Good Week.
Initial jobless claims fell to 346,000, as did continuing claims, though the 4-week moving average rose.
OK, but not great.
Category: employment
4th F%$#ing Shirt This F%$#ing Years
Yes, I put a pen in my pocket without putting the cap on, and ruined yet another shirt.
I’m thinking that I may have to start wearing a pocket protector, which would make my transition to poster child for sex without partners complete.
Damn!
It’s Jobless Thursday!!
And initial jobless claims rose by 10,000 to 354,000, with the 4-week moving average rising 6,750 to 347,250, continuing claims rising by 63,000 to 2.99 million.
The number of emergency claims fell by 50,000 to 1.73 million, but much of that could be claim exhaustion.
So the numbers are a bit worse than they were last week, but still not too bad.
An unalloyed good number however is that pending sales of existing homes sales hit a three-year high, though I am worried that the purchase of homes as rental properties might be the latest bubble.
It’s Jobless Thursday!
And the numbers are not great:
The number of people who applied last week for new unemployment benefits surged to the highest level in a month and a half, indicating the U.S. labor market is still not healing fast enough to rapidly bring down the nation’s jobless rate.
Initial jobless claims climbed by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 360,000 in the week ended May 11, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to rise to 330,000 from a revised 328,000 in the prior week.
It should be noted that the 4-week moving average only rose by 1250, and continuing claims fell 4,000.
It’s Jobless Thursday
God news again, with initial claims falling by 4000 to 323,000, a 5-year low, with the 4-week moving average falling to 336,750, continuing claims falling by 27K to 3.01 million, and exgtended claims falling by 14.5K to 1.76 Million.
Monthly Jobs Numbers are Relatively Decent
176,000 jobs added to the non-farm payroll in April, which is somewhat better than natural growth in the labor force, and additionally, the adjustments to February and March added 100,000 to the NFP.
It should be noted thought, that this really is only a bit better than treading water:
The American economy continues to add jobs in proportion to population growth. Nothing less, nothing more.
The share of American adults with jobs has barely changed since 2010, hovering between 58.2 percent and 58.7 percent. This employment-to-population ratio stood at 58.6 percent in April. That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs. In other words, the United States economy is not getting any closer to recreating the jobs lost during the recession.
And here is the scary quote:
Furthermore, the projections were wrong. Participation has actually risen among people older than 55. The decline is entirely driven by younger dropouts.
So, better, but our economy still sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.
It’s Jobless Thursday!!!!
Good news everyone!The initial jobless claim numbers came out today, and the numbers are pretty good:
Initial jobless claims — a rough gauge of layoffs — sank by 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 324,000 in the week ended April 27, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the lowest level since January 2008.
………
Meanwhile, the four-week average of new claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell by 16,000 to 342,250. That’s the smallest amount in six weeks.
The number of people already receiving benefits, known as continuing claims, rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.02 million in the week ended April 20. Most states typically offer 26 weeks of unemployment pay.
Decent numbers.
Awwww!!! Rick Perry’ Feelings are Hurt!!!!
Texas’ Business Climate in a Nutshell
So, following the fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people, Sacramento Bee cartoonist Jack Ohman accurately depicted the political-industrial of Texas, and Governor Rick Perry demanded an apology, and his butt boy/Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst demanded that he be fired.
It really does amaze me just how much the “Real Men” of the Republican Party whine like little bitches when someone makes a reasoned critique of their policies.
It’s more than wimpy, it’s stupid.
No one but a few people in central California would have known about this cartoon if he hadn’t made an issue of it, but he just couldn’t let it slide.
I should thank him. I never would have seen the cartoon but for his foot in his mouth.
It’s Jobless Thursday!
Initial claims fell to 339,000, the 4-week moving average fell to 357,500, and continuing claims fell by 93K to 3 million.
Good numbers.
Nearly half of all new IT jobs will go to guestworkers
Surprise, surprise. When you look at the immigration bill proposed by the “Gang of 8”, it allocates half of all new IT jobs to guest workers:
S. 744, the comprehensive immigration bill introduced by the Senate “Gang of Eight,” dramatically increases the number of skilled guestworker visas available to employers in information technology (IT) and other sectors. The principal IT guestworker visa is the H-1B (49 percent of H-1B holders work in IT), which under current law is capped for private-sector employers at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for foreign graduates of U.S. universities. With certain exceptions, S. 744 will raise the cap initially to 115,000 and if strong demand continues, to 180,000 per year, with an additional 25,000 reserved for foreign graduates. Thus, under the likely high-demand scenario, we would have 120,000 more H-1Bs annually than we do now, and 58,800 of them would be in IT.
