Free Republic

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

While a slight improvement over last month's numbers, today's employment update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics presents a dismal picture for American workers. As policy makers search for the best remedies to strengthen our economic performance, they can't afford to overlook new firms and young firms. Unfortunately, in troubled economic times the language of recovery is too often tilted toward large, established companies or to "small businesses," a broad term that traditionally applies to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The conventional wisdom is that such businesses account for half of the labor force and are therefore the engine...

Folks, it's taking alot of gumption for me to write this post. But I'm swallowing my pride to confess that I am distressingly unemployed and wallowing in frustration and anger. Maybe there are others like me in this forum. I'm actually in that "lost" zone between the 10.2% that's claiming unemployment and the estimated 20%+ that has exhausted benefits or just plain given up finding work. Well I HAVEN'T given up. I apply to dozens of jobs per week off of Craigslist, Monster, CareerBuilder and the like, but nothing's landing. I am represented by half a dozen temp agencies, but...

Krugman: It's Time For The WPA Joe WeisenthalNov. 6, 2009, 12:08 PM We wondered if Paul Krugman would use this morning's 10.2% unemployment reading as an excuse to call for another stimulus. Indeed: You can make a pretty good case that just employing a lot of people directly would be a lot more cost-effective; the WPA and CCC cost surprisingly little given the number of people put to work. Think of it as the stimulus equivalent of getting the middlemen out of the student loan program. So why aren’t we doing this? Politics, of course: government is the problem, not...

Yow. The BLS employment report is out and it's not good. [snip] Our government, by choosing to protect the oligarchs and banksters instead of allowing the market to force the bad debt out into the open where it defaults has chosen to saddle our nation's citizens with unconscionable and unsustainable debt loads, both at a government and personal level. This was a critical error and, as I expected and predicted, it is now being reflected directly into the employment situation.

Jobless Claims Down, Productivity Soars! Joe WeisenthalNov. 5, 2009, 8:33 AM At first blush, we like this morning's economic numbers. New jobless claims of 512,000 was lower than the 530,000 last week, and the 525,000 analysts had anticipated.[snip]

Global Markets In Review: Reversal In Financial Markets Prieur du Plessis November 01, 2009 Rewind the movie to before the stock market lows of March 9: Stocks down, corporate bonds down, commodities and gold down, emerging-market currencies down, safe havens in fashion, including the U.S. dollar and government bonds. In short, risky assets closed sharply lower over the past few days as concerns mounted over the outlook for central bank policy and the sustainability of the global economic recovery, with investors only warming momentarily to the U.S. emerging from recession as shown by the Q3 GDP report (announced on the...

I have been job-hunting for some time now and applying for jobs online. I applied for one job in particular which is an office job and received the following email in response to my application and resume: "I have reviewed your resume and I am very interested in hiring you. Before I can setup an appointment, I would need your recent credit score. Your credit score is required because the position you applied for includes handling company cash and using a company credit card. Don't worry, if your score is low for a legitimate reason, you will have an opportunity...

I, for one, will not go down without a fight, nor will I go quietly. Last January, I lost my middle-management position in an importer which sold goods to television networks. I had to apply for state aid by going to the New York State Department of Labor to collect unemployment insurance. My weekly benefits were approved, but I frowned at the fact that they would be less than one third of my regular salary. I began my job search two days after being let go. Fast forward to March. After submitting close to fifty résumés and not receiving even...

Santa Rosa resident Nancy Roberts lived in England for five years in the 1970s and got her master's degree there. She wrote this note in the wake of a recent Chronicle article and SFGate blog posting about the underemployment rate -- a measurement that adds people forced to work part-time and discouraged job-seekers to the unemployed. California's unemployment rate is 12.2 percent. Its underemployment rate is 21.9 percent. -- Tom Abate Thank you for raising this question, which has been much on my mind. Here's the situation for some of my American friends. (Their names have been changed.) -- Todd:...

Jobless Recovery Not Going To Happen By Chris GaffneyOctober 23, 2009 10/23/09 St. Louis, Missouri – The dollar started the day off with a move up after a positive report on US leading indicators; but it gave back most of the gains as the trading day wore on. At the end of the day, only one currency moved more than 1% versus the greenback, with the pound sterling (GBP) dropping almost 1.5%. As just mentioned, the leading indicators for the US rose in September for a sixth straight month, giving confidence to those calling for continued expansion in 2010. The...

I’m unemployed and since June I have been filing weekly for my benefits. In mid July I began teaching 2 courses at a technical college. My pay was $2000 and the 2 classes which met from 6pm to 10pm and the quarter finished on Sept. 30th. When making my unemployment claim I’m asked on the web form how many days I work each week and I reported 2 even though I’m only teaching 4 hours each day for a total of 8 hours per week (the class meets 2 times each week for 12 weeks for a total of 22...

