Tag: Jobs

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New Jerseyans maxed out on their unemployment payments

unemployment-line

This map shows where N.J. residents are jobless, out of benefits
September 4, 2015
Colleen O’Dea

Tens of thousands, many formerly employed by casinos, have maxed out on their unemployment payments

New Jersey’s 4 million workers may celebrate Labor Day on Monday, but those who are unemployed — particularly those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits — have less to cheer about.

According to data from the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, nearly 79,000 unemployed New Jerseyans had maxed out of their benefits this year through August 15. The greatest proportion — more than 14,000 — stopped collecting unemployment in March, with a good number of those being former casino employees who lost their jobs when three casinos shut their doors last September.

The largest number of the unemployed who have lost their benefits, 7,619, live in Essex County. But the greatest impact of the losses is in Atlantic and Cape May counties, where the number of people who can no longer collect unemployment amounts to almost 5 percent of the total work force. Again, the casino closures are largely to blame.

Typically, New Jerseyans who lose their jobs can collect unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks, depending on several factors, including how long they had worked prior to being laid off.

Beginning in the midst of the last recession, Congress approved and the president signed payment extensions for the long-term unemployed for five years. That enabled some unemployed people to collect a portion of their former salary for as long as 99 weeks.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/this_map_shows_the_nj_residents_who_are_jobless_ou.html#incart_river

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The Epidemic of Officially Discouraged Workers

millennials

ByRobert McGarveyFollow|09/04/15 – 09:55 AM EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Unemployment numbers out of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are a cause for celebration on both sides of the political aisle and that is, because the current rate reported today for the August Jobs Reportis 5.1%, a huge improvement over the 10% notched in October 2009. Just one problem: that number is so misleading it just about counts as a lie.

You have just quit looking for work because it’s pointless? Officially you do not count as unemployed. Ditto for if you’ve taken a part-time job, however wretched, just to put a few bucks in your pocket. You are not unemployed,

The real numbers may be twice as high. Maybe one in ten of us is unemployed or we have just plain given up on the idea of a fulltime job. The BLS acknowledges this in a different tally that it calls U-6.  By its count, 11.3% of us have given up on the dream of a good full-time job. Those workers, in BLS parlance, are “discouraged.” Some have given up looking for fulltime work. Others work part-time because that’s all they can get.

Some states do especially poorly. In West Virginia 13% count as discouraged. In Arizona, 13.8% of the potential workforce is not even close to where it wants to be. Nevada is a stomach churning 15.2%, the nation’s biggest clump of dissatisfied workers and the discouraged unemployed.

Polling company Gallup, by the way, says the BLS discouraged workers numbers are low. It claims that 14.7% of us – that’s one in seven – is underemployed

workers.html?utm_content=bufferea40d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce offers Many Opportunities for Networking

Abraham-Godwin_theridgewoodblog

GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE FOR 2015

NETWORKING IN RIDGEWOOD

join over a hundred people networking EVERYDAY-

RCNG – Ridgewood Chamber Networking Group
AM – worth getting up early to be part of–
AM Networking in Ridgewood
Tuesday and Thursday
7:30am-8:45am
ConnectOne Bank
171 E. Ridgewood Ave.
201-445-2600 for more information
email: [email protected]

*******************************

PM NETWORKING IN RIDGEWOOD!
27 Chestnut Street
RCNG – Ridgewood Chamber Networking Group
every Wednesday,
Meet/Greet 5:30pm
Networking 5:45-6:45pm
rsvp 201-445-2600
[email protected]

************

RYPE- Ridgewood’s Young Professional Exchange
Networking for ages 40 and under Professionals.
Next Networking
Thursday, September 10th, 6pm
call 201-445-2600 [email protected]
meeting at 27 Chestnut Street.
go through restaurant’s patio and
take elevator to first floor.
Invite your business friends to join us!
rsvp to Allison-
[email protected]

*************

Woman’s Networking
BBLB-Brown Bag Lunch Bunch meet on
Tuesday’s – alternating between 9am & 11am
call for dates of times-201-445-2600
women supporting women at its best!
mark your calendar!
chamber office-27 Chestnut St.
This networking is designed to place real value on the advise and wisdom of today’s business women.
Engage, Encourage, Empower!
for more information call 201-445-2600

****************************************************

N E T W O R K I N G
still the best way to do business
The Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce is a
member of the ICC – Inter-Chamber Consortium.
The ICC is an organization of several Bergen County Chambers that come together to work with each other to help build relationships for
the area business owners.

ICC MONTHLY MEETING SCHEDULE
Cliffside Park Chamber of Commerce
September 14, 2015.
MegaNet Networking date to TBA

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September Welcomes New Merchants to Ridgewood

CBD traffic ridgewood theridgewooodblog.net

September is a big month in Ridgewood!

Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce members invite you to their GRAND OPENING – mark your calendars!

