Filed under: Workers Compensation, Legal News, Regional news, Economic News, Labor Statistics, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 5:18 am Edit This
According to an article by Tom Searls of the Sunday Gazette, of Chicago both
Legislative leaders and West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin are slowly moving towards a battle involving the right way to regulate workers’ compensation insurance benefits in the state.
Lawmakers have clearly stated that they wish, at an absolute minimum, to be informed of any modifications in workers’ compensation rules, like earlier moves to cut off widows’ benefits at the age of their late husband’s retirement, for example. Meanwhile, in
minimum wage news, the wages of salaried workers will go up by some fifty cents to $8 per hour on the first of January, in the state of California,
making workers there the 2nd highest paid earners overall in the nation, with Massachusetts being the other such state. If you happen to need a Chicago personal injury attorney then I can suggest this firm.
The Massachusetts minimum wage also will reach $8 an hour on the first, according to the U.S. Dept of Labor.
The state of Washington, which automatically adjusts their minimum wage every year to keep up with inflation, will have the highest overall at $8.07 an hour.
The California increase is part of a 2-step adjustment approved by lawmakers in 2006. The wage jumped from $6.75 to $7.50 last Jan. 1.
The Governor tends to think that if lawmakers interfere with the various rules and regulations for workers’ compensation, it may in fact damage the state’s plan to eventually privatize it.
Insurance companies might then falsely assume that as a move to bring the program back under government control, he was quoted as stating.
BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Company., which was formed from the Workers’ Compensation division about 2 years ago, at this time is the only such firm selling workers’ compensation insurance in the state.
However, this will change on the first of July when the state opens workers’ comp to private firms across the whole country in an effort to maximise market effeciency.
July 2, 2007
Filed under: Economic News, Labor Statistics, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 6:06 pm Edit This
These are some primary United States economic statistics and indicators that are scheduled to be released within a few days, as the week is shortened by the July 4 National holiday. Thomson IFR Markets has generously and capably provided the median forecasts.
Their work is appreciated, and they are excellent as usual. According to AFX News and also Forbes magazine, and based on reports from the capital,
there has been a mild trend towards higher weekly jobless claims. They are predicted to rise about two thousand to 315,000 for the week ending on the 29th of June.
Apparently, this ‘is a sign that the so far firm US labor market may be softening a bit,’ states Roger Kubarych at HVB.
Mike Moran of Daiwa Securities relates that the increase in economic activity in the second quarter appears to be focused on manufacturing.
This particular uptick should become apparent in the June ISM manufacturing index. The median forecast is 55.4, marginally up from 55.0 in May. Global Insight economists Bryan Bethune and Nigel Gault state that particularly strong showings in the regional Fed manufacturing indexes ’suggest that manufacturing
continued to surf the inventory replenishment wave a little higher’ in month 6 of this year.
In other statistics, June’s non-farm payroll report is the big number for the markets this week. The higher weekly unemployment claims numbers are ‘why we do not expect the June number to be quite as strong as May’s 157,000 result,’ states Jacqui Douglas at TD Bank. The median forecast is for some 130,000 new jobs to be created and a substantial 4.5 pct unemployment rate.
Stay tune for more information and forecasts from the folks over at Thomson IFR Markets.
June 18, 2007
Filed under: Labor Statistics, Employment News, Uncategorized — reformingworkerscomp @ 1:24 am Edit This
According to statistics made available by the OECD,
the number of unfilled job vacancies percentage in the United States for quarter one of 2007 was 37.2.
The leading & short term indicators, numbers and projections found here are compiled for several reasons, including data to help investors make
accurate predictions about the overall state of the national economy.
This was the result of a statistical survey of the Dataset of Registered Unempemployment & general Job Vacancies.
Ipenet reports that varying sets of employment numbers paint the same picture: Slow job growth
There are 2 surveys used to measure employment numbers: the payroll survey and the household survey. The payroll survey is perhaps more ideal when it comes to tracking the varying levels & categories of employment as whole, and the household survey measures unemployment and employment-to-population ratios.
According to information from the US Fed News Service,
the number of job gains from opening & expanding private sector establishments was just over eight million, while the number of job losses from closing & contracting establishments.
Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data series include gross job gains and gross job losses at the establishment level by primary industry sector, plus gross job gains and gross job losses at the company echelon by employer size class
June 12, 2007
The Latest Data
Filed under: Economic News, Labor Statistics, Employment News — reformingworkerscomp @ 8:07 pm Edit This
The Latest Employment Statistics
According to statistics from BLS.gov,
non agriculatural payroll employment increased by about one hundred and fifty thousand in May, while the unemployment
rate was unchanged at around 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States
Department of Labor reported today. The health care & food service industries both managed to adde jobs,
while employment declined in the manufacturing sector, unfortunately. Meanwhile, the average hourly earning rate amanged to rise by
6 cents, or 0.3 percent, in May.
In the same month, employment in general was unchanged at some 145.9 million, and the em-
ployment-population ratio held firm at around 63%. The civilian labor force also
was the same, at 152,000,000, while the labor force participation rate
stayed at 66%. Both the employment-population ratio and labor force
participation rate were down by 0.4% since the end of 2006.
Earning rates are important, but to get a wider perspective you should of course also
take a look at the inflation numbers, since inflation dicates spending power of that earned income.
According to Newsmax online, the MoneyNews publication as well as the Financial Intelligence Report, the dollar has been inflated recently - despite claims that the official CPI is “low”
I do not know if this claim is actually tru, but that was the report.
But whether these reports are true or not, I tend to view inflation a big threat to America’s global strength, and most importantly our wealth as American citizens.
I mean, if you get a 5% raise, but inflation jumps 10%, who really benefits from this. I also find that fact that our manaufacturing base shrunk (yet again)
to be truly troubling, especially in light of the recent reports that so many manufacturing jobs have gone to China and India in recent years.
While this may save some corporations some money and add a few nickels to investor’s dividends, it seems to me that this is bad for the long term economic health of the country.hi from reformingworkerscomp
