Volkswagen workers rejected the UAW by a vote of 712 to 626. Neal E. Boudette Updated Feb. 14, 2014 11:44 p.m. ET The United Auto Workers union suffered a crushing defeat Friday, falling short in an election in which it seemed to have a clear path to organizing workers at Volkswagen AG VOW3.XE +1.10% 's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. The setback is a bitter defeat because the union had the cooperation of Volkswagen management and the aid of Germany's powerful IG Metall union, yet it failed to win a majority among the...