NEW YORK — U.S. private employers added 200,000 jobs in July, topping economist expectations in an encouraging sign for the labor market recovery, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 180,000 jobs. June’s private payrolls were revised up to an increase of 198,000 from the previously reported 188,000.
The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.
NEW YORK — U.S. consumer confidence pulled back in July as consumers were less optimistic about the outlook for the economy and labor market, according to a private sector report released Tuesday.
The industry group’s report was shy of economist expectations for the index to hold steady at June’s original reading of 81.4.
The expectations index dropped to 84.7 from 91.1. Still, consumers weren’t so gloomy about their current standings, with the present situation index rising to 73.6 from 68.7, the highest level since May 2008.
According to the latest numbers from the Census Bureau, the number of one-man and one-woman businesses in the U.S. has grown 28 percent over the past decade.
Totaling 22.5 million as of 2011, these “nonemployer businesses” — businesses that have no paid employees and are subject to federal income tax — now account for roughly “75 percent of all U.S. business locations,” according to the Census Bureau, and include everything from insurance businesses to real estate agencies to barbershops.
And there’s no sign that growth will slow down.
Today’s David vs. Goliath Battle
According to Forbes columnist Elaine Pofeldt, technology is helping many of these firms achieve success despite their modest size. These businesses are leveraging the Internet to reach new customers, and some are using platforms like Amazon.com to give them a global storefront.
Pofeldt expects that as more folks catch on to this opportunity, “we’re going to see a lot more of these firms in coming years.” But is that a good thing?
It’s obviously good for these sole proprietors, who are able to keep costs down thanks to helpful apps and cloud-based programs.
On top of that, small businesses have traditionally been “engines of growth for the economy and, particularly … job creators,” according to Nathan Sheets of Citi Research. In fact, since the late 1970s, small businesses have generated about 60 percent of new jobs. What’s more, most of this growth comes from these “young firms — new start-ups,” says Sheets.
Historically, a rise in small-business numbers has foreshadowed a period of economic prosperity. But the same technology that’s making one-man shops so easy to run may mean today’s small businesses might not have a similar effect.
Technology May Be Too Good
Today, retailers can automate their business processes using Amazon’s seller services so that Amazon (AMZN) not only handles the transaction, but manages inventory and fulfills shipment as well — eliminating the need for hired help.
On the other hand, “one-man” businesses like insurance companies and real estate agencies — the kind which usually do need additional bodies — are more frequently making use of contractors, who are responsible for their own taxes and benefits, and who can be easily let go on a whim if money gets tight.
Technology makes it easier to manage these pseudo-employees, with constant cellphone contact, virtual computer monitoring, etc., reducing the need for business owners to provide a physical office.
But Here’s the Scary Part …
As economic analyst Dane Stangler writes, “The U.S. economy has enjoyed positive rates of new job creation for the past thirty years largely because of the steady pace at which new firms come into existence…. …read more
John Amis/APIn this May 30, 2013, file photo, job seekers line up to register to attend a job fair in Atlanta.
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
WASHINGTON – Companies are increasingly confident the economy will grow at a modest pace over the next year and are hiring more, according to a survey of business economists.
Nearly one-third of the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said their companies added jobs in the April-June quarter, according to a report released Monday. That’s the highest percentage in nearly two years. And 39 percent expect their firms will hire more in the next six months. That’s near the two-year high of 40 percent reached in the January-March quarter.
The hiring pickup occurred even though sales and profit growth slowed in the second quarter.
Optimism about future economic growth increased. Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents forecast growth of 2.1 percent or more over the next 12 months. That’s up from two-thirds in the first quarter survey, released in April, and the most in a year.
The quarterly survey’s results echo much of the recent data tracking the economy. Growth has been slow in the past nine months, but employers have added jobs at a healthy pace. Many economists anticipate that the steady hiring will help accelerate growth in the second half of this year.
The NABE surveyed 65 of its member economists between June 18 and July 2. The economists work for companies from a variety of industries, including manufacturing, transportation and utilities, finance, retail and other services.
Among the findings:
– Only about 35 percent of the respondents said sales at their firms increased in the second quarter. That’s sharply lower than the 55 percent who reported rising sales in the first quarter. And 15 percent said sales fell, up from 9 percent in the first quarter.
– Profit growth also slowed: Only 21 percent of respondents said profit margins increased last quarter, down from 29 percent in the first.
