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The other day, I was tooling around at the grocery store and, in line to check out, I noticed a clothes hamper in the shopping cart in front of me. I thought it was pretty nice. I said so to the person pushing the cart.Yes, I know it is awkward to strike up such conversations but I’m glad I did. I quickly found that the shopper was not buying for himself but for a customer of Instacart, an online ordering service. He was working and shopping as a customer himself.Intrigued, I asked other questions. He has a university degree, recently...

The uptick in the June unemployment rate along with significant downward revisions in the job additions for April and May are the latest signs that the economy may be slowing down under high Federal Reserve interest rates. The Friday numbers from the Labor Department showed the unemployment rate increasing to 4.1 percent in June from 4 percent in April, the third month in a row of 0.1-percentage point increases. Jobs added to the economy in May were revised down to 218,000 from 272,000 and in April to 108,000 from 165,000. While the economy added a healthy 206,000 jobs in the...

Tech companies and startups overhired, overspent, and overpromised — so what they’re doing now that the money isn’t coming as easily should be no surprise. Since 2022, the industry has laid off over 528K workers, echoing the downturns of the Dotcom Bubble and the Great Recession. Even with an improving economy and record stock valuations, jobs aren’t returning. This time, things might really be different.Peak software: ADP reports that the US employs fewer software developers than pre-pandemic — with a 17% drop since 2018. Job opportunities in traditionally stable tech fields are also drying up as software companies’ growth slows...

The number of continuing applications for unemployment benefits hit its highest level since November 2021 last week, furthering signs the labor market is cooling as unemployed workers struggle to find new jobs. New data from the Department of Labor showed nearly 1.84 million claims were filed in the week ending June 22, up from 1.82 million the week prior. Meanwhile, the 4-week moving average of weekly jobless claims ticked higher by 3,000 to 236,000, the highest rate since September 2023. LPL Financial chief economist Jeffrey Roach reasoned the data is "sending a warning sign that the labor market could be...

Despite President Joe Biden touting his economic “accomplishments,” a new report reveals that there are more foreign born workers in the United States than American workers. New Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this week found that there are 637,000 non-American citizen workers in the country. On the contrary, nearly 300,000 native-born Americans lost their jobs. Economist E.J. Antoni told The Federalist that the government has added a significant amount of jobs that are primarily only held by foreign born workers, leaving Americans struggling to look for jobs. “No wonder Americans view economy so terribly: they aren’t the ones [with]...

Yay! More jobs! Boo! No interest cut!In any event, that's the headline based on the numbers that came in this morning.The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in May, countering fears of a slowdown in the labor market and likely reducing the Federal Reserve’s impetus to lower interest rates.Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 272,000 for the month, up from 165,000 in April and well ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 190,000, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.And, not breaking the trend, there were downward revisions yet again to previous months' job numbers....Previous months’ reports...

The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has soared to nearly 80 percent amid the Israel-Hamas war that has been raging since October, according to a United Nations labor agency report released Friday. The war has caused a massive amount of job loss, bringing the unemployment rate in Gaza to 79.1 percent, according to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) assessment. Unemployment in the West Bank, which has also been rocked by the conflict, has reached 32 percent. The unemployment rate across both territories now sits at 50.8 percent. The unemployment numbers do not account for those people who have left...

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether.By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses embracing...

Rates on U.S. government debt fell further Monday morning after construction- and manufacturing-related data came in below economists’ estimates. In data released on Monday, U.S. construction spending fell 0.1% for the month of April versus economists’ forecast for a 0.2% gain. In addition, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers index came in at 48.7%, or below the median forecast of 49.6%, as the sector contracted for a second straight month. Traders are looking ahead to Friday’s release of the official jobs report for May, which is expected to show a 178,000 gain versus 175,000 in the prior month,...

Americans consistently voice their disapproval on the state of the economy in recent polls, largely because of the stratospheric cost of living. But apologists for the Biden administration point to the low unemployment rate of 3.9% in April as proof of the economy’s strength. Yet this is a hollow talking point since the real unemployment rate is likely between 6.5 and 7.7%. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who don’t have a job. That means the unemployment rate can change if either the number of people unemployed or the total size of the labor...

