… in the Dallas Morning News, a survey released by the Hay Group revealed that about 57 percent of retailers are planning job losses for the 2009 holiday season, while another 40 percent said they would hire fewer workers.

The article said:

“Last year, retail employment grew by just 384,300 from October through December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compared to 720,800 retail workers hired during the 2007 holiday months. The 384,300 seasonal workers hired in 2008 …

Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Retailing

… construction subcontractor, Building Materials Holding Corp., will pay nearly $475,000 to a group of construction workers under a legal settlement approved by the bankruptcy judge overseeing the company’s Chapter 11 proceedings.

The article said:

“The lawsuit accused the company and its subsidiaries, including San Francisco-based SelectBuild Construction Inc., of violating state and federal law by not paying laborers higher rates for overtime work and by withholding payment for …

Tags: Building Materials Holding Corp Labor Dispute SelectBuild Construction Inc. Settlement

Permalink: /lawsuits/bankruptcy-judge-approves-settlement-for-labor-dispute/

According to an article in the Star-Telegram, the Better Business Bureau is warning consumers away from using debt settlement companies, which often worsen their financial condition and fail to deliver on their promises.

The article said:

“The Better Business Bureau at Fort Worth has just completed a report on debt settlement businesses and warns consumers that seeking their help is rarely a good idea. Debt settlement usually adds to the consumer’s …

Tags: Bankruptcy Better Business Bureau Debt settlement Financial services

Permalink: /debt_consolidation/better-business-bureau-gives-debt-settlement-companies-an-f/

According to an article in the Star-Telegram, young people between the ages of 25 and 29 and women over age 55 are being hit hardest by job losses and prolonged unemployment.

The article said:

“Places with high concentrations of people in their late 20s or nearing what they thought would be their retirement age are feeling the recession the hardest, as measured by The Associated Press Economic Stress Index… The groups associated with the highest stress scores …

Comment by Pete: … here is a map of California Unemployment in July 2009 …

While most of the news has focused on the plight of mostly middle-class class workers affected by corporate bankruptcies, hiring freezes, job losses and foreclosure, those in the working-class are being hit even harder by the downturn. One of the industries devastated by job losses and cutbacks has been the service industry, especially those related to travel. Many busboys, waiters, dishwashers, …

According to an article in The Dallas Morning News, across the country thousands of workers at struggling universities, factories, hospitals and even state facilities are being laid off without pay. The state of Maryland is temporarily laying off 67,000 of its 80,000 employees in an effort to save $34 million in staffing costs.

As sales drop, private industry is temporarily laying off workers. All of the workers at RV maker Winnebago Industries Inc. will take an unpaid …

Permalink: /job_loss_unemployment/thousands-of-workers-forced-to-take-time-off-without-pay/

… find new employment and employment that pays at least a living wage. And unfortunately, the number of unemployed older workers has increased dramatically.

The number of unemployed workers age 55 to 64 has nearly tripled since the recession began, to about 1.6 million of the nation’s 15.4 million unemployed as of November, according to the Labor Department. These unemployed job seekers say it is even harder for them to find work because of what they see as age bias.

Age bias in the job …

Tags: Bankruptcy Labor Department Seniors Unemployment

The latest job loss report released by the Labor Department is not encouraging.  There were 85,000 job losses in December and that’s after employers added 4,000 jobs in November.  It just seems that America’s workers can’t seem to get a break.  Even those who have been looking for work for an extended period of time remain unemployed.  There are 5.4 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits and that’s not counting the …

Tags: Bankruptcy Department of Labor Job Loss Unemployment

The Labor Department claims that the number jobless workers applying for unemployment for the first time is steadily decreasing; but could that mean a spike in bankruptcy filings?

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was above analysts’ expectations of 460,000 new claims… The number of people …

Tags: Bankruptcy Labor Department Recession Unemployment United States

… rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983.

The article said:

“The Labor Department said Friday that jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983, from 9.8 percent in September. The economy shed a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September, but more than economists expected.”

Despite many economists’ claims that the recession is ending, nearly 16 million Americans are unemployed …

According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, the Labor Department announced that new claims for unemployment insurance benefits dropped last week to a seasonally adjusted 521,000.

The article said:

“Despite the improvement, initial claims remain well above the 325,000 that economists say is consistent with a healthy economy.”

Also, there are still 8.9 million Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits, including those who …

Tags: Unemployment United States Department of Labor

… rose in the second quarter at the fastest pace in almost six years as companies squeezed more out of remaining staff to boost profits. Productivity, a measure of employee output per hour, rose at a 6.6 percent annual rate, the most since the third quarter of 2003, revised figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Labor costs fell by the most in nine years.”

The bottom-line is that companies are now getting more for their labor costs, but at what price to the worker?  …

Tags: Dallas Morning News Employment Labor Department Productivity Unemployment