U.S. Employers Add 165,000 Jobs; Rate Falls To 7.5 Percent

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, and hiring was much stronger in the previous two months than the government first estimated.  The job increases helped reduce the unemployment rate from 7.6 percent to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

The report today from the Labor Department was a reassuring sign that the U.S. job market is improving despite higher taxes and government spending cuts that took effect this year.

The government revised up its estimate of job gains in February and March by a combined 114,000.  It now says employers added 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March.  The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April — above the 138,000 added in the previous six months.

The number of unemployed fell 83,000 to 11.7 million.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=474934

Delays Hit Major Airports As Control Tower Furloughs Kick In

Seal of the United States Federal Aviation Administration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Travelers waited more than an hour for flights in New York and experienced delays at other U.S. airports on Sunday evening as furloughs of air traffic controllers began, reducing the ability of busy hubs to handle arrivals and departures, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The furloughs that started Sunday reduced staffing by 10 percent across the country.  Last week the FAA warned of delays up to 3-1/2 hours at some airports as the agency cuts spending to meet reductions required under federal budget cuts.

New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports reported delays of more than an hour, and Philadelphia international airport also reported delays due to furloughs, the FAA said.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/sns-rt-us-usa-faa-furloughsbre93l03e-20130421,0,5104783.story

FAA Warns Of 3.5 Hour Flight Delays This Summer

Seal of the United States Federal Aviation Administration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flight delays of up to 3-1/2 hours are expected to occur at some U.S. airports this summer because of furloughs of air-traffic controllers, the top U.S. aviation regulator said on Thursday.

The estimate from the Federal Aviation Administration puts in sharper focus the potential impact of the agency’s decision to furlough 10 percent of its staff starting Sunday as it struggles to meet budget cuts required under so-called sequestration.

The average delay would be much shorter than the 3-1/2 hours, FAA administrator Michael Huerta said in a briefing to reporters, without specifying a figure.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-faa-flightdelaysbre93h167-20130418,0,6239558.story

Latrobe Air Traffic Control Tower To Close

250 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The air traffic control tower at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe will close, along with 148 others at small airports nationwide, as the Federal Aviation Administration cuts $637 million from its budget by November.

The closures will not force airports to shut down, but pilots will now coordinate takeoffs and landings by radio without ground controllers’ help.

“We will work with the airports and the operators to ensure the procedures are in place to maintain the high level of safety at non-towered airports,” FAA administrator Michael Huerta said in a news release.

Spirit Airlines — which flies out of Latrobe to Dallas, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla. — plans to operate a normal schedule, airline spokeswoman Misty Pinson said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/westmoreland/latrobe-air-traffic-control-tower-to-close-680511/#ixzz2ONMqa1Kx

Reading Regional Airport Tower Won’t Close, For Now

English: Reading Airport, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reading Regional Airport‘s air traffic control and training tower is not among the 149 air traffic control facilities that the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday will close at small airports around the country starting next month.

The FAA made the decision on orders to trim hundreds of millions dollars from its budget as part of the sequestration plan.

Laura Brown, FAA spokeswoman, said only federal contract towers were targeted for closing, adding that Reading is an FAA tower that will require negotiations with the air traffic controllers union before any action is taken.

However, she said the FAA has proposed closing the Reading tower.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=463163

Federal Budget Cuts Will Affect More Than Federal Programs, Officials In Scranton Say

English: Official photo of Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration will hurt everything from the local barbershop to the largest manufacturers in Northeast Pennsylvania, said members of a panel at Sen. Bob Casey’s office Friday in downtown Scranton.

With no deal between Congress and the White House in sight and just hours before sequestration kicked in at midnight, the Democratic senator and a cross-section of local civic leaders struck a dire tone.

“We don’t have a full sense of what will happen,” Mr. Casey said.  “If this goes a day or week, it will have an impact.  If it goes six months, the effect will be devastating.”

As the furloughs and cuts begin, sequestration will have an immediate impact not just on the government employees, but on contractors, and the communities where they live and spend.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/federal-budget-cuts-will-affect-more-than-federal-programs-officials-in-scranton-say-1.1452684

The Impact Of The Fiscal Cliff On The States: Sequestration

Click here to see a chart of all 50 states and where your state stands:  http://www.pewstates.org/research/data-visualizations/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-cliff-on-the-states-sequestration-85899435504

You can click on the state of your choice and get all the details broken down for you.