Remember it was a bill that was too important not to pass immediately without reading!The following is from Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI), the Ranking Member on the House Ways and Means Committee: 7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration's Projections Wednesday, October 21, 2009 The table below compares the White House's February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) with the actual change in state payroll employment through September 2009 (the latest figures...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Monday its economic stimulus had saved or created 250,000 education jobs, as it sought to push back against Republicans who contend the package was wasteful and had not worked. Faced with pressure to act to help spur job growth with the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, President Barack Obama is considering new steps to help the economy, on top of the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year. But those discussions are in the preliminary stages and Obama may be constrained in what he can do, given the record $1.4...

Markets and the economy look less cataclysmic than they did earlier this year. And so they should, following a torrent of monetary easing. But that doesn't mean happy days are here again. If you want a second opinion, don't look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Look at three other markets: bonds, gold and the dollar. All of them are flashing amber, or red. Take the bond market: Yields on U.S. Treasurys have collapsed to historic lows. The 30-year bond is yielding just over 4.2%, well below long-term averages. This is usually a strong signal of tougher times ahead. It's...

President Barack Obama has nominated a lesbian activist lawyer to serve as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In a recent White House announcement, President Obama nominated Chai Feldblum, a professor of law (gay studies) at Georgetown University who formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign Fund, to serve as one of five Commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In the mid-1980s, Ms. Feldblum clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmum, the liberal Supreme Court justice who authored the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. “She has also...

The Greatest Depression Is Coming by: Mac Slavo October 17, 2009 Mac SlavoGood times will not be returning any time soon. We continue to lose jobs month over month. And, while the statistics being released are showing a slow down, this is basically a fabrication. There are thousands of people falling off of unemployment compensation each week — none of them are reflected in the official numbers. Shadowstats.com estimates unemployment is above 20%. Take it for what you will, but these numbers are rapidly approaching the unemployment rate during the last well known depression. Credit is contracting. The last decade...

As companies begin unveiling their workplace benefits for next year, many employees are learning they will have to dig even deeper into their pockets for health coverage. Such price increases have become a fact of life during open-enrollment season, when workers sign up for their health plans. But the jump is expected to be steeper in 2010 than this year, as employers struggle with the impact of the recession and continually rising insurance costs. Employees will pay $4,023 on average in premiums and out-of-pocket charges next year, up 10% from 2009, according to a projection from Hewitt Associates, a benefits-consulting...

At 10% Unemployment America Still Doesn't Have Enough Workers Joe WeisenthalOct. 12, 2009, 1:10 PM Here's a little paradox for you. Even with unemployment officially sitting around 10%, studies continue to suggest that America is deficient when it comes to having a skilled workforce. A new survey by the Business Roundtable finds that many businesses say they can't get as skilled-enough workforce for what they need. Remember, we're in the middle of period where there's a record number of jobseekers for every listing. But of course, it's really not much a paradox at all. After years and years of a...

The September U.S. Employment Rate Is 90% Economics / Employment Oct 10, 2009 - 04:17 AM By: Robert_Singer The U.S. Department of Labor Official Employment rate in September 2009 is now 90% (Unofficial rate is 75%). And for those Americans who are still employed, they will find it harder to get that sweet deal on a new car because auto dealers won’t be competing with each other now that Brian Deese, special assistant to president Obama for economic policy made the decision (not the Chrysler bankruptcy judge), to close dealerships without regard to profitability. Deese, age 31, in his first...

Fascinated by the President's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the mainstream media largely ignored a Department of Labor report that highlighted the complete failure of the Obama stimulus package. On Friday, the Job Openings and Labor turnover summary showed that the number of new job openings in August fell not only to its lowest level since the onset of the recession, but its lowest level since the 1970's. The Department of labor reported that the number of new job openings in August fell to...

THE ECONOMIC GOAL of any nation, as of any individual, is to get the greatest results with the least effort. The whole economic progress of mankind has consisted in getting more production with the same labor. It is for this reason that men began putting burdens on the backs of mules instead of on their own; that they went on to invent the wheel and the wagon, the railroad and the motor truck. It is for this reason that men used their ingenuity to develop a hundred thousand labor-saving inventions. All this is so elementary that one would blush to...

HEALTH CARE CARE HIRING: UP EVERYONE ELSE: Not so Much Even Government Cut Jobs(!) Don't want to read too much into this but with unemployment pushing 10% and actual unemployment at around 17% (when discouraged and early retirements are factored in), it's a comfort to know that there is a place one can go to apply for a job--and, more importantly, they're hiring! HEALTH CAREFrom 'Troubled' Healthcare Industry Adding Jobs: Despite dire warnings from the Democrats that the American healthcare system is in crisis, the healthcare industry actually added 19,000 jobs in September. That increase stood in stark contrast to...

