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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...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits at the end of August rose to a two-month high, but so-called initial claims are still at very low levels that suggest a low rate of layoffs in the economy. Initial jobless claims in the period running from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29 rose by 12,000 to 282,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the highest level since the end of June. Still, new claims have been under the key 300,000 level for the past six months, the longest streak since 2000. The average of new claims over the...

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...

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...

There are obvious problems with giving people “free” money.

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the trend remained consistent with solid labor market momentum that could keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates this year. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 277,000 for the week ended Aug. 15, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported. Economists had forecast claims slipping to 272,000 last week. A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the...

So question du jour (and I'm asking it in several places today: it was set off by the attached link and its' discussion here on FR. . ) Replacing low-skilled workers with automation, and now robots, has been an accellerating trend for over a century now, and really looks like we're soon going to hit the point where the curve goes hyperbolic. (especially with the push for $15/hour for minimum wage. . .) Given that, as more and more skilled jobs are automated out of existence. . . .what do we do about the now-unemployed, and likely permanently unemployable? So...

Did you see what just happened? The devaluation of the yuan by China triggered the largest one day drop for that currency in the modern era. This caused other global currencies to crash relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of oil hit a six year low, and stock markets all over the world were rattled. The Dow fell 212 points on Tuesday, and Apple stock plummeted another 5 percent. As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of September and October, the unraveling of the global financial system is beginning to accelerate. At this point, it is not...

U.S. jobless claims rose again for a third straight week but the numbers still indicated that the labor market was still strengthening. The amount of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose again from the predicted 270,000 last week, but the numbers are still indicative of a strengthening labor market, the government said Thursday. Initial jobless claims, cited when assessing the pace of layoffs, increased by 5,000 to 274,000 for the week ended Aug. 8, the Labor Department revealed Thursday, reported Reuters. Claims for the previous week were adjusted to show 1,000 fewer applications than previously reported. Even though claims...

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC on Thursday announced plans to lay off 15 percent of its workforce — or about 2,300 people — amid weak demand and sales in China. The cuts will be part of a "strategic realignment" after the company projected a net loss for the current quarter. The plan will trim operating expenditures by 35 percent and shift the company's focus toward premium smartphones, virtual reality and connected lifestyle products. "As we diversify beyond smartphones, we need a flexible and dynamic organization to ensure we can take advantage of all of the exciting...

If our government can't destroy all the private-sector jobs directly, it will do so indirectly by borrowing so much money the system collapses.Conventional economists and pundits are puzzled why jobs growth has been so anemic in this "recovery." Here's one factor they overlook: our government. In theory, our government is supposed to encourage private sector job growth. In reality, all the hundreds of pages of regulations are killing job growth, one small business and one job at a time.Correspondent/entrepreneur Ray Z. was kind enough to share his experience of trying to open a bagel shop and create six jobs: "For...

The [Center for Medical Progress investigative] tapes [about the collection and sale of fetal organs and parts] have generated a visceral reaction independent of how they were made or whether Planned Parenthood was making a profit. Rather, the widespread revulsion over the tapes arose because they unmasked the fact that, in our public conversation about abortion, we have so muted the humanity of the unborn child that some consider it quite acceptable to speak freely of crushing a child's skull to preserve valuable body parts and to have that discussion over lunch.... This newest evidence about the disregard for the...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July jobs report, and reported that, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, 215,000 jobs were added in July and the unemployment rate remained at 5.3%. From the official release on employment: Household Survey DataIn July, both the unemployment rate (5.3 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (8.3 million) were unchanged. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 0.9 percentage point and 1.4 million, respectively. Pretty much every employment metric was unchanged, at least when rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent. The U-3 rate,...

The number of people not in the labor force reached another record high in July, according to new jobs data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS reports that 93,770,000 people (16 and older) were neither employed last month nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks.

There is an economic crisis that isn’t much talked about, but which is responsible for a downward spiral that none of us want to see continue. Men are opting out of the workplace. That’s right. According to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, in the 1950’s about three percent of men between 25 and 54, which is still considered “prime” working age, were unemployed and not seeking employment. In the late 1960’s that had climbed to about five percent. In 2013 it was reported at 12 percent. And the last report placed it at 16 percent. These aren’t just men...

U.S. job cuts soared to a nearly four-year high in July as the military announced plans to reduce troop and civilian workforce payrolls, according to outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Employers based in the United States announced 105,696 layoffs last month, the first time monthly reductions exceeded 100,000 since September 2011. A year ago, U.S. companies announced plans to cut 46,887 jobs. The Challenger report comes a day before the Labor Department's crucial July jobs report. A weak report would make it less likely for the Federal Reserve to announce its first interest rate increase in nine years at...

WASHINGTON -- Slightly more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but their numbers remain near historic lows in a sign that the job market is healthy. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless aid rose 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 270,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped 6,500 to 268,250. That average has fallen nearly 10 percent over the past year, close to levels last seen in 2000. "Initial claims for unemployment insurance have been below 300,000 for 22 straight weeks, the longest such stretch since 1973," said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial...

After World War II, there was a golden era when Americans, especially those that had an education, could expect to have a job and keep it until retirement and retire with an adequate pension. Those days, which Allison Pugh, professor of Sociology at University of Virginia, refers to as the "20-year career and a gold watch" model, are over. Between a competitive global market, recession and job automation, and a switch to part-time and contingent workers, Americans now live in a culture of perpetual job insecurity, where they are easily laid off, at both high and low-level jobs, and can...

In 2013, when it was revealed that a developer was planning to purchase one of the four properties next to Mark Zuckerberg’s Palo Alto, Calif., home, and pitch potential buyers on the idea of living next-door to the founder of Facebook, the 29-year-old multi-billionaire purchased all four residential properties and leased them back to their current occupants, whose neighborly discretion he valued. Businessmen do business to make money. But occasionally, as Mr. Zuckerberg found out firsthand, business ventures have human costs. In a 2013 letter to President Obama and congressional leaders, more than 100 tech executives, Zuckerberg among them,...

Three universities contributed to a study that shows that children are faring badly in the Obama years, although they stop short of questioning the official unemployment rate. The 2015 Kids Count Data Book, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that “In 2013, nearly a third of children (31 percent) were living in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment. The child poverty rate has remained stubbornly high. At 22 percent in 2013, it was still several percentage points higher than before the recession.” The report goes on to note that “In 2000, 9 percent of children lived...