Free Republic

Just as the internet radically changed how America conducts business, artificial intelligence (AI) is also making waves in the workplace by taking thousands of jobs. It’s an outcome that industry experts have warned would happen, and professionals across multiple employment sectors have already been affected.Beyond artists and content creators, AI is also impacting professionals in marketing, technology, translation, various levels of administration, and management. It has been a silent and ongoing trend for two years, but tech insiders say this is just the beginning.A senior software engineer at Microsoft, Nandita Giri, shared her thoughts with The Epoch Times on what...

For months, US economic data has shown resilience, with layoffs remaining low and business activity staying steady despite fears over policy uncertainty. But the tide may be shifting. Multiple data points this week have shown signs of slowing as a wide swath of tariffs has been in effect. On Thursday, weekly filings for unemployment benefits hit their highest level since October 2024, adding to a slew of data showing a cooling economy leading into the Friday morning release of the May jobs report. Earlier in the week, the Institute for Supply Management's Services PMI registered a reading of 49.9 in...

SUMMARY * Weekly jobless claims increase 8,000 to 247,000 * Continuing claims fall 3,000 to 1.904 million * Trade deficit shrinks by a record 55.5% to $61.6 billion The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased to a seven-month high last week, pointing to softening labor market conditions amid mounting economic headwinds from tariffs. The report from the Labor Department on Thursday also continued to show workers losing their jobs having a tough time landing new opportunities as uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policy leaves employers reluctant to increase headcount. Economists said technical difficulties...

Your college major can play a significant role in the type of job you'll find after graduation and the amount of income you can expect in a salary.But surprisingly, some of the most popular majors have high unemployment rates, according to data from the New York Fed. Majors such as computer science and physics had some of the highest unemployment rates, at 6.1 and 7.8 percent, respectively, despite being considered relatively stable STEM fields."A graduate's degree doesn't guarantee job security, and in some cases, it can make you overqualified and underemployed, especially when debt is involved," Kevin Thompson, the CEO...

There are at least six million job openings in the U.S., yet we have a record number of working age men not working. Maybe one reason is the Feds are still paying people welfare not to work. Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey of the Institute for Family Studies report: The 2024 Current Population Survey indicates that 31% of men ages 25-40 who are not working full-time collected some form of cash or cash-equivalent benefit in the form of food stamps, Social Security for disability, Supplemental Security Income, or unemployment insurance in the prior year. Such benefits are particularly common among...

Good news for millionaires and billionaires: They are currently eligible for unemployment benefits, whether they need it or not. That has been true since 1964 when the Department of Labor determined unemployment is for all eligible workers no matter their income level. In 2022, The Biden Administration paid unemployment compensation to 5,773 people earning $1 million or more, with nearly $58 million going to out-of-work millionaires. It is an average of nearly $10,000 per person. In 2021, a COVID quarantine year with extra dough baked into unemployment, 14,972 people earning $1 million or more received unemployment compensation. The Biden Administration...

New eye-popping data shows what is not often cited in the nation's labor force. Fresh numbers reveal that unemployment for Black workers this year is steadily rising, especially for Black women. A disturbing trend was identified in the latest information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Among other findings, the report disclosed that the jobless rate for Black women rose to 6.1% in April, a full percentage point surge from 5.1%...... "The unusual nature of this increase in Black women’s unemployment is a testament to and a direct result of the anti-DEI and anti-Black focus of the new...

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Head, Elon Musk, made a massive revelation while speaking to Lara Trump on her Fox News program, My View. During the segment, Musk explained how over 100,000 federal workers were taking unemployment while still collecting paychecks from the government. For context, DOGE was established during one of Trump’s first executive orders and charged with fighting fraud, waste, and graft in the federal government. Since the department started work, it has had a number of bombshell reports that have electrified conservatives. Such was shown when Elon Musk appeared on Fox alongside Lara Trump on May 2,...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is delivering a big win to businesses that have been pressuring her to pay off their billions of dollars in unemployment-insurance debt — but she’s stealing the cash from state reserves to do it. Hochul said Monday that the state will cover the roughly $7 billion debt still lingering for employers from the pandemic. The businesses had hoped federal money that the state received during COVID-19 would at least partly be used to help cover the deluge of unemployment claims spurred by the pandemic, as most other states did.+ But the state used the money for other...