The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever Henry BlodgetOct. 3, 2009, 8:57 AM PrintTags: Economy, Recession It's now official: The country has lost more jobs as a percentage of peak employment than any time since the Great Depression. This includes the recessions of the early 1980s, even when they are combined. Those looking for a v-shaped recovery keep insisting that jobs will come roaring right back, the way they did in the 1948 recession (see the blue line in the chart from Calculated Risk below). [snip[snip]

Prepare For Huge Downward Revision In Job Numbers Oct 02, 2009 2:30 pm Losses this month were worse than the most pessimistic projections. Once again, today's job numbers show Collectively, Economists Are a Perpetually Optimistic Lot. Payrolls were expected to drop 175,000, the median of 84 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Forecasts ranged from decreases of 260,000 to 100,000. Jobs losses this month totaled 263,000, worse than even the most pessimistic economist projection. Actually, economists missed by another 13,000 because revisions subtracted 13,000 from payroll figures previously reported for August and July. Moreover, the unemployment rate hit...

About 824,000 more JOBS may be subtracted from the payroll count for the 12 months through last March when the figures are officially revised early next year, a Labor Department report showed today. The revision would be the biggest since the government started adjusting the numbers in 1991.

September Unemployment: ACTUAL LOSS 995kFriday, October 2. 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger in Macro Economics at 08:50 YOUCH. Headlines: 263,000 "jobs lost" and unemployment rate up to 9.8%. That's not good - there goes the "second derivative" argument. Weekly earnings are also down by $1.54, which is bad news too. But the Household Data is VASTLY worse than reported. Here are the month-over-month changes, and they're in the realm of frightening. (all numbers in thousands) Civilian Labor Force: 154,879 to 153,617 this month. Employed: 140,074 down to 139,079 this month. That's a loss of 995,000 jobs, not 263,000, and the...

The private sector cut 254,000 jobs in September, according to data in the ADP National Employment Report. The August figure was revised to 277,000 jobs lost, down from the initial estimate of 298,000. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected private employers to cut 200,000 jobs in September. ADP noted that the 254,000 private payroll cutback was the smallest since July 2008. Nevertheless, "employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is likely to decline for at least several more months, with losses continuing to diminish," ADP said. The job loss totals in September by business size were 61,000 (large), 93,000...

US Recession Nearing An End As Speed Of Contraction SlowsThe contraction in the US economy slowed dramatically last quarter in the strongest sign yet that America is on the verge of pulling out of its worst recession in decades. By James Quinn Published: 2:55PM BST 30 Sep 2009 US gross domestic product (GDP) shrank at an annual pace 0.7pc in the three months to June compared with 6.4pc in the first quarter of the year, fresh figures from the US Commerce Department showed on Wednesday. It was the US Commerce Department’s final revision to its GDP figure for the second...

Though CEOs of dozens of high profile companies are bullish on their sales prospects in the next six months, the additional sales won’t translate into more hiring or spending, a recent survey has found. According to the survey of CEOs by the Business Roundtable, 51% of respondents see sales increasing in the next six months, but only 13% expect to increase work force and 21% anticipate increased capital spending.

Another Reason We Won't Have A V-Shaped Recovery: Jobs Henry Blodget In order for the U.S. economy to go roaring right back to the 3%-4% long-term growth the bulls are looking for, consumer spending will have to rebound. Consumer spending is still 70%+ of the economy, and it's hard to get a supertanker cruising along at top speed if 70% of its power is removed. In order for consumer spending to come roaring back, however, one critical thing has to happen:[snip]

Welcome To The New Normal by: John Mauldin September 27, 2009 And What We Don't See The Statistical Recovery A Double-Dip Recession? Welcome to the New Normal Birthdays, New Orleans, and then the Road Trip from Hell Unemployment is high and rising. But if the recession is over, won't employment start to rise? The quick answer is no. We look deeper into the Statistical Recovery and find yet more reasons to be concerned about near-term deflation. This week we consider all things unemployment and ponder the need to create at least 15 million jobs in the next five years to...

Company Announces Plan For Baldwin (Mobile) Car Plant Bringing 6,000 Jobs Friday, September 25, 2009 By GEORGE R. ALTMAN MONTGOMERY — Hybrid Kinetic Motors plans a $1.5 billion car plant,employing nearly 6,000 workers, in Baldwin County within three to five years, company and state officials said Thursday. But state leaders said much work needs to be done — particularly fundraising by HK Motors — before the hybrid car plant can be built, and it is far from certain that the project will be completed. "We're waiting now to make sure that we have all the pieces in place, so we...

