Tracy Davidson

Are some companies weeding out job applicants just because they are unemployed? After news accounts about the practice and requests from concerned lawmakers, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has jumped in, trying to figure out whether it’s a widespread tactic that could violate federal job discrimination laws. Commissioners at an EEOC hearing Wednesday said they [...]

President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget is potentially a massive job-creation engine, with plans to generate millions of them by repairing and expanding highways, bridges and railways. But the spending plan also heralds an outsize political battle as it reignites the type of Republican skepticism over the effectiveness of such outlays that characterized the 2009 [...]

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in nearly three years, continuing a downward trend that suggests hiring could pick up this year. Applications sank by a seasonally adjusted 36,000 to 383,000, the lowest point since early July 2008, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Some analysts cautioned [...]

Capital is often the key to turning an idea into an actual business. And it’s usually the hardest thing for a small-business owner to access. It is why the more than $1 million in Community Development Block Grants to be awarded Monday in Philadelphia are, as one recipient put it Friday, “critical.” Mayor Nutter used [...]

College grads are getting offered bigger paychecks for the first time since 2008. Students who will graduate this spring are receiving job offers with starting salaries averaging $50,034 per year, up 3.5% from last year, according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Meanwhile, employers surveyed by NACE said they plan [...]

States and companies may get a little more help from Washington D.C. in dealing with high unemployment costs — at least for the next two years. The Obama administration is proposing waiving interest payments for two years on the $42.3 billion states have borrowed from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits. Some 30 states [...]

The job market started 2011 on solid footing, according to two separate reports released Wednesday. Payrolls among private employers rose by 187,000 in January, payroll processor ADP said. Analysts polled by Briefing.com were predicting 145,000 jobs added for the month. A separate report showed planned job cuts increased in January, which is not unusual for [...]

There will be lots more state workers joining the unemployment line this year. Public employees are getting hit hard in the latest round of spending cuts as state officials look to close billion-dollar deficits. Governors across the nation are promising to eliminate thousands of positions and freeze or reduce salaries. Texas lawmakers are proposing shedding [...]

Google Inc. clarified ambitious hiring plans for 2011 hinted at during the search giant’s earnings presentation last week, stating Tuesday that its hiring plans could grow its workforce by more than 6,000 employees — or 25% above its current headcount. In a posting on a company website, Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president of engineering [...]

When the owners of Charlie Brown’s Steakhouses abruptly shuttered half of the chain’s restaurants in November, about 2,300 employees lost their jobs without warning. The suddenness of the layoffs prompted some critics to ask whether the company had skirted federal and state laws aimed at preventing such surprises. But CB Holding, the company that owns [...]