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A Florida woman has been arrested for allegedly using a $15,000 PPP loan to hire a hitman to murder the 24-year-old woman she claimed stole her boyfriend. Le'Shonte Jones, a TSA agent at Miami International Airport, was fatally gunned down in front of her daughter, 3, outside their home at Coral Bay Cove Apartments in the Miami suburb of Homestead, on May 3, 2021. Her toddler was also injured. Jasmine Martinez, 33, is charged with first degree murder for masterminding the plot. Police say Martinez took out a $15,000 pandemic relief loan, which she claimed was for her one-woman beauty...

"Experts" predicted 1 million jobs would be created in April. The actual number fell far short, at 266,000. Republicans warned that overly generous COVID-19 relief benefits create a disincentive to work. The day before this disappointing jobs report, Bloomberg wrote: "In earnings calls and business surveys, executives often blame stimulus checks and generous unemployment benefits for hampering hiring efforts. ... "Friday's employment report, which is projected to show the economy added 1 million jobs in April, should offer new insight into this mismatch and whether it's deterring growth." When the numbers came in, Biden administration officials lacked no shortage of...

<p>The June blockbuster jobs report is more evidence that the economy is healing, but this remains a brutal period for the some 30 million still unemployed Americans.</p> <p>Nearly every industry -- with very few exceptions -- has been forced to impose layoffs, furloughs or dramatic reductions in hours for its employees. The one major exception has been the United States federal government, which has had virtually no layoffs since the start of the year. Since January, federal employment has risen slightly, in part due to Census workers added. Meanwhile, through May, the construction industry has lost nearly 400,000 workers; manufacturing has lost 750,000 workers; retail trade has lost 1.25 million workers; health care and education have lost 1.75 million workers, and the hospitality industry has lost almost 5 million workers.</p>

Writing in Forbes earlier this month, Chuck Jones, who covers technology, the global economy and the stock market as a contributor, made somewhat of a controversial claim: Though POTUS Donald Trump is earning high praise for his jobs-friendly economic policies, President Obama actually added more jobs to the economy than the current commander-in-chief. Specifically, Jones notes: Trump entered office on January 20, 2017, and starting with February 2017 he has been President for 29 months. Total job growth during that time has been 5.613 million or 194,000 per month with those results being helped by the tax cut. Working back...

Well, finally we are getting that "summer of recovery." The July jobs report released Friday was a blockbuster -- solid job gains across the economy, the lowest unemployment rate in more than a decade and a nice bump in wages. This was a report that transcends spin. You just have to tip your hat to American businesses and say, "Well done." Will Donald Trump get any of the credit? Even though nearly every poll for the past six years tells us that Americans care most about jobs and the economy (with terrorism occasionally taking over first place), the media...

In the '60s my parents opened a small diner near downtown Los Angeles. As a child, I watched my parents sitting at the kitchen table, discussing their plans for what they considered a huge expansion of the business -- hiring a dishwasher. But my parents kept putting off the decision, in large part because of a proposed minimum-wage hike. This would've made the additional employee, as I recall my parents concluding, "too expensive." This brings us to the impact of recent minimum wage hikes in California. The owner of a small restaurant told me that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti...

Below replacement rates, and no reason to expect improvement any time soon You apparently think Obama is doing a great job, so maybe it doesn’t matter that he isn’t. But if job creation means anything at all to the nation’s economic health - and in fact, it means a ton - he’s going about as bad a job as a president ever has. Liberals like to say, “Because math!” OK. When the population is growing faster than you’re adding jobs to employ all the new people, what’s that? One of two answers would be acceptable: 1. A crap sandwich; or...

Donald J. Trump unveiled a pledge on Thursday to create 25 million jobs over the next decade, but he offered few details on how he would achieve that ambitious goal as president. In remarks that may stir new consternation abroad, Mr. Trump told the Economic Club of New York that he would pay for his economic agenda in part by requiring allies to shoulder the full cost of American military resources deployed in their defense. Mr. Trump has long criticized the country’s defense arrangements, but on Thursday he drew an uncommonly straight line between his job-creation promises and the “billions...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index reached +32 for the month of May, the highest Gallup has found, by one point, since 2008. It slightly exceeds the +31 found in April, and the +30 found in September 2014. Shortly after Gallup began tracking job creation in January 2008, the index nosedived as the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the economy. After remaining in negative territory for most of 2009, the index slowly recovered, reaching +30 in September 2014. It then dipped slightly and stayed between +27 and +29 for six months. More recently, it increased two points in...

Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City have the highest Job Creation Index scores among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, based on employee reports of hiring activity where they work. San Francisco, Houston and Orlando rank just behind Austin and Salt Lake City in job creation. Many of the top-ranking metro areas are being boosted by growth in technology jobs, including traditional tech centers in San Francisco and San Jose but also emerging ones in Austin and Salt Lake City. These latter two may be increasingly attractive destinations for tech workers, given salaries that are becoming more competitive for the...