We can reasonably predict, therefore, that guestworkers will fill nearly half of all IT job openings for which a college degree is required each year. In a new report, Guestworkers in the High-Skill U.S. Labor Market, Hal Salzman, Daniel Kuehn, and B. Lindsay Lowell calculate that in 2011 there were approximately 483,000 IT job openings for college grads filled in the last year (including those with advanced degrees), a third of which were filled by newly arriving guestworkers in three different guestworker programs. As the figure shows, if S.744 is enacted and the maximum number of H-1B workers were allowed to enter and work in the United States, nearly 220,000 new job openings in IT would be filled by guestworkers—almost half the annual total as of 2011.
I guess that skilled IT positions are yet another “Job that Americans won’t do”.
Seriously, if we want things like H1B and guest workers not to completely f%$# everyone outside of the 1%, we need to make sure that they are limited to truly essential and unique skill set.
The easiest way that you do this by making it more expensive than hiring an American. You can jack up the application fees, possibly by using an auction system and a limited supply.
H/t PP at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
It’s Jobless Thursday
Initial claims were much better than last week, down 42K to 346,000, not surprising, as last week’s numbers were horrible.
The Non Farm Payroll Numbers Sucks
Only 88,000 Jobs were created:
American employers added an estimated 88,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, compared with 268,000 in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. It was the slowest pace of growth since last June, and less than half of what economists had expected.
It also was the start of a third consecutive spring in which employers tapered off their hiring after a healthy start to the year. Slowdowns in the previous two years could be attributed to flare-ups in the European debt crisis, but this time the cause is less obvious. The recent payroll tax increase or other fiscal tightening in Washington could be partly to blame for the sudden retreat in hiring, but neither seems to be showing up much yet in other relevant economic data.
“People were starting to believe the economy was really picking up steam, and desperately wanted this report to be better,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at MFR Inc. “But that didn’t happen.”
Paul Krugman understands what is causing this:
That deficit has declined from 5.6 percent of potential GDP in 2011 to 2.5 percent in 2013 — that’s 3 percent of GDP, which is a lot of austerity. Not all of that cut has even hit yet — the sequester isn’t in the macro numbers yet — but the rise in the payroll tax is very clearly driving the latest bad numbers, which show big declines in retail.
This is Obama policies that we are talking about largely. Notwithstanding the posturing by Republicans, all they really want is to cut the social safety net and cut taxes for rich guys.
Obama is the one who really wants to cut the deficit in the middle of a recession.
His “Grand Bargain” is all about balancing the budget in the relatively near future while bridging the difference parties.
It is a dangerous delusion.
High Tech Eutopianism Fail
The fact that the Silicon Valley icon Michael Arrington’s behavior towards woman has been ignored and covered up for years puts the lie to the idea that somehow the culture of high tech will in and of itself to create a better world and a better workplace:
Everyone knows Silicon Valley is a boys’ club. The needs of women are often ignored when it comes to business, but the story developing around the alleged rape and brutalization of a girlfriend by a Silicon Valley hotshot indicates that lack of effort carries into the personal realm as well.
Michael Arrington, tech magnate and founder of TechCrunch, has long been known for temper tantrums. His former girlfriend, Jenn Allen — the CEO and founder of the start-up RTist.com — recently took to Facebook to accuse him of some nasty stuff. Allegedly, he was constantly violent, raped her and another woman, and threatened to “murder” her if she told a soul.
That is disturbing, yes. But what is most disturbing is that many people in Silicon Valley had heard about his alleged violent tendencies towards women for years and never said anything, fearing repercussions by the constantly angry man who controlled so much in the land of tech.
Arrington’s legendary temper and deep connections in Silicon Valley and the most powerful media outlets earned him the ability to do whatever he pleased with no fear of being confronted. While this apparent bully might have been stopped years ago, bystanders preferred their comfortable lives in Silicon Valley while others suffered terribly at Arrington’s hand.
This is not surprising.
The difference between the Silicon Valley and any other industry is simply the technology they use.
The underlying human aspects are the same as in any other industry.
Sucks
It’s jobless Thursday, and initial claims rose by 28,000 to 385,000, as did the 4-week moving average, though continuing claims fell slightly.
The monthly non-farm payroll numbers come out tomorrow, and I do not expect them to be pretty.
Misplaced Priorities
I understand that they have problems getting their games out on time, and getting them out finished, they buy up companies and destroy their ideas, and they routinely treat their employers like galley slaves, but considering the excesses of they banksters, or the the slapdash contracting at KBR (which literally electrocuted soldiers in the shower), it is a bit much for a poll to vote computer gaming company Electronic Arts the “Worst Company in America”:
Video game publisher Electronic Arts has a new feather in its cap: It has won The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America award.
The tournament rookie beat out America’s other most-hated companies by a landslide 64 percent vote. Rival honorees included Walmart, PayPal, Bank of America, and even fellow game industry villain, Gamestop.