– Only 19 percent of economists said their firms were raising wages and salaries, down from 31 percent in April and the lowest proportion since October.
– A small but increasing minority of respondents say that government spending cuts and tax increases have hurt their businesses. Twenty-six percent of the economists said their firms were negatively impacted, up from only 16 percent in April. Still, 74 percent said the government policies had no impact on their businesses, though that’s down from 79 percent three months earlier.
Looking ahead, companies are increasingly concerned about higher interest rates. That reflects the jump in rates that took place following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments in late May that the Fed could slow its bond-buying program later this year. Those purchases are intended to keep interest rates low.
In addition to sun, fun and sand, summer brings a lot of extra costs. Many of them come from taking care of your kids now that school’s out. Even if you don’t have to shell out for daycare or high-priced summer camps, for every hour that your kids are in the house, you’re probably spending extra money on air conditioning, electricity and food.
So how can you trim the high cost of summer? One answer is to let your kids help. Whether they’re learning how to write computer code, working a part-time job at the mall, or just weeding your garden, active kids are more likely to save you money. And it’s good for them, too: Just because they’re not in school doesn’t mean that they can’t use their time to learn about budgeting, personal finances, and the value of hard work.
Here are a few of our favorite ways to turn your teens into money machines.
Give them a jump start on college courses. College is expensive, and anything that you can do to cut down the time that your child spends at a four-year university translates into cash savings. With that in mind, you can get a great return on investment on summer classes at an inexpensive community college. While many require students to have a GED or high school diploma before they enroll, some community colleges are willing to make exceptions, depending on the class. For that matter, “massive open online courses” or MOOCs, are free and may help prepare your student for college-level coursework, so they can save on credits down the line.
‘Hire’ them for household projects. Parenting experts argue about whether it’s a good idea to tie allowances to chores. Critics say children shouldn’t expect to get paid for making a contribution to the household, while fans point out that cash can be one heck of a motivator. Regardless of where you stand, it’s worth noting that tasks like cleaning the gutters, painting the deck, mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds are time-consuming and expensive to outsource. If they’re not inclined toward physical labor, consider cutting a deal for food prep and cooking — not only will it save you time, they’ll learn a few life skills in the bargain.
Send them to computer camp. As anybody who has ever hooked up mom’s printer or defragged dad’s hard drive can attest, one of the best reasons to have kids is to get free tech support. And if they are already going to be stuck with the annoying task of helping their parents, why not help them buff up their talents so they can turn them into marketable skills later? Across the country, coding camps are growing increasingly popular. If you don’t want to spend …read more
Mark Lennihan/APJob seekers attend a health-care job fair in New York last month. A new poll finds that only 1 in 4 Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve over the next year.
By JENNIFER AGIESTA and TOM RAUM
WASHINGTON — For the third year in a row, the nation’s economic recovery has hit a springtime soft spot. Reflecting that weakness, only 1 in 4 Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve over the next year, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows.
The sour mood is undermining support for President Barack Obama‘s economic stewardship and for government in general.
The poll shows that just 46 percent of Americans approve of Obama‘s handling of the economy while 52 percent disapprove. That’s a negative turn from an even split last September — ahead of Obama‘s November re-election victory — when 49 percent approved and 48 percent disapproved.
Just 7 percent of Americans said they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always,” the AP-GfK poll found. Fourteen percent trust it “most” of the time and two-thirds trust the federal government just “some of the time”; 11 percent say they never do.
The downbeat public attitudes registered in the survey coincide with several dour economic reports showing recent slowdowns in gains in hiring, consumer retail spending, manufacturing activity and economic growth. Automatic government spending cuts, which are starting to kick in, also may be contributing to the current sluggishness and increased wariness on the part of both shoppers and employers.
Overall, 25 percent of those in the poll describe the nation’s economy as good, 59 percent as poor — similar to a January AP-GfK poll.
Respondents split on whether this was a “good time” to make major purchases such as furniture and electronic devices, with 31 percent agreeing it was, 38 percent calling it a “bad time” and 25 percent remaining neutral.
The economy’s recovery from the severe 2007-2009 recession has been slow and uneven. Even so, most economic forecasts see continued economic growth ahead, even if it is sluggish and accompanied by only slowly improving levels of joblessness. Another recession in the near future is not being forecast.
