“Employment” on The Daily Caller

Claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to a three-month low, a sign the U.S. labor market may be starting to mend. (more)

This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides for their work on “search theory,” especially as applied to labor markets. The irony is that their award-winning work provides peer-reviewed justification for a commonsense solution to high unemployment. Continuous extensions of unemployment benefits have the paradoxical effect of paying people not to find work. (more)

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment remained at a high 9.6 percent in the month of September. Private sector job growth was positive, but lower than expected. If the current rate of job growth held steady, it would take 20 years for the United States to make up for all of the jobs lost in the recession. (more)

Tribune Co. chief innovation officer Lee Abrams has been placed on indefinite suspension without pay pending review of a companywide memo he sent to staff Monday that spurred a rash of employee complaints. (more)

California Congressman Brad Sherman (D) has introduced legislation to repeal right-to-work laws in the twenty-two states that have them, including Kansas. Right-to-work laws were created in 1947 as part of the Taft-Hartley Act, which amended the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. “Right-to-work” refers to the right of states to prohibit closed shops, a workplace that requires a worker to be a member of a labor union and to pay dues to that union. (more)

If you believe in a higher power, then I’ve got evidence for you that God has a sense of humor. Last week, the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 workers, had to extend its elections for national officers because…wait for it…thousands of ballots got lost in the mail. (more)

The final employment report released prior to the midterm election shows that the economy shed 95,000 jobs in September, providing no relief to congressional Democrats hoping to hold on to their seats. (more)

State universities have become the favorite of companies recruiting new hires because their big student populations and focus on teaching practical skills gives the companies more bang for their recruiting buck. (more)

Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay — or none at all. (more)

Recently, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund observed, “the politics of the next decade are likely to center on a debate over how to deal with a public sector that often seems to exist more for the benefit of its employees than its citizens.” (more)

I get a lot of emails from people with the above statement, usually followed by some sort of plea for help. I have a lot of sympathy for their situation. I can’t even imagine how painful it would be to not have a steady income, have no luck finding work, and have others depending on you to provide an income. (more)

STOCKHOLM — A senior Swedish prosecutor is reopening a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the latest twist to a case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other. (more)

A new survey by Hewitt Associates shows that companies are spending less on pay raises and variable pay awards in 2010 than they originally anticipated, but they are more optimistic about the future. (more)

The technology firm Lewtan is one of many companies that have been moving employees into open spaces with fewer private offices, lower cubicle walls, and in some cases, smaller work stations. With laptops and BlackBerrys allowing work to be done from anywhere, information being stored digitally instead of on stacks of paper, more work being outsourced, and all the layoffs in the past year or two, companies are shrinking their footprints. (more)

Jobless claims are again on the rise, returning last week to levels not seen since November 2009. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate remains at a historically high 9.5%, and analysts foresee more layoffs as the economic recovery stalls. Many job seekers are desperate for the secret to beating out competition and landing those now-rare positions. The answer may be as simple as the old saying: location, location, location. (more)

The Social Security Trustees recently released their annual report on the state of the Social Security program, and it’s not pretty.  For the next 75 years, the liability now stands at nearly $8 trillion.  Projected into the infinite horizon, this debt stands at $18.6 trillion.  The unfunded liability is the difference between the benefits that have been promised to current and future retirees and what will be collected in dedicated taxes. This means that the government would have to have such an amount in the bank today, earning interest, in order to pay Social Security benefits into perpetuity. (more)

Achieving higher levels of ethical conduct, as is the case of achieving all optimal positions, is a balancing act. For corporations, ethical attitude and sustainable success are achieved by striking a balance between the bottom line and the interest of the employees and the community at large. Employees’ ethical behavior and success, on the other hand, are achieved by balancing their personal interest with their companies’ interest. (more)

The economic news yesterday was dominated by two pieces of labor market data: new claims for unemployment insurance rose to 500,000 this week and small businesses accounted for 86 percent of job losses in the 4th quarter of 2009 (up from about 64 percent a year earlier).  Small business employment dynamics link these two facts.  But the White House has the diagnosis and policy wrong. (more)

The number of U.S. workers making new claims for jobless benefits rose last week to the highest level in nine months, a distressing sign for an already-weak labor market. (more)

Paul Krugman’s astonishingly incorrect column about Social Security’s finances is based on the premise that anticipated deficits in the Social Security program may never materialize.  A couple of years ago, he could have made that claim with a very slight chance of being correct.  This year, facts have already overtaken his weak argument: the CBO reported earlier this year that Social Security is already spending more in benefits than it collects in taxes, which the program’s own trustees confirmed last week. (more)