The DOL reported people filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits in the week ending on April 13th, 2013 was 352,000, a 4,000 increase from the previous week of 348,000. This is the wrong direction for weekly initial unemployment claims and indicates slow hiring once again.
The March 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows a monthly increase of 0.4% in industrial production. March's increase would have been non-existent if the weather hadn't turned cold. Utilities' output increased 3.5% for March as mining fell -0.2% and Manufacturing dropped -0.1% for the month. February was revised up to a 1.1% increase, buoyed again by utilities. Q1 2013 gives an annualized output gain of 5.0%, the largest since Q1 2012. The Q1 output gain was spurred by utilities, which by itself grew 10.5% for Q1 2013.
The truth comes out on the mortgage fraud settlement. The OCC announced the payout terms and for most people, they get less than $1,000 out of the deal. Only in America can one be fraudulently foreclosed on, lose their home, have their credit ruined, only to be compensated less than $1,000 for the ordeal.
Tonight's Friday Featured Documentary is the three hour PBS documentary Women Who Make America. The film goes trhough the history of the woman's movement of the 1960's. Recently we wrote about foreign guest workers enabling sex discrimination in high tech. This film shows just how bad it was for women's equal rights and the battles fought. Yet in 2013, Republicans are yet again blocking a bill to guarantee equal pay for equal work.
March 2013 Retail Sales decreased, by -0.4%. This is the lowest monthly change in retail sales since June 2012. Gasoline sales declined the most, -2.2% for the month. If one removes gasoline sales from retail sales, overall the decrease from February would have been -0.2%, or half of the monthly decline. Auto sales decreased -0.6% and minus all autos & parts but including gas sales, retail sales dropped -0.4% from last month. This report should amplify Wall Street's worries people are so tapped out they have stopped spending and ruin their stock market run up.
The BLS February JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 3.1 official unemployed per job opening. Job openings increased 8.7% from January to a total of 3,925,000. Actual hires, on the other hand, increased 2.8% to 4.418 million. Real hiring has only increased 22% from June 2009. Job openings are still below pre-recession levels of 4.7 million. Job openings have increased 80% from July 2009. While the increase in job opportunities is great, every month it is the same thing. There is never enough actual hiring.
Going to college these days amounts to sinking oneself into a lifetime of massive debt. A new student advocacy report spells out some damning facts. Did you know the federal government is slated to make a whopping $34 billion in 2014 off of student loans? Meanwhile other reports are showing student debt is keeping people from obtaining credit, buying a home and moving on with their lives.
As the jobs crisis continues industry and government collude together on policies and agendas which won't help the nation. Here are some of their latest outrageous activities.
The BLS unemployment report shows total nonfarm payroll jobs gained were 88,000 for March 2013, with 20,300 of those jobs being temporary. February was revised up by 32,000 to 268,000 jobs gained and January was also revised up by 29,000 to show payrolls gained 148,000 employees for that month.
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