In the new poll, few say they saw much improvement in the economy in the last month. Just 21 percent say things have gotten better, 17 percent say they’ve gotten worse and 60 percent thought the economy “stayed about the same.” And the public is split on whether things will get better anytime soon, with 31 percent saying the national economy will improve in the next year, 33 percent saying it will hold steady and 33 percent saying it will get worse. Further, about 4 in 10 expect the nation’s unemployment rate to
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, which could further allay fears of a major setback in the labor market recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000 the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s number was revised to show 2,000 more applications than previously reported.
Despite the increase last week, which was broadly in line with economists’ expectations, claims held near a level economists normally associate with average monthly job gains of more than 150,000.
That could help to further ease concerns of a deterioration in labor market conditions after nonfarm payrolls posted their smallest increase in nine months in March.
Last week’s claims data covered the survey period for April nonfarm payrolls. Claims increased 11,000 between the March and April survey periods.
But given recent volatility because of the early Easter and spring breaks this year, claims are probably not useful in trying to gauge April payrolls.
Employers added 88,000 workers to their payrolls last month after a solid 268,000 increase in February.
While there is no doubt job growth has slowed in line with the overall economy, economists said March’s meager gains overstated the labor market‘s weakness.
The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 35,000 to 3.07 million in the week ended April 6.
WASHINGTON — As desperate as unemployed Americans are to find work, there are still some jobs that many would never consider applying for because they are seen as too dirty, too demanding or just plain unappealing.
But employers that struggle to fill those jobs — washing dishes, cleaning hotels, caring for the elderly — could soon get help now that business groups and labor unions have agreed on a plan to allow thousands of new low-skilled foreign workers into the workforce.
The deal, which still needs final agreement from lawmakers, is one of the last major hurdles to completing immigration overhaul legislation this year, one of President Barack Obama‘s highest priorities. It is expected to be part of a broader measure that would address the status of the 11 million immigrants who either arrived in the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas.
The new program, called the “W” visa, is crucial for companies like Medicalodges Inc., a Kansas-based company that wants foreign workers to help run its chain of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities and perform in-home care for the elderly and people with developmental disabilities.
“We’ve offered signing bonuses, set up tables in grocery stores, sent direct mail, posted job openings on the Web, even laundromats, and it’s still not enough to fill positions,” said Fred Benjamin, chief operating officer for the company that operates in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
“It’s tough work taking care of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia that may strike somebody or scream at people, may be incontinent, have difficulty getting in and out of bed, or need help feeding,” he said. “But we believe there are a lot of people from other countries who would gladly take these jobs.”
The average salary for nursing assistants is $9.50 an hour, while licensed practical nurses with at least two years of college training can earn about $16.50 an hour. But the company says it has little room to increase wages to attract workers because most of the patients they care for receive fixed Medicaid or Medicare payments.
The new W visa program would admit 20,000 low-skilled foreign workers starting in 2015 and could gradually grow up to a cap of 200,000 after five years. The number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and other data.
It would fill a gap in current law, which doesn’t give employers a good way to bring in such workers for year-round positions. The existing H-2B visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers is capped at 66,000 a year and applies only to seasonal or temporary jobs.
If other temporary worker programs are any indication, most of the foreign workers taking advantage of the new W-visa program would come from Mexico, Jamaica and Guatemala. About 80 …read more
WASHINGTON — From household wealth to spending at stores, many of the U.S. economy’s vital signs have recovered from the damage done by the Great Recession.
Home foreclosures and layoffs have dropped to pre-recession levels. Economic output has rebounded. And the Dow Jones industrial average is in record territory.
Not with unemployment at 7.7 percent and with 3 million fewer jobs than when the recession began. And while the housing market is improving, that engine of economic growth and job creation still has far to go before it can be declared healthy.
Perhaps the best way to think about the U.S. economy is this: After five painful years, it’s nearly back to where it started when the recession began. What’s different now is that the trends are much healthier. Gone are the fears that the economy could fall into another recession.
“We’ve made a lot of progress,” says Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.
The recession officially began in December 2007. It ended in June 2009. Here’s a look at ways in which the economy has returned to pre-recession levels and ways it hasn’t:
What’s Back:
Household Wealth: Americans lost $16 trillion in wealth during the recession, mainly because home values and stock prices sank. Those losses have now been reversed. Household “net worth” reached $66.1 trillion in the final three months of 2012, according to the Federal Reserve. That was just 2 percent below the peak reached in the fall of 2007. And steady increases in stock prices and home values so far this year have allowed Americans as a whole to regain all their lost wealth, though many individual families have yet to recover. Increased net worth is vital to the economy because it typically drives more spending. Net worth equals the value of homes, investments, bank accounts and other assets, minus debts such as mortgages, student loans and credit card balances.