Katie Diamond’s Jewelry
570 N. Maple
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Ribbon cutting 6pm

California Closet
204 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Thursday, September 17, 201
5pmish

Shopettes
22 Chestnut St.
Saturday, September 19, 015
Ribbon cutting 12Noon

Serene Theraputics
555 Goffle Road
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Ribbon cutting 5:30pm

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U.S. labor market: slower job growth

County_Executive_Donovan_JOBS4_theridgewoodblog

file photo
By By Lucia Mutikani | Reuters

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job growth slowed in August, but the unemployment rate dropped to a near 7-1/2-year low and wages accelerated, keeping alive prospects of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this month.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 173,000 last month after an upwardly revised gain of 245,000 in July, the Labor Department said on Friday. August’s gain was the smallest in five months as the factory sector lost the most jobs since July 2013.

The jobs count, however, may have been tarnished by a statistical fluke that has often led to sharp upward revisions to payroll figures for August after initial weak readings.

Indicating the hiring slowdown was likely not reflective of the economy’s true health, the jobless rate fell two-tenths of a point to 5.1 percent, its lowest level since April 2008.

In addition, payrolls data for June and July were revised to show 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported, bringing the average job gains for the past three months to a solid 221,000. Average hourly earnings increased 8 cents, the biggest rise in seven months and the length of the average workweek also expanded.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-job-gains-seen-solid-august-spotlight-fed-052515804–business.html

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Record 94,031,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Stuck at 38-Year Low for 3rd Straight Month

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By Susan Jones | September 4, 2015 | 8:54 AM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – A record 94,031,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month — 261,000 more than July — and the labor force participation rate stayed stuck at 62.6 percent, a 38-year low, for a third straight month in August, the Labor Department reported on Friday, as the nation heads into the Labor Day weekend.

The number of Americans not in the labor force has continued to rise, partly because of retiring baby-boomers and fewer workers entering the workforce.

In August, according to BLS, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 251,096,000. Of those, 157,065,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.

The 157,065,000 who participated in the labor force equaled only 62.6 percent of the 251,096,000 civilian noninstitutional population — the same as it was in July and June. Not since October 1977, when the participation rate dropped to 62.4, has the percentage been this low.

https://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/record-94031000-americans-not-labor-force-participation-rate-stuck-38-year

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Obamanomics: The surging ranks of America’s ultrapoor

An Appalachian County's Community Bonds Help Overcome Challenge Of Poverty

By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH September 1, 2015, 5:15 AM

By one dismal measure, America is joining the likes of Third World countries.

The number of U.S. residents who are struggling to survive on just $2 a day has more than doubled since 1996, placing 1.5 million households and 3 million children in this desperate economic situation. That’s according to “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” a book from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that will be released on Sept. 1.

The measure of poverty isn’t arbitrary — it’s the threshold the World Bank uses to measure global poverty in the developed world. While it may be the norm to see families in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia struggle to survive on such meager income, the growing ranks of America’s ultrapoor may be shocking, given that the U.S. is considered one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world.

“Most of us would say we would have trouble understanding how families in the county as rich as ours could live on so little,” said author Kathryn Edin, who spoke on a conference call to discuss the book, which she wrote with Luke Shaefer. Edin is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. “These families, contrary to what many would expect, are workers, and their slide into poverty is a failure of the labor market and our safety net, as well as their own personal circumstances.”

To be sure, the labor market has been rocky for many Americans, not just the poorest. But changes in how employers deal with their low-wage workers have hit many of these poor Americans especially hard, such as the rise of on-call scheduling, which leaves some parents scrambling for hours and dealing with unpredictable pay.

Retailers such as Walmart (WMT) and fast-food companies increasingly are using sophisticated scheduling software that allows them to tinker with work schedules at the last minute, depending on their stores’ needs. That reduces costs for the employer, but it can make life difficult for employees, especially those with children and dependents.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-surging-ranks-of-americas-ultrapoor/

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How “Shark Tank” Embodies the New American Dream

shark tank

If there’s one phrase that can inspire patriotism, it’s the American Dream. That concept was defined by James Truslow Adams as being the “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”  The pursuit of this dream has driven the American people for generations, and recently, it has driven them directly into ABC’s Shark Tank.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Business in America has changed drastically in recent years. At a time when business idols are college drop outs who built companies from their garagesand Silicon Valley is a household name (and a tv show!), the goal of entrepreneurship has trumped all. The idea of rising through the ranks of your company has been surpassed by fast-paced success stories about startups improving and conquering old industries in record amounts of time (looking at you, Uber). This shifting business environment paired with the underlying hope to be the next overnight million-dollar company is what makes Shark Tank so interesting.

https://decider.com/2015/08/28/how-shark-tank-embodies-the-new-american-dream/

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NJ craft brewers hope bills boost industry

obama-drinking-beer

Members of the New Jersey’s craft brewers guild— a group small enough to fit in one restaurant booth a few years ago and now numbering around 70 — worry state law is murky on whether they can sell their suds at farmers markets or if local food trucks can serve patrons at microbreweries. Associated Press Read more

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AP SURVEY: DIMMER OUTLOOK FOR US ECONOMY, WAGES AND HIRING

Obama-Golf

BY CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP ECONOMICS WRITER

WASHINGTON (AP) — For much of the economy’s fitful and sluggish six-year recovery from the Great Recession, analysts have foreseen a sunnier future: Growth would pick up in six months, or in a year.

