Free Republic

Just out from Macy's, which first said the following: "The 2013 holiday season was successful for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s as we offered fresh and distinctive merchandise, delivered great value to the customer and provided a robust omnichannel shopping experience... Even in a questionable macroeconomic environment with challenging weather in multiple states, the positive response from our customers during the holiday season is yet another vote of confidence that our well-established strategies continue to work for us." What well-established strategies one may ask? Why the following of course, which was also just disclosed in a separate news release "outlining cost reduction...

Thanks to the gun control blitzkrieg led by Democratic lawmakers last year, Colorado is about to take a hit in the wallet in the midst of an already anemic economy, and lose hundreds of private-sector jobs at a time when they can least afford it.

President Obama on Tuesday will meet with Americans who lost unemployment benefits at the start of the year, as the White House ramps up pressure on Republicans to extend the federal aid for three months. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez announced the White House gathering during a conference call with reporters, the latest attempt by the Obama administration to highlight the 1.3 million Americans no longer receiving federal unemployment insurance. “This was not only the right thing to do; it was the smart thing to do,” Perez said of the economic repercussions of halting the jobless benefits. “These programs don’t get...

In regards to the 1.3 Million still unemployed for 2 or 3 years and still begging for more,anyone want to take a guess where the bulk of them live? If we had a "Top 10 Laziest/Least Educated Towns" in America, odds are most of these 1.3 Million live there.These unfortunate/unemployed have had plenty of time to look for work and develop new work skills to get them back into the working class. And yet the left is making the GOP look so evil because they want to stop wasting billions on these people who should of found a job by...

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly nine months, casting a shadow on the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 379,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the highest level since March and marked the second straight week that claims have risen. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to fall to 334,000 last week.

The U.S. Army is sending roughly 19,000 active-duty captains and majors to a screening board for early separation this spring, the Army Times reported. Up to 20 percent of those screened — approximately 3,800 officers — could be scheduled to leave the service by the Officer Separation Board and Enhanced Selective Early Retirement Board. Officers with fewer than 18 years of federal active service will have their screening process done by OSB, and those with more than 18 years of service will see the E-SERB, according to the Army Times. “The Army’s drawdown plan is a balanced approach while maintaining

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose 68,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the largest increase in more than a year. The surge in first-time applications could be a troubling sign if it lasts. But it likely reflects the difficulty adjusting for delays after the Thanksgiving holiday. Economists will track the next few weeks closely to see if that trend is reversing, or if the surge is a temporary blip caused by seasonal adjustments. The recent drop in layoffs has coincided with a pickup in hiring. The economy has added an average of 204,000 jobs a...

Layoffs appear to be easing as the number of people who filed for unemployment claims last week dropped by 10,000 to 316,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. The number of initial unemployment claims has decreased in six of the last seven weeks, data show. The four-week moving average, a more reliable measure that irons out weekly volatility, fell by 7,500 to 331,750, the Labor Department said. A year ago, the four-week moving average was 401,000. California recorded the largest drop in initial jobless claims. Not adjusted for seasonality, the data show that claims in the Golden State fell by...

The Cleveland Clinic, which is ranked among the top four U.S. hospitals, is making layoffs and cutting its budget more than $100 million as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act, the Daily Caller has learned. “The cuts for 2014, about half of those are related to the Affordable Care Act…We anticipate a reduction in workforce,” Cleveland Clinic executive director of communications Eileen Sheil said in an interview with TheDC.

Caterpillar Inc said on Friday that it will close another plant and lay off 240 additional workers as it continues to respond to a sharp drop in demand for its earth-moving products from customers in the mining industry.

Five years on and President Obama still refuses to assume responsibility for his woeful economic record. The buck stops with Republicans, other countries, changes in the weather, etc.—anywhere but the Oval Office. Of course, it’s not new having a chief executive who refuses to admit failure. What is rare is having a news media that does not hold the President accountable. So let’s establish the record. At 2.2 percent annual growth, we are now witnessing the slowest economic recovery in generations. Even the Council on Foreign Relations says “the economic expansion following the 2008 recession has been the weakest of...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but an upward revision to the prior week's figure suggested the labor market recovery remained gradual. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 5,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to fall to 330,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, dropped 5,750 to 344,000.

The stampede for the exits continues at Jill Abramson’s beleaguered New York Times. On Tuesday, three high-profile names said they were departing the Gray Lady — media columnist Brian Stelter, Chief Political Correspondent Matt Bai and Sunday Magazine Editor-in-Chief Hugo Lindgren.

Joe Thallemer has been dreading the decision since July. But that didn’t stop the official word from being handed down this week. PolyOne Designed Structures and Solutions will close a Warsaw plastics factory next year, putting 110 people out of work. As Warsaw’s mayor, Thallemer knew the Kosciusko County operation at 3454 N. Detroit St. could be affected by the Cleveland-based company’s announced consolidation. The plan eliminates 250 jobs and closes six factories. But the document he received this week from the company extinguished his last hope of escaping the cuts. “I’d like to think we’d be able to absorb...

The drugmaker Merck & Co. will lay off 500 people from its facility in West Point, Montgomery County, between Dec. 23 and Jan. 5. Merck said on Oct. 1 that it would eliminate 8,500 jobs from its worldwide workforce beyond the 7,500 it had not yet cut from an earlier restructuring plan, but company officials were not specific about where and when. Several big pharmaceutical companies with operations in the area are cutting jobs. Message boards devoted to Merck have been full of discussions about which units would lose people, but official public notice of the 500 job cuts at...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Sunday's This Week with Stephanopoulos and the roundtable discussion. Stephanopoulos says, "This is kind of pile-on time now for the president. I want to show some magazine covers this week as well. You see the New Yorker cover right there. The president is trying to, with a huge cell phone, trying to get HealthCare.gov working. Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, 'Can Obama Reboot?' And Forbes -- this may be the most interesting one -- Vladimir Putin comes up on top of Obama as the most powerful leader in the world. What do we make of this," Jonathan Karl?...

Tony the Tiger is not doing so grrrrreat... Kellogg Co, the world's largest maker of breakfast cereals, says it will cut about 7 percent of its workforce and slash capacity by 2017, after reporting another quarterly decline in sales in its cereals business. The company's cereals business has been battling stiff competition from General Mills and private-label cereal brands. Increasing popularity of yoghurt, frozen egg sandwiches and other breakfast items has also hit the business. Sales at Kellogg's U.S. morning foods business, which includes cereals such as All-Bran, Coco Pops and Froot Loops, fell 2.2 percent in the third quarter....

Long Island College Hospital issued layoff notices to some 500 employees, effective Oct. 29. The majority of the workers are members of 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East and the New York State Nurses Association. "We are aligning our staffing levels to reflect the greatly reduced patient volume and limited services that are available at the facility," said a spokesman for SUNY Downstate Medical Center, which owns LICH. The unions will likely seek a court injunction to stop the layoffs. About 211 members of 1199 SEIU received the notices, said a union representative. The job titles were across the board. The...

<p>NATICK, Mass.—Boston Scientific Corp. plans to shed as many as 1,500 jobs worldwide, or 6 percent of its workforce, in an effort to cut costs.</p> <p>The company also said Thursday that its CFO is leaving. Boston Scientific is promoting its corporate controller to replace him.</p>

link only: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/health-care-cancelled-obamacare_n_4138129.html