Retail Sales. Just as household wealth has recovered, so has consumers’ willingness to spend more to shop, eat out or go on vacation. That trend has spurred job growth at retailers and restaurants. Retail sales totaled $421.4 billion in February. Adjusted for inflation, that was nearly 18 percent above the recession low and just 0.7 percent below the record level in November 2007.
Layoffs. The job market remains weak by some measures. But consider this: If you have a job, you’re less likely to lose it than at any other point in at least 12 years. That marks a sharp turnaround from the depths of the recession, when layoffs soared – from 1.8 million in December 2007 to 2.6 million in January 2009. In January this year, employers cut 1.5 million jobs – the lowest monthly total in …read more
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to its highest level in four months last week, suggesting the labor market recovery lost some steam in March.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 385,000, the highest level since November, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
It was the third straight week of gains in claims. Coming on the heels of data on Wednesday showing private employers added the fewest jobs in five months in March, the report implied some weakening in job growth after hiring accelerated in February.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications last week to fall to 350,000.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, rose 11,250 to 354,250.
A Labor Department analyst said claims for California and the Virgin Islands had been estimated and there were no special factors in the underlying state-level data.
While the claims report has no bearing on Friday’s nonfarm payrolls data for March as it falls outside the survey period, it hinted at some weakness in hiring.
Employers are expected to have added 200,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, according to a Reuters survey, slowing from February’s brisk 236,000. The jobless rate is seen unchanged at 7.7 percent.
Claims over the next several weeks will be watched closely for signs of layoffs related to $85 billion in government budget cuts known as the “sequester.”
The labor market is key to the Federal Reserve‘s monetary policy. This month the central bank said it would maintain its monthly $85 billion purchases of mortgage and Treasury bonds to keep rates low and foster faster job growth.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid dropped 8,000 to 3.06 million in the week ended March 23.
Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; editing by Andrea Ricci.
NEW YORK — U.S. private employers added 158,000 jobs in March, falling short of analyst expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 200,000 jobs. February’s private payrolls figure was revised up to an increase of 237,000 from the previously reported 198,000.
The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.
Reporting by Leah Schnurr; editing by Chizu Nomiyama.
WASHINGTON — Unemployment rates fell in 22 U.S. states in February from January, a sign that hiring gains are benefiting many parts of the country.
The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates rose in 12 states and were unchanged in 16.
Nationally, the unemployment rate slid to a four-year low of 7.7 percent in February, down from 7.9 percent in January. Since November, employers across the country have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month, nearly double the average from last spring.
States hit hardest during the recession are showing improvement. In Nevada, unemployment dropped to 9.6 percent last month, down from 11.8 percent a year ago. That’s the biggest year-over-year decrease among states.
One reason for the big drop is that people have stopped applying for jobs. Nevada’s work force — those working or looking for work — fell nearly 1 percent in the year through February. Only those looking for work are counted as unemployed. But hiring accelerated, too: Jobs in Nevada rose 2 percent over the past year.
Unemployment in California fell to 9.6 percent last month, down from 10.8 percent in February 2012. California and Nevada are still tied with Mississippi for the nation’s highest unemployment rate.
Florida’s job market has also rebounded in the past year. The Sunshine State’s unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent in February, down from 9 percent a year earlier. North Dakota once again held the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent. The state is benefiting from a boom in oil and natural gas production. Nebraska had the second-lowest rate, at 3.8 percent.
Overall, 42 states added jobs in February from January, and just eight lost jobs. The biggest monthly job gains came in Texas (up nearly 81,000) and California (up more than 41,000).
In the 12 months up to February, Texas gained nearly 294,000 jobs, and California 128,000. On a percentage basis, North Dakota reported the fastest job growth over the past year, rising 5 percent.
Mark Lennihan/AP Job-seeker Susan Paul shakes hands with a recruiter at a job fair in New York on March 14. A survey released Friday showed consumers are more upbeat about the economy, in part because of an improving labor market.
NEW YORK — U.S. consumer sentiment rose in March from February, as Americans discounted the effects of government budget cuts and instead saw continued healing in the labor market, a survey released on Friday showed.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment came in at 78.6, up from 77.6 the month before.
