Tracy Davidson

Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the [...]

If you’re thinking about relocating for a new job, there’s a good chance you may have to cover your own moving costs, even if you’ve got a job offer.
When you search for openings on the major job boards lately, lots of the ads say: “No relocation assistance is provided.” For those positions that do offer [...]

A growing number of businesses are converting temporary workers to permanent hires, heralding a warming job market.
“It’s definitely on the rise,” says Rob Wilson, president of Employco Group, a Chicago-area staffing firm.
Temporary jobs jumped by 48,000 in February to 2 million and are up 284,000 since September, the government said Friday. That’s a good sign: [...]

Job hunting can be expensive. The costs of hiring career coaches, printing hundreds of résumés at Kinko’s and flying out for weekend job interviews can really add up, especially for someone who doesn’t have an income.
But finally, there’s a benefit to being unemployed. Job seekers can deduct search-related expenses, including employment and outplacement agency fees, [...]

The end of more than two years of job losses can’t come soon enough for most Americans.
But with all the attention given to the number of jobs on U.S. payrolls and the unemployment rate, it’s easy to miss one important sign of improvement in the job market: paychecks have started to get bigger.
Despite the millions [...]

The government’s closely watched monthly employment report will be unusually hard to read this time.
That’s because the snowstorms that hammered the East Coast last month occurred on the same week that the government surveys businesses about their payrolls. Employees who couldn’t make it to work and weren’t paid won’t be included on those payrolls. Job [...]

The Senate on Tuesday passed a $10 billion measure to maintain unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and provide stopgap funding for highway programs after a holdout Republican dropped stalling tactics that had generated a Washington firestorm.
Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning had been holding up action for days but conceded after pressure intensified with Monday’s cutoff [...]

Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through the Great Recession?
You’d better not: The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for this safety net.
Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.
Federal unemployment benefits kick in after [...]

For construction worker Christopher Allaway, installing metal roofs while teetering on 4-inch-wide steel beams is an adrenaline rush.
“That’s when I know I’m alive,” says Allaway, a 20-year industry veteran who often worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks before he was laid off in July.
Despite enduring the longest hiatus of his life, he has no plans [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association proposed a forbearance program Wednesday aimed at helping the unemployed pay their mortgages for up to nine months.
Under the proposal, loan servicers would reduce eligible borrowers’ monthly payments to no more than 31% of their household income for up to nine months. Unlike a modification, however, the arrears would be tacked [...]