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The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased last week, but remained near cycle lows in a sign that the jobs market was gaining steam. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 for the week ended July 25, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims for the prior week were unrevised at 255,000, which was the lowest level since November 1973. A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the data and that only claims for Puerto Rico had been estimated. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a...

A new report from the Pew Research Center says that the number of illegal aliens in the country currently outnumber unemployed Americans. The Washington Free Beacon has the details: The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as...

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as those who arrive with legal visas and remain in the U.S. after their visas expire.” Of those 11.3 illegal immigrants, 8.1 million are participating in the labor force. “Unauthorized...

The July jobs report could be a monster. On Thursday, the Department of Labor reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance plunged by 26,000 to 255,000, the lowest level since November 24, 1973. That's nearly 42 years ago, or when Richard Nixon was US president, or before Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras was born. The important thing, however, is that this data came during the week that the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts the survey for the monthly jobs report, which we'll get in just over two weeks on Friday, August 7. In July, the economy added 223,000 jobs and...

Black lives matter? Apparently not in New York City. A “Pregnancy Outcomes” report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reveals in 2013, more black babies were aborted than born in the city. A chart on page 7 shows 24,108 “non-Hispanic black” babies were born while 29,007 faced “induced terminations” — or abortions.

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to a solid labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 for the week ended July 11, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The decline reversed the prior week's rise and ended three straight weeks of increases. Claims tend to be volatile during the summer when automakers normally shut assembly plants for annual retooling. However, some of the companies keep production running, which can throw off a model the government uses to smooth the data for...

The best job I’ve ever had was cleaning deep fryers at McDonald’s at 4:30 in the morning. By “best,” I don’t mean most pleasant. Each morning, I would take a filtration device (basically a heavy bucket with a filter, on wheels) up to each deep fryer, empty the fryer’s oil into it and, while it churned away, I would scrub the sides and bottom of the fryer. After the filter was done working, I would pump the filtered oil back into the fryer and turn on the heating element to prepare it for that day’s cooking. By the end of...

If you’ve ever played the shell game – one ball and three half coconuts – then you understand the entire charade behind this so-called economic recovery: deception. Let me introduce you to subtraction, addition’s tricky friend! According to astute celebrities like Chris Rock, only in America could a black President lower the unemployment rate to less than 6%, reduce the price of gas to $2.50 a gallon, end two wars – despite accounting for 75% of all casualties and using the exact same timetable as George Bush – and still somehow be considered a failure. Hmm, well that depends on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New applications for U.S. unemployment insurance benefits rose last week to their highest level since February, suggesting some slowdown in the labor market recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000 for the week that ended July 4, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Thursday. Even with the rise in claims, the latest report marks the 18th consecutive week of new filings below 300,000, which is considered consistent with a firming labor market. The previous week's claims were revised to 282,000, showing that 1,000 more people filed than initially reported....

We shouldn't wonder why people are working into their 70s--we should wonder why anyone retires, assuming they'll still be receiving their full pension in five years.You may have seen a variation of this chart of employment in the U.S. by age group. This chart--courtesy of mdbriefing.com-- shows the number of those employed (with any kind of job--full-time, part-time, self-employed) as a percentage of the Civilian Noninstitutional Population (CNP), which includes everyone 16 years of age and older who is not institutionalized or on active duty in the Armed Forces. A number of striking features pop out of this chart: 1....

SEATTLE — Microsoft plans to announce a major new round of layoffs as early as Wednesday, as the company seeks to further cut costs in a shifting technology landscape. The layoffs are in addition to the about 18,000 employees that Microsoft said it planned to let go a year ago, according to people briefed on the plans, who asked for anonymity because the details were confidential. The new job cuts are expected to affect people in Microsoft’s hardware group, among other parts of the company, including the struggling smartphone business that it acquired from Nokia last year in a $7.2...

Is America hard at work? Or hardly working? I ask this because Thursday's Labor Department report for June found yet another 430,000 Americans of working age (16 and older) dropped out of the workforce. Over the last year, only 1.3 million Americans of working age have entered the workforce, even as the population of this same demographic increased by more than 2.8 million. Just over 1 million members of this group found jobs. That's right -- of the new additions to the working age population, less than four in 10 found jobs. The newspapers touted the reduction in the unemployment...

Presented without comment. * December 2007 is when, according to the NBER, the recession started. The same recession which also according to the NBER ended precisely 6 years ago.

CNSNews.com) - A record 93,626,000 Americans 16 or older did not participate in the nation’s labor force in June, as the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.6 percent, a 38-year low, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June, according to BLS, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, hit 250,663,000. Of those, 157,037,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 157,037,000 who participated in the labor force equaled only 62.6 percent of the 250,663,000 civilian...

You’ve probably heard this phrase: “There are lies, damned lies and there are statistics.” Let’s look at the latest statistics from the Labor Department and you decide whether we are being told the truth, lied to or simply misled by faulty numbers. On Thursday, Labor, in the first sentence of its June jobs report statement, said that “payroll employment increased by 223,000 and the unemployment rate declined to 5.3 percent. Thanks, but I’d like to focus instead on the fifth paragraph and the very last paragraph. First, the unemployment rate. It was down from 5.5 percent in May, so instinctively...

While the kneejerk reaction algos were focusing on the +223K jobs number reported by the Establishment Survey, few if anyone notched that the Household survey reported a decline of 56,000 workers in June. But what's worse, is that according to this survey which according to some is far more reliable than its peer, the composition of the US labor force once again deteriorated rapidly with part-time jobs added in June surging by 161,000 while the number of full time jobs tumbled by 349,000. Putting this number in context, while the total number of US workers has long since surpassed its...

If you like topline numbers, you’ll like the June jobs report, issued a day early because of the Independence Day headline. The US economy added 223,000 jobs in June, a respectable if unspectacular level of job growth that outpaces population growth, and the U-3 jobless rate dropped to 5.3%. It’s when one looks past the topline numbers that the problems emerge — chief among them the fact that almost twice as many people left the workforce as found jobs: Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau...

The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in June, and the "official" unemployment rate dropped from 5.5% to 5.3%.  But the labor force participation rate dropped to a 38-year low, and there were 60,000 fewer jobs created in April and May after adjustments.  It's absolutely amazing that four years after the supposed "recovery" began, more people have stopped looking for work than ever. The Hill: The number of people in the labor force fell by 432,000, a reason for the lower jobless rate, while 56,000 fewer people were employed, sending the participation rate down to 62.6 percent, the lowest level...

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Says Economy Is Nearing “Full Unemployment” …Real Unemployment Closer to 42.9% Jim Hoft Jun 30th, 2015 5:42 pm 19 Comments According to the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis the labor participation rate is at its lowest point since the Carter years. fred labor part rate Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer told a an audience at England’s Oxford University this week that the US economy is nearing “full unemployment.” Reuters reported: The U.S. economy probably bounced back to an annual growth rate of around 2.5 percent in the second quarter, and the labor market is...

A record 21.7 million American kids get free or reduced-price lunch during at school. But when summer vacation starts, the vast majority of them go without this essential, federally funded benefit. Fewer than 4 million kids -- or just 18% of those in the school lunch program -- are fed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's summer food program. While that's a record number for the 40-year-old initiative, many advocates and government officials say more needs to be done. "In the summer, when those school meals disappear, children find themselves hungry and with few options," said Duke Storen, a senior...