The final March figure was up sharply from the preliminary reading of 71.8, and above the median forecast of 72.5 among economists polled by Reuters. It was also the highest reading since November.
Consumer confidence jumped sharply in the second half of the month, erasing the decline of the first half of March, survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.
That surge came from two factors, he said.
“Consumers have discounted the administration’s warning that economic catastrophe would follow the reductions in federal spending, and consumers have renewed their expectation that gains in employment will accelerate through the rest of 2013.”
The survey’s barometer of current economic conditions rose to 90.7 from 89.0 the previous month and above a forecast of 87.8.
The survey’s gauge of consumer expectations rose to 70.8 from February’s 70.2 and an expected 62.
The survey’s one-year inflation expectation fell to 3.2 percent from 3.3 percent, while the survey’s 5-to-10-year inflation outlook was at 2.8 percent from 3.0 percent.
Reporting By Luciana Lopez; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama.
Carolyn Kaster/APThe long-term plan GOP budget plan, put forth by Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offers slashing cuts to domestic agencies, Medicaid and health-care plan subsidies while exempting the Pentagon and Social Security beneficiaries.
By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON — A familiar budget plan to sharply cut safety-net programs for the poor and clamp down on domestic agencies performing the nuts-and-bolts programs of the government is cruising to passage in the tea party-flavored House.
The Republican measure is advancing to the finish line in the House as the Senate starts a lengthy slog toward passage of a rival budget measure. It takes a sharply different view, restoring automatic cuts to agency budgets and increasing taxes by $1 trillion over the coming decade.
The dueling budget plans are anchored on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum in Washington, appealing to core partisans in the warring parties gridlocked over persistent budget deficits. President Barack Obama is exploring the chances of forging a middle path that blends new taxes and modest curbs to governmentbenefits programs.
The sharp contrast over the 2014 budget and beyond came as the House is positioned to clear unfinished budget business — a sweeping, government-wide funding bill to keep Cabinet agencies running through the 2013 budget year, which ends Sept. 30.
The Senate passed the bipartisan 2013 measure by a sweeping 73-26 vote Wednesday after easing cuts that threatened intermittent closures of meat packing plants starting this summer and reviving college tuition grants for active-duty members of the military. The cuts were mandated by automatic spending cuts that took effect at the beginning of the month.
Looking to the future, Democrats and Republicans staked out divergent positions over what to do about spiraling federal health care costs and whether to raise taxes to rein in still-steep government deficits.
The long-term GOP budget plan, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offers slashing cuts to domestic agencies, the Medicaid health care plan for the poor and “Obamacare” subsidies while exempting the Pentagon and Social Security beneficiaries. The measure proposes shifting programs like Medicaid to the states but is sometimes scant on details about the very cuts it promises.
The Ryan measure revives a controversial plan to turn the Medicare programs for the elderly into a voucher-like system — for future beneficiaries born in 1959 or later — into a program in which the government subsidizes the purchase of health insurance instead of directly paying hospital and doctor bills. Critics say the idea would mean ever-spiraling out-of-pocket costs for care, but Ryan insists the plan would inject competition into a broken system.
The cuts to domestic agencies like the FBI, Border Patrol and National Institutes of Health could approach 20 percent when compared with levels agreed to as part of a hard-fought budget deal from the summer …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
WASHINGTON — America’s lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession — but few are bragging.
As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of workers and employers shows.
The survey revealed that many people at the lowest rung in the workplace view their jobs as a dead end. Half were “not too” or “not at all” confident that their jobs would help them achieve long-term career goals. And only 41 percent of workers at the same place for more than a decade reported ever receiving a promotion.
Yet 44 percent of employers surveyed said it’s hard to recruit people with appropriate skills or experiences to do lower-wage jobs, particularly in manufacturing (54 percent). While 88 percent of employers said they were investing in training and education for employee advancement, awareness and use of such programs among the lower-wage workers was only modest.
Although President Barack Obama made it a national goal to “equip our citizens with the skills and training” to compete for good jobs, the survey shows a U.S. workforce that has grown increasingly polarized, with workers and their bosses seeing many things differently.
Seventy-two percent of employers at big companies and 58 percent at small ones say there is a “great deal” or “some” opportunity for worker advancement. But, asked the same question, 67 percent of all low-wage workers said they saw “a little” or “no opportunity” at their jobs for advancement.
