At the risk of raining on Wall Street’s parade today after the Labor Department’s April employment report, there are some caveats in the data. Of the jobs added last month, many were in industries that typically don’t pay a lot. The average number...
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Photograph by John Moore/Getty Images
Commuter passengers move through Penn Station on April 16, 2013 in New York City.
April Jobs Report: Caveats
Photograph by Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg
An employee demonstrates how to prepare a room for guests at a hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Job Market Better-Looking in Rear-View Mirror
The more time government statisticians have to crunch the numbers, the stronger the job market looks — that is assuming you’re not looking to earn in the six figures. On March 8, the Labor Department said employers added 236,000 workers...
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Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A worker is viewed through protective sheeting on the Brooklyn Bridge on April 30, 2013 in New York City.
Zero-Interest Fed: How Long?
The Labor Department said today that the economy added 165,000 jobs in April. With this kind of moderate-but-not-stellar growth in payrolls, is the Federal Reserve on track to meet its own forecast for its first interest-rate increase? A simple calculation...
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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 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 Joe Raedle/Getty Images
People are reflected in the side of a Cigarette boat as they look at boats on display at The Miami International Boat Show.
Consumers: No Hint of Job-Market Slump
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was at minus 34.1 in the week ended March 31, up less than a half point from the prior week as measures of the state of the economy and buying climate improved. What’s been the...
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Photograph by Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Job seekers wait in a line to see recruiters at a job fair organized by United Career Fairs in New York, on Feb. 19, 2013.
Economists Mark Down Payroll Forecasts as Data Disappoint
The last few bits of data ahead of April 6 figures from the Labor Department are in, and the results were disappointing. The data are prompting some economists to cut payroll forecasts. Among the ingredients analysts toss into concocting their...
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Photograph by Eddie Seal/Bloomberg
A welder works inside a mud tank for a new oil and gas drilling rig at the Orion Drilling Co. manufacturing and fabrication facility in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Texas: Even Employment Gains Bigger
God Bless Texas… and North Dakota, and Utah. Texas led all the states in February with an 80,600 increase in net hiring, the biggest gain since the U.S. Labor Department started keeping records in 1982, figures released on March 29...
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Contributors
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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. -
Stephanie Green
is a writer and photographer for Bloomberg Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. She has also written for The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and The Washington Times. -
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.
