Virus Impact Clobbers Wall Street, Driving Down Stocks
Markets fell on Tuesday, curtailing Wall Street’s hopes to build off large gains that had started the week.
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Labor
Hiring Hit Record High in May as Layoffs Fell Sharply
American employers hired a record 6.5 million workers in May and layoffs dropped to a pre-pandemic level as state economies began reopening.
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US Added 4.8 Million Jobs in June, Jobless Rate Fell to 11.1%
The American economy added 4.8 million new jobs in June as the unemployment rate ticked down to 11.1%, but a new surge in coronavirus cases this summer threatens to abruptly halt recovery.
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Judge Says 40-Year Newspaper Carrier Is an Employee, Not Contractor
A newspaper carrier was improperly classified as an independent contractor by the Hearst Communications media company, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Read moreCalifornia Unemployment Rate Remains High Amid Reopening
The soft reopening of the largest economy in the United States couldn’t stem California’s abysmal unemployment trend as officials on Friday pegged the state’s jobless rate above 16%.
Read moreCalifornia v. DoorDash
California sued DoorDash in San Francisco County Court, claiming it misclassifies workers as independent contractors to stiff them for overtime, expenses, workers’ comp and other rights.
Read moreMeatpacking Industry Struggles to Find New Normal
Slow to implement safety precautions, meatpacking companies balance worker safety with keeping production high while hundreds of workers die.
Read moreJudge Calls Amazon’s Efforts to Keep Worker Injury Data Secret ‘Disturbing’
In a dispute over the withholding of workplace safety records, a federal judge on Monday called Amazon’s practice of marking as “confidential” government-mandated logs of injuries and illnesses at its warehouses potentially disturbing.
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Pandemic Risks Pushing Millions More Into Child Labor: UN
Millions of children could be pushed into work by the coronavirus crisis, the UN said Friday as it braced for the first rise in child labor in two decades.
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Virus-Linked Recession Has Been Most Brutal for Women, Minorities
It is said that the Covid-19 pandemic does not discriminate. But the related economic downturn clearly does.
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Job Openings Plunged in April as Millions Were Laid Off
The number of open jobs advertised by employers plummeted by nearly a million in April while layoffs continued at historic levels, another sign of the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on the U.S. economy.
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Economy Unexpectedly Added 2.5 Million Jobs in May
After shedding more than 20 million jobs in April, the U.S. economy added back 2.5 million last month as the unemployment rate dipped to 13.3%.
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Bullish Streak Loses Steam as Dow Closes on a Low
Two days of massive gains ended with a thud as Wall Street finished Thursday barely above its morning starting point.
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Another 2 Million Jobless: 17.2% of US Out of Work
Imagine everyone living in Houston applied for unemployment insurance benefits all at once. Last week, 2.43 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits — a little more than the largest city in Texas — the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
Read moreCalifornia Governor Promises Guidelines for Reopening Hollywood Productions
California Governor Gavin Newsom told Hollywood workers they can expect the state to unveil guidelines regarding film and television production on Monday, outlining a process for the entertainment industry to get back to work.
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Face-Off at Senate Banking Puts Market Back in the Dumps
Stock losses that started off minor only deepened Tuesday by the end of two-hour Senate hearing where Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned of at least another month of economic hardship.
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Judge Tosses Trucking Group’s Challenge to California Labor Reclassification Law
A lawsuit by a regional truckers association challenging California’s sweeping labor classification law was dismissed Monday by a federal judge in Los Angeles who said in a tentative ruling the group’s claims were not ripe.
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Layoffs Hit Record High in March as Job Openings Sank
A record 11.4 million Americans were laid off in March while the number of open jobs advertised by employers fell to the lowest level in nearly three years, as the Covid-19 crisis began taking its toll on the economy.
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Senate Tackles Pandemic Liability for Essential Businesses
Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concern Tuesday about the possibility of an overwhelming number of lawsuits filed by employees challenging the necessity of their workplace exposure to Covid-19.
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Catholic Schools Defend Teacher Firings at Supreme Court
Considering the case of two teachers fired from Catholic schools, the Supreme Court struggled on Monday with the boundaries of a doctrine that insulates religious institutions from lawsuits over hiring and firing decisions for certain types of employees.
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