Through last month, the economy had recovered only about 5.7 million of the 8.7 million jobs shed in the deepest downturn since the Great Depression. Low-wage jobs are usually the first to come back following a recession. While the outlook clearly is improving, economic growth remains anemic and unemployment is a still-high 7.7 percent.
Ronald Moore, 48, of Lebanon, Ind., is among those who have seen their situation improve. He started his own home-inspection company three years ago after he couldn’t find enough work as a truck driver. But “nobody was buying homes, so no one needed an inspection,” he said. “It was pretty rough in the beginning.” Now he operates a custom cabinet business, where business is starting to improve. Slowly.
To gauge the experiences and perspectives of lower-wage workers, the AP-NORC Center conducted two separate surveys. A sample of 1,606 workers earning $35,000 or less annually was surveyed last summer, while a companion poll of 1,487 employers of such workers was conducted from November through January.
John Moore/Getty Images In an effort to stem $40 million in losses, the parent company of Newsweek ceased publication of the newsweekly on Dec. 31, after nearly 80 years. Staff layoffs were included as part of the cutbacks.
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK — Years of newsroom cutbacks have had a demonstrable impact on the quality of digital, newspaper and television news and in how consumers view that work, a study released Monday found.
Pew’s annual State of the News Media report delivered what has become a common litany of grim business statistics. Television news viewership is down. Newsroom employment at newspapers is down 30 percent since a peak in 2000 and has gone below 40,000 people for the first time since 1978. Newsweek shut its print edition and Time magazine is cutting staff.
“These cutbacks are real,” said Amy Mitchell, the project’s acting director. “And based on the data that we’ve collected, they are having an effect.”
Government coverage on local television news has been cut in half since 2005, the study said. Sports, weather and traffic now account for 40 percent of the content on these broadcasts; yet that’s just the sort of information readily available elsewhere. That’s a recipe for future erosion, Mitchell said.
Forty-two percent of adults under age 30 counted themselves as regular local news viewers in 2006; last year that was down to 28 percent, the study found.
Cable news is increasingly cable talk, although it’s difficult to conclude whether that is because of financial considerations or the sense among executives of what viewers want. During the last five years, CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc. (TWX) has sharply cut back on produced story packages and live event coverage, the study found.
During the presidential campaign, reporters increasingly acted as megaphones instead of investigators, Pew said. More stories are simply reporting verbatim what candidates or partisans were saying, rather than using those statements as a starting-off point to explore an issue.
There are many more places that people can go for news or information now. The question is whether consumers are leaving prominent news organizations because they are not getting what they want, or whether these outlets can no longer afford to give them more because consumers are leaving, said David Westin, former ABC News president.
“Increasingly, it’s not just a question of what people want,” said Westin, who presided over an era of cutbacks at ABC News, owned by Walt Disney Co. (DIS). “It’s what people are willing to pay for.”
(Ross D. Franklin/AP) President Obama‘s is expected to nominate Thomas Perez as his new Secretary of Labor on Monday. Perez, an assistant attorney general, is shown in this 2012 photo along with Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Roy Austin.
By JIM KUHNHENN and SAM HANANEL
WASHINGTON — Seeking to fill yet another second-term Cabinet vacancy, President Barack Obama is set to nominate Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general, to be the next secretary of labor, the White House says.
If confirmed by the Senate, Perez, who has been head of the Justice Department‘s Civil Rights Division for 3½ years, would take over the Labor Department as Obama undertakes several worker-oriented initiatives, including an overhaul of immigration laws and an increase in the minimum wage.
Before taking the job as assistant attorney general, Perez was secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which enforces state consumer rights, workplace safety and wage and hour laws.
Obama plans to nominate Perez, 51, on Monday.
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In choosing Perez, the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Obama would be placing an already high-ranking Hispanic official in a Cabinet slot. Perez, a lawyer with a degree from Harvard Law School, would replace Hilda Solis, a former California congresswoman and the nation’s first Hispanic labor secretary.
Perez’s nomination has been expected for weeks, and comes with vigorous support from labor unions and Latino groups. But a newly released report by the Justice Department‘s inspector general is likely to provide fodder for Republicans who say the Justice Department‘s Civil Rights Division has been too politicized.
The report, released last week, said Perez gave incomplete testimony to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights when he said the department’s political leadership wasn’t involved in the decision to dismiss three of the four defendants in a lawsuit the Bush administration brought against the New Black Panther Party.
