What’s Lost In Gaining An Hour

Time change at the end of Daylight Saving Time Nederlands: Tijdsverandering aan het eind van de zomertijd (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At 2 a.m. Sunday, by arbitrary human decree, time will stand still for one hour.

While this rare interstice of being and nothingness offers great opportunities for philosophical musing – Who knows where the time goes? Does anybody really know what time it is? And is time really on our side? – a price must be paid for messing with the universe.

For with this annual lapsing of daylight saving time comes a constellation of ill health effects, from the mildly uncomfortable to the nearly nightmarish.

Studies have found that on the Monday after the time changes, more people kill themselves, hurt themselves on the job, and lose money in the stock market.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131102_What_s_lost_in_gaining_an_hour.html#lcw8rvcBfCelIK9p.99

US Employers Add 169K Jobs; Rate Falls To 7.3 Percent

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers have yet to start hiring aggressively — a trend the Federal Reserve will weigh in deciding this month whether to slow its bond buying and, if so, by how much.

Employers added 169,000 jobs in August but many fewer in June and July than previously thought, the Labor Department said Friday. Combined, June, July and August amounted to the weakest three-month stretch of job growth in a year.

The unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent, the lowest in nearly five years. But it fell because more Americans stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work reached its lowest point in 35 years.

All told, the report adds up to a mixed picture of the U.S. job market: Hiring is steady but subpar. Much of the hiring is in lower-paying occupations. And many people are giving up on the job market in frustration.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-employers-add-169k-jobs-rate-falls-73-pct

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

Senate Leaders To Make Last-Ditch ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Effort

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders agreed on Friday to make a final effort to prevent the United States from going over the “fiscal cliff,” setting off intense bargaining over Americans’ tax rates as a New Year’s Eve deadline looms.

With only days left to avoid steep tax hikes and spending cuts that could cause a recession, two Senate veterans will try to forge a deal that has eluded the White House and Congress for months.

Obama said he was “modestly optimistic” an agreement could be found.  But neither side appeared to give much ground at a White House meeting of congressional leaders on Friday.

What they did agree on was to task Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the chamber’s Republican minority, with reaching a budget agreement by Sunday at the latest.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/sns-rt-us-usa-fiscalbre8a80wv-20121109,0,6642146.story

Economy Adds 163,000 Jobs; Rate Ticks Up

WASHINGTON – U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July, a hopeful sign after three months of sluggish hiring.

The Labor Department said today that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June.

July’s hiring was the best since February.  Still, the economy has added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year, roughly the same as last year’s pace.  That’s not enough to satisfy the 12.8 million Americans who are unemployed.

The government uses two surveys to measure employment.  A survey of businesses showed job gains.  The unemployment rate comes from a survey of households, which showed fewer people had jobs.  Economists say the business survey is more reliable.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=405824

Consumer Sentiment Falls To 2012 Low

(Reuters) – Consumer sentiment fizzled in July, falling to its lowest level of the year, as Americans took a dim view of the employment situation and their income prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan‘s final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment fell to 72.3 from 73.2 in June. It was the second month in a row attitudes have soured and the lowest level since December.

But the level was a touch higher than economists’ expectations for it to be unchanged from July’s preliminary reading of 72.

“While consumers do not anticipate an economy-wide recessionary decline, they do not expect a pace of economic growth that could satisfactorily revive job and income prospects,” survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-usa-economy-sentiment-idUSBRE86Q0T620120727

US Economic Growth Slowed To 1.5 Percent Rate In Second Quarter

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent from April through June, as Americans cut back sharply on spending.  The slowdown in growth adds to worries that the economy could be stalling three years after the recession ended.

The Commerce Department also said Friday that the economy grew a little better than previously thought in the January-March quarter.  It raised its estimate to a 2 percent rate, up from 1.9 percent.

Growth at or below 2 percent isn’t enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 8.2 percent last month. And most economists don’t expect growth to pick up much in the second half of the year.  Europe’s financial crisis and a looming budget crisis in the U.S. are expected to slow business investment further.

Read more: http://hosted2.ap.org/PASCR/a5050f4ad4f44dafab85bb41a15281cf/Article_2012-07-27-US-Economy-GDP/id-a8fa417340a94237b704b53fa94dd871

ZERO Job Growth Reported For August

For the first time since 1945 our country reported a net job growth of ZERO, for August! 2011  Unemployment remained at 9.1 percent.  Companies are not laying off or hiring.  We are in a holding pattern.  Hourly wages fell in August.

Consumer and business confidence has been shaken by the federal debt limit feud, the downgrading of our long-term debt and the financial crisis in Europe.  The result is a stock market drop.

Unless job growth is improved immediately, another recession is likely.

To read the entire article about our economic mess, click here,

http://www.centredaily.com/2011/09/02/2899388/hiring-standstill-points-to-growing.html#storylink=rss?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

July’s Economic News Better Than June’s!

The economy fared better in July than it did in June.  117,000 jobs were added in July as opposed to only 18,000 in June.  Also, the unemployment rate inched down one tenth of one percent from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent in July.

In order to substantially reduce unemployment 250,000 jobs a month would be need to be added to bring the unemployment rate down quickly.  As you can see, we are nowhere near that level.

In August we will have to wait and see if the reduction of the U.S.credit rating and Thursday’s stock market plunge will have an adverse effect on job creation and unemployment.