That was then.

The latest Associated Press survey of leading economists shows that most now foresee a weaker expansion than they had earlier. A majority of the nearly three dozen who responded to the survey predict tepid economic growth, weak pay gains and modest hiring for the next two years at least.

Nearly 70 percent said they thought the economy’s growth would remain below its long-run average of 3 percent annually through 2017. The economy hasn’t attained that pace since 2005.

And if they’re right, don’t expect much of a pay raise: Fifty-eight percent of the economists think wage increases for the next two years will remain stuck below a long-term annual average of 3.5 percent.

What’s more, if growth doesn’t pick up from its modest post-recession pace of 2.2 percent a year, nearly six in 10 expect hiring to fall to an average of 175,000 jobs a month or below, down from its pace of 243,000 jobs a month for the past year.

At the start of the year, many economists thought falling gas prices and strong hiring would finally produce 3 percent economic growth for 2015 as a whole.

“We no longer have reason for optimism that the economy is going to accelerate,” said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics. “The real question is, when is the next downturn coming?”

 

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AP_ECONOMY_SURVEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-24-13-52-04

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New Jersey’s Anti Business Climate Strikes again : State lost 26,100 jobs in two months

Alantic City

New Jersey lost 26,100 jobs in June and July, the state’s worst two-month loss since the spring of 2009 at the end of the recession, nearly wiping out all the gains for the year.
Hugh R. Morley, The Record Read more

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Garrett : SEC Pay Ratio Rule will do nothing to provide useful information to investors, improve our economy, or help struggling Americans find a job

scott garrett and interns

 

Aug 14, 2015

the staff of the Ridegwood blog

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, issued the following statement after the SEC announced a finalized pay ratio rule as required by Dodd-Frank:

“The pay ratio rule will do nothing to provide useful information to investors, improve our economy, or help struggling Americans find a job.  What it will do is impose substantial costs upon American businesses and their shareholders, and make our capital markets less attractive for growing companies. We need to work to grow our economy and expand opportunity for all Americans—not create new red tape and regulations that do nothing to achieve those goal.

Garret also offered a special thanks to Ciaran, Jonathan, Michael, Allison, Catherine, Joe, and Kayla,all  interns from his Washington, D.C. office, Garret said “for all of your hard work this summer! You did a great job, and I hope you learned a lot during your time on Capitol Hill.”

 

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Obamanomics : Is work Obsolete ?

saturday night fever

August 7,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The number of people not in the labor force reached another record high in July, according to new jobs data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS reports that 93,770,000 people (16 and older) were neither employed last month nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks.This is an increase of 144,000 over June’s record when 93,626,000 were not in the workforce.

labor force participation rate remained the the same as June at 62.6 percent. Before last month the labor force participation rate had not been that low since October 1977, when the participation rate was 62.4 percent .Despite hovering near the 38 year low. the unemployment rate remained at 5.3 percent suggesting more people were searching for jobs during the 1970’s and the incentive not to work was not as high.

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CEO Raises Salaries to $70K for EVERY Employee, Now has to Rent his own Home to Make Ends Meet

Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments

John S. Roberts
August 1, 2015 3:38 pm

Back in April we told you about Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, who said he would pay every single one of his employees $70,000 annually.

Every single one, from the lowest skilled workers on up.

Now, as expected, Price has fallen on hard times financially, even having to rent out his own home.

Employees who work for Gravity are now leaving the company, “spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises.”

This was always going to be the outcome.

If everyone hits the jackpot, does anybody really win the lottery?

From BI:

https://www.youngcons.com/ceo-raises-salaries-to-70k-for-every-employee-now-has-to-rent-his-own-home-to-make-ends-meet/

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Minimum Wage Backfire

McDonald's Automated Ordering System Kiosk

McDonald’s profits implode seemingly overnight plunging 30%. Next step? Service to be automated.

“Amid a historically slow economic recovery, 1970s labor-participation rates and stagnant middle-class incomes, we understand that people are frustrated. Harder to understand is how so many of our media brethren have been persuaded that suddenly it’s the job of America’s burger joints to provide everyone with good pay and benefits. The result of their agitation will be more jobs for machines and fewer for the least skilled workers.” Joe Killian

Minimum Wage Backfire

McDonald’s moves to automate orders to reduce worker costs.

Updated Oct. 22, 2014 2:26 p.m. ET

If there’s a silver lining for McDonald’s in Tuesday’s dreadful earnings report, it is that perhaps union activists will begin to understand that the fast-food chain cannot solve the problems of theObama economy. The world’s largest restaurant company reported a 30% decline in quarterly profits on a 5% drop in revenues. Problems under the golden arches were global—sales were weak in China, Europe and the United States.

So even one of the world’s most ubiquitous consumer brands cannot print money at its pleasure. This may be news to liberal pressure groups that have lately been demanding that government order the chain known for cheap food to somehow pay higher wages.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/minimum-wage-backfire-1413934569