The job market got two optimistic signs Thursday as private sector employers added 157,000 positions in June and fewer people filed new claims for unemployment benefits, according to two reports.

Payroll processing company ADP said private jobs grew rapidly in June — a figure that was much higher than expected and more than four times higher than the prior month. May’s figures were downwardly revised to 36,000 jobs.

Economists were expecting a gain of just 60,000 private sector jobs, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com.

Smaller businesses led the charge in June. Small businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, added 88,000 jobs in June. Medium-size businesses, defined as those with between 50 and 499 workers, gained 59,000.

To read the full story: CNN Money

The Obama administration is trying to make it easier for homeowners who lose
their jobs to keep their homes.

The administration today will announce that two programs
providing unemployed homeowners a few months’ forbearance on their mortgages
will be extended to 12 months, said three administration officials speaking
anonymously because the program has not been announced. Thousands of homeowners
could benefit from the additional time, although not all jobless homeowners will
be eligible.

The action is being taken as part of the administration’s
effort to help prevent foreclosures while unemployment remains above 9% and the
economy struggles to rebound. In May, 6.2 million people — 45% of the unemployed
— had been without work for at least 27 weeks. New figures are due out Friday.

President Obama said Wednesday that housing has been the most difficult problem to
solve as the nation struggles to recover from its worst recession in decades.

To read the full story: USA Today

At a General Motors plant here, transmission assembly looks a lot like musical
chairs.

For a solid hour, Rick Rush repeatedly inserts a small
piece of metal — the parking gear of a future pickup truck — into a slot, adds a
spring and lowers hydraulic machines to bolt parts together and ensure they’re
properly placed. With 87 seconds to complete the tasks before each transmission
casing glides by on a conveyor, the wiry 61-year-old toils with a purposeful
hunch at a steady, brisk pace.

At the top of the hour, Rush and his seven co-workers
switch spots, each moving over a position. By the end of the day, Rush will have
done all eight jobs on the line, including greasing the transmission’s
electronics, adding various filters and hoisting completed units off the
line.

GM rotates the workers so they’re equipped to fill in for
cohorts who are sick or on vacation, enabling the automotive giant to keep its
workforce lean. There are other benefits, too.

To read the full story: USA Today

If you’re a newly-minted college grad (or the parent of one), you’ve probably already heard the welcome news that entry-level hiring is making a comeback. After an 11% decrease in 2010, the number of fresh bachelor’s degree holders finding jobs this year jumped 22%, to 35,372, or 8% more than in 2009.

That’s according to research from career site CollegeGrad.com, which publishes an annual list of the U.S. organizations that bring the most new grads on board.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car, currently planning to snap up about 8,500 young go-getters, has held the top slot on this list for five straight years. Second in the 2011 ranking is Teach for America, with 4,925, followed by Verizon Wireless (4,250) (VZ), and Hertz (4,000) (HTZ).

PricewaterhouseCoopers, coming in at no. 5, plans to add 3,938 new grads, nearly triple the number the firm hired last year.

A close look at the list, which includes a total of 93 organizations, reveals a couple of surprises.

An analysis of the majors employers want most, by CollegeGrad.com’s partner site Schools.com, shows that — as you’d probably guess — business administration, engineering, and marketing are most coveted.

Yet that doesn’t mean there are no jobs for grads who studied other subjects. Teach for America, for instance, favors new hires with degrees in history and psychology, while Verizon is looking for creative types who majored in liberal arts, fine arts, and music.

To read the full story: CNN Money

Seasonal job prospects are so tight that three out of four teens won’t have a
job this summer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“It’s about as bad as it gets,” says Joseph McLaughlin,
senior research associate at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern
University in Boston. “Last summer, we reached a postwar employment low for 16-
to 19-year-olds.”

McLaughlin doesn’t expect much improvement this year.

The official teen unemployment rate is about 25%, but that
figure doesn’t count all the teens who aren’t seeking work. When all teens are
factored in, only 25% of them will actually have jobs. That level of
discouragement or disinterest worries many economists.

“What concerns me most is when I see youth who are idle:
not working and not going to school,” says Betsey Stevenson, chief economist for
the U.S. Department of Labor. In July 2001, about 50% of 16- to 17-year-olds worked,
she says.

