UNEMPLOYMENT

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, a government report showed on Thursday, boosting views that the labor market and the economy were stabilizing.

U.S. private employers cut more jobs than expected last month and the vast services sector contracted again, stoking concern about the strength of a U.S. recovery, data showed on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama urged the economically battered U.S. heartland on Wednesday to resist hard times and pledged $2.4 billion to help create green jobs and ease the pain of rising unemployment.

This week has had economic reports on housing and personal income, but the main focus of the week will be employment.

The number of U.S. jobs lost in the private sector fell in July but firms increased planned layoffs, data on Wednesday showed, suggesting the labor market remained troubled even as the pace of job losses slowed.

Demand for U.S. home loans rose last week as a decline in 30-year fixed mortgage rates to a three-week low boosted applications for refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Americans fresh out of university are discovering their expensive degrees are not the entry ticket to a job they had hoped in the face of high unemployment.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell on Tuesday signed legislation on Tuesday that will extend jobless benefits in the state for an additional seven weeks for more than 23,000 residents.

The question is whether jobs can be found for retrained workers in the state with America's highest unemployment rate.

After more than a century of making cars, the U.S. state of Michigan is retraining thousands of unemployed workers for new careers now that many of their jobs may be gone for good.

Long after President Barack Obama's first term ends in 2013, millions of U.S. families will still be paying the price for the recession.

The recession has delivered a disproportionate blow to blacks and Hispanics, yet minorities may be more optimistic about the economy than most Americans and many feel they have earned a place at the corporate table.

U.S. employment costs rose by a bigger-than-expected 0.4 percent in the second quarter, as the deep recession and high unemployment held back worker pay and benefits, a Labor Department report showed on Friday.

Conditions in the U.S. construction industry have improved since President Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus plan into law in February, but employment in the battered sector needs more help, an industry trade group said on Thursday.

When a major swimwear factory in Bangkok found its sales plummeting in the downturn, it laid off some 1,900 workers, almost all of them women.

Former project manager Bob Short has a ready answer to describe which job is more difficult -- his old post at Nuveen Investments or his current position as stay-at-home dad.

The number of Americans collecting long-term unemployment aid fell to the lowest in three months in mid-July, according to government data that implied a slowing pace of layoffs as the economy stabilizes.

In the past week the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose to numbers slightly above the expected numbers according to government data on Thursday. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ended July 25.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but the number of workers staying on jobless rolls fell to the lowest in three months, government data showed on Thursday.

Hope and jobs are in short supply in Ohio eight months after President Barack Obama won the recession-battered state in the 2008 election with promises of a better future.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but a gauge of underlying labor trends fell for a fifth straight week, government data showed on Thursday.