Jobs Get Surprise October Bump

(NEWSER) - Stocks posted losses today, soured all session by worse-than-expected June employment data, the Wall Street Journal reports. With unemployment up a tenth of a percent to 9.5% and wages remaining stagnant, investors have little to be optimistic about. The Dow lost 223.32 to settle at 8,280.74. The Nadsaq dropped 49.20, hitting 1,796.52, and the S&P 500 fell 26.90 to close at 896.43. More»

Gain of .3% drops to .4% loss if auto sales are excluded

(NEWSER) - Retail sales were up last month, but the .3% rise failed to meet expectations, and if automobile sales are excluded, sales actually fell by .4%—the steepest drop in a year. The August sales figures provide more fodder for an interest-rate cut when the Fed meets next week. “The consumer is pulling back a bit,” one analyst tells Bloomberg. More»

...Unless you were a millionaire

(NEWSER) - The Social Security Administration quietly released payroll data for 2010 yesterday, and they were “in a word, awful,” writes David Cay Johnston at Reuters —assuming you’re not a millionaire, that is. The number of people making at least $1 million rose by 20%, jumping from 78,000 to almost 94,000. But for everyone else, there were fewer jobs and they paid less. The median paycheck fell 1.2% to $26,364, or $507 a week, its lowest level, adjusting for inflation, since 1999. More»

Wages lagging as source of income

(NEWSER) - Americans relied on government programs for more of their personal income last year than at any previous time in history. According to a USA Today analysis of federal data, Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, and food stamps made up 18.3% of the national income last year, while wages accounted for a record low 51%. The wage trend has continued this year; as of February, it was down to 50.5%. More»

42% of respondents expect to be hiring in next 6 months

(NEWSER) - US firms' employment expectations are the best they’ve been in more than a decade, a survey finds: Some 42% of companies who responded expect to boost hiring in the next 6 months, up from 39% in October; just 7% planned to shrink payrolls, compared to 11% in October. Some 62% of respondents, meanwhile, said they were likely to spend more on equipment this year, Bloomberg notes. More»