McLaughlin says teen employment was high through the 1990s,
fell in the recession of 2001 and never really bounced back. By 2007, employment
rates for teens were falling again and now sit at historic lows.

To read the full story: USA Today

President Barack Obama hailed small-business owners in May, calling them the backbone of the nation’s economy.

Statistics vary, but according to the federal Small Business Administration, small firms represent 99 percent of all private employers; employ just over half of all private sector employees; and pay 44 percent of America’s private payroll.

The New Jersey Small Business Development Center at Rutgers-Camden is co-sponsoring the Business Builders Series, five free workshops that aim to help small- business owners start or grow businesses and educate them in the basics of fiscal management, credit, and capital formation.

Gary Rago, a Moorestown resident, is directing the center.

“Understanding this process will provide these entrepreneurs with the ability to make better decisions and long-term plans related to their ability to raise capital,” said Rago, who has been a small-business owner and is a certified public accountant.

Beginning in July, the free workshops will be held every two weeks from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Latin American Economic Development Association offices on Market Street in Camden. The association is a cosponsor.

To read the full stroy: Philly Burbs

My brother has given away everything he owns and spent the past 4 months  travelling the world including Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia  “spreading the word.” I have tried to talk to him about the “what if’s” in this situation – such as “What if you wake up Sunday morning and you  have nothing left?” To him, it isn’t even possible.

As far as rebuilding financially, fortunately he is still relatively  young (43) and has the skills to work again when he decides to. I think that the psychological devastation will be a bigger issue than the  financial one. People will likely not wake up thinking, “Oops, I should  start maxing out my 401k now since I may be around a while longer.”

To read the full story: Daily Finance

Yet another amendment to the controversial paid-sick-leave bill will be introduced in City Council today to exclude “mom and pop” stores, but it’s unclear whether the measure will be voted on before Council’s break begins this month.

It’s the latest amendment to the contentious legislation that would require Philadelphia employers to grant paid sick leave.

“Sometimes there are people who work in small businesses and [they] need benefits, but I understand it could have an effect on the [business'] bottom line,” co-sponsor Bill Greenlee said of the amendment, which would exempt businesses with five or fewer employees. “We’re here trying to accommodate and make everyone happy.”

But that does little for Vera Witherspoon, who has worked for 14 years at a Center City wig shop without paid sick leave. She is the only employee besides the two owners.

“It doesn’t make me feel better,” Witherspoon said. “If I get sick, it’s on me.”

The original bill, introduced in March, would have allowed employees at businesses with 11 or more employees to earn up to nine paid sick days, and those at businesses with 10 or fewer workers to earn up to five days. But the number of days was altered to seven and four days, respectively, after a horde of small-business owners contacted Greenlee saying the bill was bad for business.

To read the full story: Philly.com

Thirty-five percent of middle class Americans said they or someone in their household has experienced a physical symptom of stress related to the economy, according to a recent report by First Command Financial Services, a financial service provider.

Most common were anxiety, changes in weight, sleeplessness, low energy and irritability. “These are health conditions that we want people to be aware of,” said Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services, a division of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Power said that at the start of the recession there was a sharp uptick in the number of calls to the Center’s suicide hotline. “About 30% of the calls we get are related to economic distress,” she said. “They were having emotional difficulties because of fear of their financial situation, fear they would lose their job, lose their home.”

To read the full story: CNNMoney.com

A measure cutting unemployment compensation costs by $630 million a year has stalled in the Pennsylvania House. That could open the door for a more limited bill that unanimously passed the Senate this week.

Republican John Gordner said his bill would save about $60 million a year–less than a tenth of what the House legislation, sponsored by Republican Scott Perry, would eliminate.

Gordner said his measure is “more modest,” but pointed out it would also require people to actively look for jobs, while they’re receiving state aid. “It would use the existing CareerLink system that’s in place around the state,” he explained. “Require folks that are receiving unemployment comp benefits to participate in the CareerLink system, and take advantage of the services they have.”

Lawmakers need to pass a bill changing unemployment compensation by June 11. After that, federal benefits will end and 45,000 people will stop receiving checks. Pennsylvania’s unemployment fund has been empty for more than two years, and the state has borrowed nearly $4 billion from the federal government.

House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said GOP leaders don’t view this week’s failed vote as an indication a sweeping benefits reform wouldn’t have the support to become law.

To read the full story: Newsworks.org