WASHINGTON — U.S. employers posted a record 9.3 million job openings in April with the U.S. economy reopening at break-neck speed. The number of job openings soared 12% from the 8.3 million counted in March. But employers hired just 6.1 million, up 1% from March, according to a Labor Department...
Survey: US Companies Added 202,000 Jobs in December
BALTIMORE — U.S. companies added 202,000 jobs in December, led by robust hiring in construction, trade, transportation and utilities, according to a private survey. Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that the bulk of the hiring was among smaller and mid-sized businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Hiring in November was...
668,000 Will Lose Food Stamp Benefits Under New Work Rules
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of Americans who rely on the federal food stamp program will lose their benefits under a new Trump administration rule that will tighten work requirements for recipients. The move by the administration is the latest in its attempt to scale back the social safety net for...
US Added a Solid 128,000 Jobs in October Despite GM Strike
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused tens of thousands of workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a five-decade...
Walters: UC Imposes Political Litmus Test
If you’ve never heard of the Levering Act, you’re not alone. Few Californians are old enough to remember that during the years immediately after World War II, a Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States and its allies generated a wave of popular fear about communist subversion....
Opinion: Gig Economy Workers Deserve Basic Protections That Come With Employee Status
Like so many California families, Karim Bayumi of Anaheim, his wife and two young children are doing everything they can to scrape by. Bayumi drives for a large rideshare company as his primary source of income. On March 11, Bayumi’s rate was cut from 80 cents a mile to 60...
What Should Fresno Be Thankful For? Let’s Start With 5.3% Unemployment.
One of the best things about Thanksgiving is that it prompts us to look to the bright side and count our blessings. Aside from my familial blessings, the thing I'm most thankful for is the turnaround in Fresno's economic trajectory. The city's unemployment rate in October was 5.3%. Ten years ago,...
Walters: Labor Shortage Could Slow California's Economy
California’s latest employment report is nothing short of astounding. The state’s unemployment rate, which topped 12 percent during the Great Recession a decade ago, declined to a record low 4.1 percent in September as employment rolls continued to expand, up 339,600 workers over the previous year. The state had 17.2...
Tax Cuts Deliver Huge Win for Corporate Sector
Following the rollout of the much-touted Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December 2017, most of us have wondered how the new policy is affecting various sectors of the economy. It’s still early, but the numbers from the first quarter of 2018 are noteworthy. First, let me clarify...
Business-Friendly Fresno Is a Must. Not An Option
There is spin. There is illusionary anecdotal information. And there are the unvarnished numbers. The unvarnished numbers say that Fresno is the eighth-worst city in America (out of 182) to look for a job. WalletHub assembled the rankings based on 26 indicators of job-market strength. Local job-market conditions accounted for...