A statement from The Consumerist, part of the nonprofit group that publishes Consumer Reports, noted that “while both Bank of America and EA drew consumer ire for their poorly-received practices of swallowing up smaller competitors and nickel-and-diming customers with up-charges and fees, EA’s success in this year’s tournament shines a spotlight on an industry that is often considered ignored by regulators, courts, and the mainstream media.”
“Some may look down their noses at the idea of voters picking a video game publisher as the Worst Company In America, but that is the exact kind of attitude that has allowed EA and its ilk to nickel and dime devoted customers for a decade,” said Chris Morran, Deputy Editor of Consumerist.com. “This is not just a few people complaining about bad games; this vote represents a large group of consumers who have grown sick and tired of being ignored and taken advantage of.”
There are plenty of companies that abuse and nickel and dime their customers, but the banksters blew up the world, and companies like Blackwater XE Academi murder brown people with impunity.
From all reports, and I know people in the game publishing business, EA is one of those companies that seems to fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that successful companies deliver good products that satisfy their customer needs.
But the worst company in America?
Puh-leeze!
Henry Ford Knew This 99 Years Ago
When he doubled the pay of his workers to reduce turnover and increase productivity.
It turns out that Wal-Mart has not realized how this works, and as a result, it is losing customers who are facing empty shelves:
Margaret Hancock has long considered the local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. superstore her one- stop shopping destination. No longer.
During recent visits, the retired accountant from Newark, Delaware, says she failed to find more than a dozen basic items, including certain types of face cream, cold medicine, bandages, mouthwash, hangers, lamps and fabrics.
The cosmetics section “looked like someone raided it,” said Hancock, 63.
Wal-Mart’s loss was a gain for Kohl’s Corp., Safeway Inc., Target Corp., and Walgreen Co. — the chains Hancock hit for the items she couldn’t find at Wal-Mart.
“If it’s not on the shelf, I can’t buy it,” she said. “You hate to see a company self-destruct, but there are other places to go.”
It’s not as though the merchandise isn’t there. It’s piling up in aisles and in the back of stores because Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough bodies to restock the shelves, according to interviews with store workers. In the past five years, the world’s largest retailer added 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, a 13 percent increase, according to filings and the company’s website. In the same period, its total U.S. workforce, which includes Sam’s Club employees, dropped by about 20,000, or 1.4 percent. Wal-Mart employs about 1.4 million U.S. workers.
Disorganized Stores
A thinly spread workforce has other consequences: Longer check-out lines, less help with electronics and jewelry and more disorganized stores, according to Hancock, other shoppers and store workers. Last month, Wal-Mart placed last among department and discount stores in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the sixth year in a row the company had either tied or taken the last spot. The dwindling level of customer service comes as Wal- Mart has touted its in-store experience to lure shoppers and counter rival Amazon.com Inc.
Yes, they want to tout their in-store experience.
As a part of that experience, they want their customers to deliver their packages for them for free:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.
Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as “crowd-sourcing,” or the “sharing economy.”
A plethora of start-ups now help people make money by renting out a spare room, a car, or even a cocktail dress, and Wal-Mart would in effect be inviting people to rent out space in their vehicle and their willingness to deliver packages to others.
Such an effort would, however, face numerous legal, regulatory and privacy obstacles, and Wal-Mart executives said it was at an early planning stage.
Wal-Mart is making a big push to ship online orders directly from stores, hoping to cut transportation costs and gain an edge over Amazon and other online retailers, which have no physical store locations. Wal-Mart does this at 25 stores currently, but plans to double that to 50 this year and could expand the program to hundreds of stores in the future.
Wal-Mart currently uses carriers like FedEx Corp for delivery from stores – or, in the case of a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go that is being tested in five metro areas, its own delivery trucks.
“I see a path to where this is crowd-sourced,” Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com in the United States, said in a recent interview with Reuters.
This is brilliant.
Let’s see, we have:
- Honest, I left the big screen TV at their front door?
- When I was driving to deliver the box, I was rear-ended, and now I have whiplash.
- The package was fine when it left the store, the damage isn’t our problem.
And that is what I came up in about 3 minutes.
Why is this group of fools the largest corporation in the world?
It’s Jobless Thursday!!
Not good. initial claims rose by 16K, with the 4 week moving average rising by 2250, though continuing claims fell.
Of more concern, consumer confidence fell, probably influenced by the sequester.
It’s Jobless thursday!!!
336,000 initial claims, up 2K, with the 4-week moving average falling to 339,750, though continuing claim rose.
Not bad.
It’s Jobless Thursday!
Initial claims, and the 4-week moving average are down, but continuing claims are up a tick.
Not bad.
The ADP Report is Out
The private payroll rose by 198,000 in February, largely because of increases in construction employment.
Good news, but not great.