JOBS

The U.S. dollar was steady on Friday ahead of payrolls data for November that could show more evidence of a strengthening recovery and give investors a reason to push benchmark U.S. Treasury yields above 3 percent and put more money in equities.

Decades ago, the United States had a huge competitive edge over the rest of the world. However, that advantage is slipping away and so are American jobs.

The U.S. private sector employment saw the largest gain in three years in November, according to a report by ADP, but will not be sufficient to reduce the high unemployment rate plaguing the country.

A group called “Manhattan Declaration” has written a letter to Steve Jobs to restore the “anti-gay” apps from the Apple store, the Manhattan Declaration blog said.

Travel company Thomas Cook posted lower annual profits as revenue fell due to a softer summer trading environment. In the UK, the tour operator said trading was even tougher than anticipated, and it expects to save between 40 million pounds and 50 million pounds mainly through reduction of over 500 managerial and support jobs.

The fall in initial jobless claims in the U.S. to the lowest level since July 2008 is not a right pointer to a possible labor market recovery, according to an analyst, who says the true test for the economy is the creation of anything above 200,000 payroll jobs in a month.

Initial jobless claims were better-than-expected for the week ended Nov. 20, hitting levels that had not been seen since July 2008, the Labor Department said in a report.

Pessimistic outlook about unemployment from the U.S. Federal Reserve overshadowed reports stating the economy grew faster in the third quarter. The Fed expects unemployment to remain high over the next couple of years, hovering around 8.9 percent to 9.1 percent next year. It had previously forecast unemployment rate between 8.3 percent and 8.7 percent.

Germany's economy grew in line with expectations in the third quarter, but remained sluggish compared to the growth in the previous quarter, according to a report from Destatis, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.

Monthly job additions in New York State rose sharply in October, hitting a five-year high.

Growth of the U.S economy is expected to remain sluggish next year as the nation suffers from high employment, high public debt, and rising commodity prices, says a report.

The Dutch government said on Thursday it will cut 10,000 defence ministry jobs as part of austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit.

A recent study has put Russia ahead of its Western Europe counterparts as a hot MBA recruitment destination. Retaining the momentum in hiring for the second year, it has shown a steady 22 per cent growth in MBAs recruited, according to QS TopMBA Jobs Index.

President Obama’s call to make the U.S. an exporting powerhouse (i.e., double their volume within five years), is a plausible goal, according to Milton Ezrati, senior economist and market strategist at Lord Abbett.

Swiss pharma giant Roche said it plans to cut 4,800 jobs worldwide over the next two years due to mounting cost pressures in healthcare -particularly in the US and Europe - and increasing hurdles for the approval and pricing of new medicines.

Proposals to reduce the US budget deficit would result in millions of job losses and less deficit reduction, delaying economic recovery for years, according to a report published on Tuesday.

There are now five unemployed workers for every job opening in the U.S., according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a Washington D.C.-based think tank.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the G20 economies have been successful in putting the world economy back on the path of recovery, but admitted that the progress was not fast enough as expected, especially in creating more jobs.

Most of senior executives expect only modest business growth over the next 12 months due to sluggish growth expectations for developed economies and increasing cost pressures from rising labor costs and input prices, a survey showed.

The U.S.-South Korea free trade talks broke down as the two sides failed to resolve principal differences over U.S. beef and auto exports to South Korean markets, but Presidents Barack Obama and Lee Myung-bak said they still hoped the deal could be clinched.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced 20 new trade deals with India worth about $10 billion, which are likely to create around 53,000 jobs in the United States. Deals ranging from sale of heavy transport and commercial aircraft, to gas and steam turbines have been inked. Obama, who is on a 10-day trip through Asia, presided over a meeting of U.S. and Indian executives in India's financial capital of Mumbai.