Liberals have this terrible and annoying habit of congratulating themselves for their intellectual heft merely because they hold liberal views. Once this arrogant notion reigns, it's tough for liberals to acknowledge when one of their own says something so remarkably untrue and stupid that it makes you wonder just how ignorant is the liberal really. At an event for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley in Boston on Oct. 24, Hillary Clinton told the assembled Democratic faithful: "Don't let anybody tell you that, you know, it's corporations and businesses that create jobs." This makes about as much sense as "Don't let...

For every job created in the state of Illinois, two people sign-up for food stamps—not exactly an encouraging statistic. The state ranked ‘dead last’ across America for job growth in 2014, according to the Illinois Policy.Not only is the economically-challenged state failing to create positions in the private sector, it actually lost nearly 6,000 jobs between January and July of this year. Since the financial crisis of 2008, Illinois has almost 300,000 fewer workers:  The pace at which Illinois has been creating jobs is simply not good enough for Illinois families, and policy mistakes, such as the historic 2011 tax hikes,...

Here's a series of charts from reader Tim Wallace on various aspects of employment, labor force, and population. The charts use seasonally unadjusted data, July of 2014 compared to July in prior years. click on any chart for sharper image Age 16 and Over Age 16 and Over Full-Time Employment Percentage Age 25-54 Age 25-54 Full-Time Employment Percentage Age 55 and Over Age 55 and Over Full-Time Employment Percentage Mish Notes Because of the aging workforce, the first chart in each series has a slight negative bias. For example: Note a relatively small decline in population in age group 25-54...

Brace yourself… Skepticism, doubt and criticism of Obamanomics (all of which are, undoubtedly, based in racism) will be cast aside. Why? Because, according to the 20-something-year-old White House intern that is in charge of the official White House twitter account, “Our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months.” I know, right? Pretty awesome statistic. (Gloss over the fact that the President is referring to private enterprise as “our businesses”.) But before you rush out to slap an Obama ‘16 sticker on your car (are those stickers available yet?), you may want a little bit...

America’s largest shotgun manufacturer has decided to move more of its business to the Republic of Texas. The news that O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. chose not to expand their business in Connecticut shouldn’t really come as a surprise. States that have zealously pursued more restrictive gun control policies have seen their historically loyal firearm manufacturers begin an exodus to friendlier locales. Mossberg has decided to move more of its manufacturing process to Texas in light of Connecticut’s recent legislative attempts to demonize their industry; such as implementing a confiscation registration process, and outlawing future sales of various firearms categorized...

Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index reached a new high in its more than six-year trend, registering +27 in May. The prior high had been +26 in the initial monthly measurement of January 2008, just as the recession was taking hold. The index is based on employee reports of hiring activity at their places of employment. The +27 index score for May is based on 40% of employees saying their employer is hiring workers and expanding the size of its workforce and 13% saying their employer is letting workers go and reducing the size of its workforce. Another 41% report no...

What is this incessant nonsense over Keystone XL? It’s a pipeline, for crying out loud. The United States already has 185,000 miles of liquid petroleum pipelines, 320,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines, and more than 2,000,000 miles of gas distribution pipelines. Using the latest steel, valves and other technologies to build another 1,179 miles of pipe – to move 830,000 barrels of oil per day safely from Alberta, Canada oil sands country and North Dakota’s Bakken shale territory to Texas refineries – should not be an earth-shattering matter. KXL would create jobs – in an economy that grew at...

The economy created 288,000 jobs in April, up from 203,000 in March. That’s the second best showing of the Obama recovery but still less than what is needed each month to raise employment to prerecession levels. Those results are consistent with an economy recovering from its winter slump but performing well below full potential—4 to 5 percent GDP growth and 400,000 to 500,000 jobs a month. Construction, manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, business and professional services, finance, health care, leisure and hospitality, and government employment were all up. Information technology registered a small loss. Hourly earnings made no gain, indicating...

President Barack Obama is challenging Congress to help him create jobs and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama points to the launch of two new high-tech manufacturing hubs and a competition to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges, mass transit, ports and railroads. Obama says Congress can help in both areas. …

Tumultuous economy? What tumultuous economy? If you’re in one of America’s wealth creation epicenters – Seattle, Boston, Dallas or D.C. as examples – you might not be feeling the brunt of a brutal labor market. But most of us are keenly aware of the lack of job creation. There seems to be no end to Americans’ acceptance of destructive, job-killing government policies these days, so hoping for a quick course-correction in Washington is probably not realistic. But here are a couple of things we can all start doing – now – to help ensure a brighter future for ourselves and...