Economists are expressing concern over the increasing number of illegal immigrants in the United States, who they believe are obscuring the actual condition of the jobs market and the U.S. economy.etty Images)For the last few years, the headline employment figure has been impressive. The country has recovered the lost jobs from the government-imposed shutdowns during the pandemic and added a few million more, despite a climate of high inflation and rising interest rates.In 2023, the economy added approximately 3 million new positions. To kick off 2024, more than 800,000 new jobs have been added.The labor market data is critical as...

Tens of thousands of Americans have been made redundant at large companies this year. according to Warn Tracker, a website that tracks upcoming layoffs based on WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988) notices. The WARN Act mandates that employers conducting large-scale layoffs or closures notify employees as well as state government officials of job losses at least 60 days in advance. WARN notices must be served by companies that have 100 or more full-time employees or 100 or more employees who, in aggregate, work at least 4,000 hours per week, excluding overtime.

The words "intelligence" and "White House" aren't terms we use in the same sentence much lately, but today it's necessary, as the Biden administration's annual Economic Report of the President includes an entire section on artificial intelligence (AI) and the possibility of Americans losing their jobs because of an AI takeover.The White House released a report Thursday that found roughly 10% of the U.S. workforce is in occupations with a high degree of exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) with lower performance requirements that could leave them more vulnerable to displacement.According to the report, 20% of American workers are in occupations...

In 2022, Seattle's City Council passed an ordinance mandating a minimum earnings floor for app-based food delivery drivers in the city. The law finally went into effect in January 2024, but so far the main result has been customers deleting their delivery apps en masse, food orders plummeting, and driver pay cratering. The ordinance, part of a legislative package called "PayUp," was passed under the banner of protecting gig workers. By setting a compensation floor for app-based delivery drivers based on miles driven and amount of time worked, the ordinance operates as a (supremely complicated) minimum wage. The wage floor...

The jobless rate rose to 3.9%, up from 3.7% in January, even as employers added 275,000 jobs, the Labor Department said. Its monthly report is being closely watched for clues into how the world's largest economy is absorbing the jump in borrowing costs since 2022. The latest numbers sent mixed signals. Overall, analysts said there was little in the report to fuel major worries or raise fears that the economy would be harmed by higher interest rates. "Overall things still looking good," said Harvard professor Josh Furman, a former economic advisor to Barack Obama, on social media, while adding that...

Tonight the US Central Command denying any connection between humanitarian air drops in Gaza and civilian deaths... The ex-president of Honduras convicted by a New York federal jury on drug trafficking charges... In Rimouski, Quebec today Canadian farmers protesting over the costs of regulation and lower incomes... A report in the UK....an undercover British Army spy in the IRA terrorist organization decades ago in Northern Ireland save some lives but cost others... In Athens Greek parliament approving legislation to allow private universities... New leadership at the Republican National Committee... "I told him 'Bibi'--and don't repeat this--but you and I are...

link only, as it is from USA Today

Log onto Facebook. Before you know it, you’ll see ads from Temu or Wish, pitching cheap products. Or open your old email account, the one that you’ve had for years, so it gets the most spam. Every other message is an offer from some unknown store, selling the sort of thing in which a person like you just might be interested. Or log onto Amazon and look for something, anything at all. Twenty percent of the hits, maybe more, will be “sponsored” items, often from a brand you’ve never heard of. Of course, you can shut down the internet, close...

The January 24 Jobs Report dropped today and of course, our pals on the Left are doing what they do every month and acting like Biden is doing a great job! So many new jobs created! Unemployment down! BIDEN BOOM they say. And as usual, it's a bunch of horse crap. Big thanks to E.J. Atoni, Ph.D. for doing the actual footwork and showing the reality of our country right now. Hint, it ain't good. STOP going crazy about this jobs report: BLS themselves told us last month that data from Jan '24 and later months are NOT directly comparable...

Supporters of former President Donald Trump cite his economic record as a reason to vote for him, but that's a bit puzzling. Why it matters: Trump's economic record is only good if you leave off what happened from March 2020 to the end of his administration. Zoom in: When the pandemic hit, the jobless rate soared to a record 14.8% — a level not seen since the Great Depression. The rate did come down a bit after that, but when Trump left office there were fewer jobs in the country than when he got there — the first time that's...