That’s how many first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits were filed in the week ended April 20. The number represents a six-week low and a decrease of 16,000 from the 355,000 applications for jobless assistance filed the previous week. “Fewer...
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Photograph by Peter Foley/Bloomberg
Job seekers fill out applications during the NYC Restaurant Job Expo at the Gabarron Foundation in New York, on April 9, 2013.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 339,000
Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Images
People yell during a protest for better wages for fast food workers in Harlem on April 4, 2013 in New York City.
Minimum Wage Boost: Surprising Ally
Supporters of a minimum wage increase may have a surprising ally — small business owners. More than two-thirds of them support increasing the federal minimum wage, according to a poll released yesterday by Small Business Majority, a non-profit advocacy group...
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Photograph by Lachlan Currie
Wages are up, but inflation is up even more.
Wages Up 0.5% — Cost of Living 1.7%
Workers in the good old USA earned $773 a week in the first quarter before taxes and other deductions, 0.5 percent more than in the same three months of 2012. Unfortunately, the cost of living for the almost 103 million...
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Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York headquarters
Fed’s Employment Trigger Too High?
Since December, Fed policy makers have said they will hold their benchmark interest rate near zero until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent. Research by a couple of their colleagues implies they should wait until it’s even lower. The...
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Photograph by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Texas Gov. Rick Perry visits with fans prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NRA 500 on April 13, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Texas to Chicago: Send Us Your Overtaxed, Underemployed Masses
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has picked Chicago as his latest job-recruitment target, running print and Internet advertisements through a weekly business newspaper urging Illinois companies to move to the second-most populous state. In February, radio ads launched by Perry asked...
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Photograph by John Moore/Getty Images
Farmworker Deal: Harvest of Pride?
Anyone remember “Harvest of Shame?” Edward R. Murrow? This was no Anderson Cooper 360. This was an awakening for Americans who knew little of their own nation’s practices. This was about how “the humans who feed the best-fed people in...
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Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Senate Budget Committee staff members hand out copies of the Obama Administration's proposed FY 2014 federal budget in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2013 in Washington, DC.
Obama: ‘Not a Lot of Smoke and Mirrors’
The 2014 budget that President Barack Obama proposed today is all about creating jobs and boosting the economy, the president said today. His budget, he said, replaces the cuts of sequetration with “smarter ones.” It builds new roads and bridges,...
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Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg
A job seeker holds his briefcase while waiting to see recruiters at a job fair in New York.
State, Local Gov’ts: Help Wanted
News on the government front isn’t all bad, says Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York. Take today’s Labor Department figures, which showed job openings at state and local government agencies posted the fourth straight monthly gain...
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Photograph by Eddie Seal/Bloomberg
Job seekers wait for the opening of an employment fair sponsored by Job News in partnership with USOilWorker.com and The Texas Veterans Commission at the Norris Conference Center in San Antonio, Texas, on March 19, 2013.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 63.3%
That’s the U.S. labor force participation rate for March, the lowest since May 1979, according to the Labor Department. The rate represents the proportion of the population that’s in the civilian labor force, which includes those who are employed and...
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Photograph by Michael Dwyer/AP Photo
A job seeker speaks with a State Department employee about job opportunities with the federal government during a job fair in Boston.
Discouraged Workers, Retirees Not to Blame for Jobless Rate Drop
The jobless rate in the U.S. fell to a four-year low of 7.6 percent in March for the wrong reasons. Instead of an increase in the number of those finding work, 290,000 people dropped from the ranks of the unemployed....
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Contributors
-
Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
is a senior political reporter for the Washington Bureau. She covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News and previously covered the White House for the Baltimore Sun. -
Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
is a national political reporter looking forward to the 2016 presidential campaign, which will be the fifth he's covered. He's also reported for The Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune. -
Julianna Goldman
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Hans Nichols
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Margaret Talev
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and covered the White House for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered California and Florida politics. -
Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
