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22 Jul 2010 11:17

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U.S.: The good and the bad of the latest unemployment extension

  • plus Unemployment checks will be retroactive to June 2, when the benefits first ran out. Yay lump sums!
  • minus The month and a half off will still count against those hitting their 99-week employment limit.
  • plusTemp work will now be allowed without a future reduction in benefits. Good for the temps!
  • minusUnemployment benefit checks will be $25 lower than before –including the retroactive ones. source

04 Jul 2010 11:29

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U.S.: Going green: Obama throws a bunch of money at solar jobs

  • $1.85
    billion
    the amount Obama is setting aside for solar energy
  • 5,000
    jobs
    the amount of work that’ll add to the labor force source

02 Jul 2010 10:04

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Biz: The Census: It’s no longer inflating job numbers, kids

  • 125k jobs disappeared in June, the first dip this year after months of increases
  • 225k Census jobs – specifically – went away in June (they inflated the numbers)
  • 9.5% the current unemployment rate, which somehow went down in June source

08 Jun 2010 03:12

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U.S.: Gulf oil spill: Obama plans to reopen offshore drilling soon

  • The blocking off of drilling affected thousands of Gulf Coast jobs. As bad as the oil spill is, the side effect of stopping offshore drilling to get regulators back in lockstep was nearly as damaging for the region’s economy. When the new regulations are put into place as soon as Tuesday, expect new rules on shallow water oil and gas drilling. Also, the White House is considering canning the liability cap on oil spills, because, well, hey, BP can afford to pay for the mess. source

04 Jun 2010 10:42

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Biz: Census jobs: They boost your figures, then go away fast

  • 411,000 the number of added May jobs that came from the Census alone (i.e. most of them)
  • 9.7% the current jobless rate; expect that to go back up when the Census goes away source

03 Jun 2010 10:37

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Biz: It’s the Census, stupid: Jobs show serious improvement in May

  • 513,000 the increase in non-farm payrolls in May, helped by the Census
  • five number of consecutive months the job market has improved source

02 Jun 2010 22:14

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Politics: Joe Sestak may have had a buddy in the employment line

  • Mr. Messina also suggested three positions that might be available to me were I not pursuing the Senate race,” Romanoff wrote in a statement. “He added that he could not guarantee my appointment to any of these positions. At no time was I promised a job, nor did I request Mr. Messina’s assistance in obtaining one.
  • A statement from Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff • Making him look like Joe Sestak, round two. Romanoff discussed working with the deputy chief of staff if he chose not to run for the Senate, but he chose to stay in the race. The wording of this suggests that the administration did nothing wrong, but the devil’s in the details. Oh, and what fun details to dig through! One piece of advice for nugget-diggers: Avoid Rahm Emanuel’s socks when digging through Obama’s seemingly smelly dirty laundry. source
 

30 May 2010 13:34

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U.S.: Unemployed people get lost in the Senate shuffle again

  • good The House decided to pass an extension on jobless benefits before the June 2 deadline.
  • bad The Senate didn’t, and they don’t go back to work until June 7, so no benefits next week, guys. source

20 May 2010 10:34

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Biz: Jobless claims went up this weekend; stocks freak out

  • +25,000 the jump in new initial jobless claims, the first jump in over a month
  • -3% the size of the average drops for the three major stock indexes source

13 May 2010 11:11

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Biz: Payrolls have increased, but jobless claims are still high; why?

  • People aren’t getting laid off, but jobs aren’t getting created. With a decrease in new jobless claims by less than 4,000 (there were 444,000 new jobless claims this week) against a backdrop of increasing payrolls, many are wondering why job growth isn’t faster. Some are suggesting it’s tied to the high unemployment rate. “There are more jobs being created, but the general trend is that businesses are still reluctant to hire,” said analyst Gary Shilling of A. Gary Shilling & Co. The data show that the issue is more a lack of hiring and not people getting laid off.” source