Many Toil Through Forced Leave

Average worker skipped 2 days of time off

(NEWSER) - America, you’re working too hard. The average worker earned 14 vacation days this year, but only used 12 of them, according to a survey from Expedia. That works out to about 226 million unused days in total and, based on the national average salary of $39,416 per year for full-time workers, $34.3 billion worth of forfeited time, CNN reports. Only two nations in the study ( PDF here ) took less time off: Japan and South Korea. More»

And the future is looking bleak, say economists

(NEWSER) - Layoffs have climbed to their highest level in nearly a year—1.78 million workers were handed pink slips in May, the most since August 2010—increasing ever-present fears about the US economy. The Wall Street Journal highlights the latest casualties: Cisco Systems plans to slash 6,500 jobs; Lockheed Martin this week made a voluntary lay-off offer to 6,500; Goldman Sachs is getting rid of 1,000 jobs; even Cracker Barrel cut 60 employees. More»

This essential question needs to be answered, but it's complex

(NEWSER) - We toss around the phrase all the time, but how do we define what makes a “good job” good? It’s a key question—and a complex one—as we look to the future of our economy, writes Michael Lind in Salon . Among the factors:

• Unions: We often call manufacturing jobs “good” ones, but that wasn’t the case until they were unionized. Service-sector jobs, meanwhile, are often seen as "bad" jobs, but they might see huge benefits from unionization.

Employment picture likely to remain grim for years, and predicting winning industries is a challenge

(NEWSER) - The job market is likely to be grim for years to come—economists expect that even if job creation returned to the brisk pace of the ‘90s, unemployment wouldn’t return to 5% until 2017. And for many of the unemployed, the numbers belie the real problem: The positions they're trained for may be gone forever. The real estate and finance industries, for example, will probably never support as many employees as they did before the recession. More»

Strapped states try to balance budgets by shutting down

(NEWSER) - States across the country are slashing their labor costs by putting workers on furloughs and cutting services, the Wall Street Journal reports. California, Maine, Maryland and Michigan close state agencies on Fridays. Others are opting to remain open every weekday, but stretch services by placing thousands of workers on rolling furloughs, causing massive queues and delays at government offices. More»