.....Last week the EEOC filed suit against Abercrombie on behalf of Samantha Elauf, a 19-year-old community college student from Tulsa, Okla., who is Muslim. The suit alleges that Abercrombie "refused to hire Ms. Elauf because she wears a hijab, claiming that the wearing of the headgear was prohibited by its Look Policy," or employee dress code. The suit says that Abercrombie "failed to accommodate her religious beliefs by making an exception to the Look Policy. These actions constitute discrimination against Ms. Elauf on the basis of religion."....

Nearly every day there's some statistic or factor that's bandied about to demonstrate why our economy continues to struggle. But in all the debates among economists and policymakers over the past few months, one group of people has been stunningly underrepresented -- and it's a group that may actually hold the key to economic recovery: entrepreneurs. The vast majority of new jobs during tough economic times are created by entrepreneurs, and since 1980, all net job growth has come from businesses less than five years old. Entrepreneurs nationwide know firsthand the transformative effect that starting a business can have on...

according to the National Employment Law Project, unemployment benefits are set to expire for more than 1.3 million Americans by the end of the year. .. Experts say nearly 100,000 Americans have already exhausted their standard and extended benefits.

Within the past year Sarah Schupp has hired five new employees with freshly minted college degrees. She fired one on his first day for inappropriate sexual comments to a co-worker. Another lasted a week before getting a pink slip. ..." you can't call in sick at 7:45 a.m. just because you don't want to come to work at 8 a.m." Jeanne Achille also was disappointed with the hiring of a recent college hire, promoted by a university professor as a "superstar" and fired after three weeks when it was discovered she spent hours online at work visiting a dating site....

I'm laid-off and looking for a job and I see time and time again job listings that state "Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer". Isn't it impossible to be both. Aren't EOE and AA contradictory ?

Real, as in, the people who are actually out of work: the recently unemployed. the ones who have given up, and the marginally employed … folks who work just a part time job just so they can eat. Not good.

Job Market Competition Unemployed per Job Posting How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here's the number of unemployed per job posting for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Pratt and Whitney is one of Connecticut's largest employers, and its planning to cut hundreds of jobs. Today the state stepped in to try and save those jobs. The Pratt and Whitney facilities on the chopping block are this jet engine repair plant in Cheshire and a smaller facility in East Hartford. Lawmakers and union officials are very clear on what's at stake. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Cheshire CT: A thousand jobs of high skilled workers in this state and their families. Another 2-to 4-thousand jobs around the state that depend on these proud workers. The additional jobs would be lost...

ARLINGTON, VA – Few states were immune from construction employment declines this July based on an analysis of federal employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. That analysis found that 47 states saw declines in construction employment, while only two states saw increases and one saw no change in construction employment between July 2008 and July 2009. “There aren’t a lot of places construction workers can turn to avoid the steep layoffs sweeping the construction industry right now,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer. “Sadly, construction workers are feeling the full impact of...

On May 12, 2009, the trustees for the Social Security system released their annual report, "The 2009 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds." Following release of this report, many media outlets were quick to report (or should I say regurgitate) the findings sited in the trustee's executive summary -- notably that Social Security payroll tax collections would begin to exceed benefits paid in 2016, a year shorter than had been forecasted in 2008. Although the news media were correct to convey this fact, such simplistic accounts...

FOR the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring. The accompanying charts show the job performance from July 1999, when the economy was booming and companies were complaining about how hard it was to find workers, through July of this year, when the economy was mired in the deepest and longest recession since World War II. For the decade, there was a net gain of 121,000 private sector jobs,...

Yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that a smaller than expected 247,000 jobs were lost in July. The pundits on financial TV and the main stream media hailed this as a wonderful development and signs that the worst of the recession was over. The stock market rejoiced as well closing up over 100 points at the highest level of the year. I have been telling my radio audience and you as well for months that the government fudges every economic number they can to make things look better. The one they distort (lie about) the most is the employment...

A report put out by Deutsche Bank is creating all sorts of business buzz. That's because the report predicts that 48% of all mortgages will be "underwater" by the end of 2011. A mortgage that is "underwater" is one where the mortgage is larger than the value of the house. These sorts of mortgages have a significantly higher incident of defaults. Currently, the number of properties that are underwater is estimated to be at 26% by Deutche Bank. That's bad enough but their estimation is just down right scary.

Banner headline only.

Click the source URL to find out about exciting new opportunities!

Here's the good news: We have this thread that will keep on growing. Here's the bad news: Not everyone knows about this thread. So, enough of this chit-chat; let's look at jobs and careers. Start here now.

I just received this e-mail from a career website similar to Monster, Hotjobs and Careerbuilder. I'd like to share the contents with FReepers who are looking for jobs in this recessionary period. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Research has shown us that the only hot job market in the U.S. today is the Federal job market. This was illustrated recently when the largest-ever federal job fair the "Partnership for Public Service" has held in Washington D.C. This job fair has grown tremendously over the last few years. For example two years ago there were 1,500 job seekers attending. Last year the number of attendies...