The report also concluded that Perez didn’t intentionally mislead the commission and that the department acted properly. Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Perez appeared to be “woefully unprepared to answer questions” from the Civil Rights Commission.
Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel at the AFL-CIO, said the report shows that Perez, who was first hired by the civil rights division as a career attorney under President George H.W. Bush, restored integrity to the voting rights program at the Justice Department.
NEW YORK — Encouraging news from the job market pushed the stockmarket up early Thursday, putting the Standard & Poor’s 500 index near its all-time high.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose seven points to 1,561 — just four points away from the record high it reached in October 2007 — before retreating marginally after 10 a.m.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 57 points to 14,513, putting the average of 30 big companies on course for 10 straight days of gains. The last time that happened was November 1996. Verizon Communications led the Dow higher, rising more than 1 percent.
Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, dropping the average number of weekly applications to 332,000, according to the Labor Department. That’s a five-year low. Economists had expected weekly jobless claims to rise.
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The four-week average, a more stable measure, fell to the lowest since March 2008, four months after the economy slid into the Great Recession.
In other trading, the Nasdaq composite rose 14 points to 3,258.
The gains were broad in early trading, though slight. Of the ten industries in the S&P 500, utilities and consumer-discretionary stocks were the only groups to fall.
In the Treasury market, the yield on the 10-year note rose to 2.05 percent from 2.02 percent late Wednesday. Better economic news tends to draw traders out of the Treasury market, and when bond prices drop, yields rise.
Among other stocks making big moves:
o. Coldwater Creek (CWTR) jumped 12 percent after the retailer of women’s clothing posted a loss late Wednesday that was smaller than analysts had expected. Its stock rose 39 cents to $3.60.
o. Men’s Wearhouse (MW) soared 14 percent after the clothing company said Wednesday that its quarterly loss shrank, helped by better sales. Men’s Wearhouse gained $4.20 to $33.26.
Protestors supporting immigration reform are shown gathered inside the office of Sen. Mark Rubio, R-Fla., on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Congress is pondering broad legislation to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. (Susan Walsh/AP)
By Alistair Bell
WASHINGTON — As Congress delves deeper into the immigration debate, members of both parties agree that an unloved system that gives temporary residence to nearly 300,000 foreigners in the U.S. is broken.
The program was introduced in 1990 to aid countries facing war or natural disaster, but immigrants who won the temporary status end up staying long after the crisis at home ends by rolling over their visas every 18 months.
Lawmakers and presidents have turned a blind eye to the loophole over the years so as not to lose Latino votes but they can no longer ignore it.
A congressional aide said a bipartisan group of senators is now studying changes to the Temporary Protected Status system, as it draws up legislation for a wider immigration reform sought by President Barack Obama.
Working out what to do with the mostly Central American temporary residents illustrates the breadth of the challenge in reshaping U.S. immigrationlaw, a complex web of regulations and exceptions that has not been overhauled since 1986.
“We have people who have been on temporary status for 20 years,” said Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Immigration Sub-Committee.
She favors finding a way for the temporary immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens. “Their life is here now and better we should regularize that,” she said.
But opponents of heavy immigration, many of them Republicans, want to limit the number of times a foreigner may renew a temporary visa.
On a better footing than the 11 million undocumented foreigners, the holders of temporary permits nevertheless struggle to hold down long-term jobs, face travel restrictions and live in fear of deportation.
Employers often balk at hiring an immigrant whose status — at least on paper — is temporary.
Stumbling Block
Victor Martell, a Salvadorean businessman in Chicago, says he lost the chance at a $120,000-a-year job because of his TPS visa, which he has held for 12 years.
Trained in SAP business software, Martell passed rigorous interviews at a well-known company and met with its management twice to explain an inventory management project he developed.
“I already had a start date and I went into HR to sign the documents and presented my TPS,” he said. The next day, the company told him by email that he did not get the job, without an explanation. “It was very obvious to me that after they saw a TPS, they killed it.”
Groups of lawmakers in both the Senate and House are struggling to agree on larger immigration issues including whether to legalize the status of illegal immigrants and how to …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Although President Barack Obama made it a national goal to “equip our citizens with the skills and training” to compete for good jobs, the survey shows a U.S. workforce that has grown increasingly polarized, with workers and their bosses seeing many things differently.
