Fed Divided Over When to End Stimulus
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve policymakers are divided over when to end extraordinary measures intended to encourage more borrowing and spending to help stimulate the U.S. economy, according to minutes of the Fed’s last meeting released Wednesday. The minutes of the Fed’s March 19-20 meeting were released at 9 a.m. EDT — five hours earlier than planned — after the Fed inadvertently sent them a day earlier to congressional staffers and lobbyists. The report showed that a few members want to end “relatively soon” a program that is spending $85 billion a month to purchases bonds. Those members say the costs likely outweigh the benefits. A few others saw the risks as increasing quickly and said the purchases would likely need to be reduced “before long.” Many members said an improved job market could lead them to slow purchases within a few months, and a few said economic conditions would likely justify continuing the program until late this year. (MORE: Obama’s Budget Would ...
addition
billion
conditions
decision
division
edt
employment
fed
federal reserve
improvement
lobbyists
obama
unemployment
washington
Why Being a Quitter Is a Good Sign for the Economy
You only quit a job when you feel you can find something better. And in December, more Americans felt confident enough to pack up their desks and look for employment elsewhere than at any time since the start of the Great Recession. Every month the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which polls employers about the number of employees they laid off and how many up and quit. (MORE: Does President Obama Really Believe in Deficit Reduction?) In December, employees who left of their own volition made up 53% of all “job separations,” totaling 2.16 million Americans. About 1.57 million were fired while 345,000 either retired, transferred, died, or became disabled. That percentage of American quitters is the highest it’s been since June 2008, suggesting that workers are feeling at least somewhat optimistic about the economy and their chances of finding employment elsewhere. “I would hesitate to call it a strong sign of recovery,” says ...
american
americans
bls
bureau
colas
confidence
congress
convergex
employment
group
house
jolts
labor
million
nation
negotiations
nicholas
obama
president
quitter
recession
reduction
separation
situation
strategists
volition
white
Obama’s Proposal to Boost the Minimum Wage: Will It Help or Hurt Workers?
Of the proposals in President Obama’s State of the Union address, the one that’s perhaps getting the most attention is his push to have the federal minimum wage raised from $7.25 to $9.00 per hour. There are many reasons for this. First, it was one of the few concrete proposals to come out of the speech; and unlike many of the President’s industrial and tax policy ideas, it is easy to understand: Pass a law saying businesses can’t pay workers less than $9 per hour. But does the law make sense for the low-income workers it aims to help? For years the conventional wisdom among many economists was that higher minimum wages actually reduced employment — for the simple reason that if you make something like labor more expensive, firms will purchase less of it. But research in the 1990s, specifically a study authored by economists David Carr and Alan Kreuger, seemed to prove otherwise, or at least to poke holes in this theory. Carr and Kreuger studied the effect of an increase in the ...
alan
american
attention
balance
business
carr
center
compensation
conclusion
david
economists
employment
jersey
kreuger
methodology
obama
pennsylvania
policy
president
reduction
service
services
union
wisdom
Private Job Survey Shows Strong Job Hiring
WASHINGTON — A private survey shows U.S. businesses increased hiring in January compared with a revised December reading. Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that employers added 192,000 jobs in January. That is more than December’s revised number of 185,000, which had initially been reported at 215,000. The ADP report is derived from actual payroll data and tracks total nonfarm private employment each month. The increase in hiring occurred after Congress and the Obama administration reached an agreement on Jan. 1 to avoid sharp tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts. (MORE: U.S. Economy Shrinks 0.1%, First Time in 3 1/2 Years) The ADP report showed that most of the gains came from small businesses with 49 or fewer employers. This group of firms added 115,000 jobs in January. Medium businesses, those with 50 to 499 employees, added 79,000 jobs during the month while large businesses cut 2,000 employees. In a separate report Wednesday, the government said that the ...
administration
adp
agreement
business
congress
employment
government
jan
july-september
obama
washington
weakness
United States: Dynamic Year Expected In Labor And Employment Law - Littler Mendelson
A key of the summary issues following President Obama's re-election, a newly active NLRB, and important decisions pending before the Supreme Court, which promise to make 2013 an interesting year in labor and employment law, both at a domestic and international level.
court
decision
employment
labor
littler mendelson
nlrb
obama
president
states
supreme
united
Found more than 1 month ago on channel
Mondaq