Democrats have been trying to attack President Donald Trump over the economy. The problem with this tactic is that they keep getting refuted by the facts. Another big fact knocked out their narrative on Friday: the latest jobs numbers. Employers across the U.S. added 177,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in April. 🚨 CNBC: "Nonfarm payrolls — a GREATER 177,000. We were expecting... 133,000." pic.twitter.com/cs4TLSAvs1— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 2, 2025That's a "better than expected" number; they were thinking it was going to be around 133,000. Unemployment remained the same at 4.2 percent. Economist Stephen Moore pointed to the household...

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 177,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent . . .

News ReleaseSecretary Chavez-DeRemer warns states could lose federal funds if illegal immigrants allowed access to unemployment benefitsWASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer is urging governors to comply with President Trump’s directives ensuring tax dollars are not spent on encouraging or rewarding illegal immigration. In a letter sent today, the Secretary reminds all states that failing to fulfill existing legal obligations will result in the loss of federal funding through the Title III UI administrative grant.“Our nation’s unemployment benefits exist solely for workers who are eligible to receive them,” Secretary Chavez-DeRemer wrote. “Unemployment benefits are not a handout for...

U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer warned states of losing federal funding if they fail to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives on rewarding illegal immigrants with tax dollars, according to an April 25 statement issued by the Department of Labor.“Our nation’s unemployment benefits exist solely for workers who are eligible to receive them,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote in a letter addressed to state governors.“To qualify for unemployment, one must be able and available to work, actively seeking work, and be legally authorized to accept employment in the United States. Unemployment benefits are not a handout for those in our country illegally.”The...

United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt sentenced the following members of the same family: Evelyn Taylor, 41, of South Los Angeles, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison; Laron Taylor, 38, of California City, was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison; Latrice Taylor, 42, of Buena Park, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison; and Raschell Taylor, 35, of San Bernardino, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison. The defendants were ordered to pay $567,334 in restitution.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has revealed that California, New York, and Massachusetts are responsible for the majority of fraudulent unemployment claims in the United States, amounting to a staggering $305 million.In a statement posted Thursday via X, DOGE disclosed that the bulk of these improper claims date back to 2000, with California alone accounting for 68% of unemployment benefits disbursed to parolees on terrorist watchlists or those with serious criminal records.“California, New York, and Massachusetts accounted for most of these improper claims, totaling $305M,” DOGE stated. “California also accounted for 68% of...

After finding $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments since 2020, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified California, New York and Massachusetts as the primary culprits. The three Democrat-led states accounted for $305 million in improper claim payments, DOGE said Thursday. The group added that California also accounted for 68% of the benefits that were dispensed under former President Joe Biden to parolees identified by federal authorities as being on the government's terrorist watchlist, or who had criminal records. California, New York and Massachusetts all have a Democratic trifecta — meaning Democrats control the state House, Senate and the governor's...

The numbers: Some 224,000 people who lost their jobs applied last week for unemployment benefits, a very low number that suggests the U.S. labor market is still in good shape even as trade wars reverberate through the economy. Initial jobless claims excluding federal workers fell by 1,000 to 224,000 in the seven days that ended March 22, the government said.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent, ...

Ohio must try to get back around a billion dollars in pandemic unemployment benefits from the federal government and distribute it to Ohioans who have been waiting since June 2021. A Franklin County judge has ordered Gov. Mike DeWine to obtain those funds, which Ohio didn’t get because he ended Ohio’s participation before the federal program closed. “There were right around 300,000 people who were denied $300 a week for 10 weeks, so $3000 each. That's $900 million. This is almost a billion dollars," said Marc Dann, who filed the lawsuit in July 2021. Dann, a Democratic former state attorney...

Before the presidential election, many Democrats were puzzled by the seeming disconnect between “economic reality” as reflected in various government statistics and the public’s perceptions of the economy on the ground. Many in Washington bristled at the public’s failure to register how strong the economy really was. They charged that right-wing echo chambers were conning voters into believing entirely preposterous narratives about America’s decline. What they rarely considered was whether something else might be responsible for the disconnect — whether, for instance, government statistics were fundamentally flawed. What if the numbers supporting the case for broad-based prosperity were themselves misrepresentations?...