Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Workers of the world are demanding a bigger share of global prosperity, and this year they may get it.

Political shifts in the U.S., Europe and Asia increase the chances that 2007 will bring labor higher pay and stronger job protection after five years in which its share of economic gains fell. ``The pendulum of economic power might well begin to shift from capital back to labor,'' says Stephen S. Roach, chief global economist with Morgan Stanley in New York.

While that's good news for workers, the result may be a squeeze on corporate profits and stock prices, economists say. Roach, for one, foresees ``a very challenging and difficult environment for global stock markets,'' with heightened risks of protectionism, accelerating inflation and higher interest rates.

Labor's advocates argue that workers have been left behind while business owners have benefited disproportionately from the strongest world economy since the 1970s. Among the Group of Seven major industrialized economies, workers' share of national income shrank to a record-low 54 percent last year, while the share going to profits rose to 16 percent from 10 percent five years earlier, according to Morgan Stanley research.

Wages in the dozen nations sharing the euro barely shifted last year even as the region, which expanded yesterday to include Slovenia, enjoyed its strongest growth in six years. ``Economic data is so good that employees must have a share in the success they've helped to bring about,'' says Juergen Peters, head of IG Metall, Germany's largest labor union.
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LONDON (AP) -- Headlines ahead of the New Year portrayed a country of job seeking-Britons brushed aside by Bulgarians and overrun by Romanians.

"See EU soon," wrote the Sun. "You can't stop us coming," portended the Daily Mail -- two newspapers that have made fretting about immigration and its effect on Britain a mission.

While the prospect of masses of Romanians and Bulgarians storming the shores of Britain on Jan. 1 was unlikely, as veteran EU members have not fully opened their labor markets to the newcomers, such worries stem from events of the past few years.

After the last EU expansion in 2004, when Poland and nine other nations joined, Britain was one of a handful of EU nations that opened its doors -- and saw a flood of more than half a million newcomers taking jobs as builders, food servers and clerks in London and across the country -- confounding official reassurances.

Should countries like Britain want hundreds of thousands of Polish migrants? Many economists say yes, because they make labor markets more efficient and create economic growth. But workers -- and politicians -- see competitors who keep salaries low.

The British fears about potential Romanian and Bulgarian emigres is part of a wider debate about globalization: Is economic freedom ultimately to everyone's benefit?

The tumult in Britain was stoked Wednesday by a report by a conservative think tank claiming immigration is of almost negligible benefit to the average citizen. And while critics argued that the report by MigrationWatch lacked empirical heft, this failed to quell the debate.

"Immigration can be a real benefit to the country, but only if it is properly controlled," said David Davis, the shadow home secretary for the Conservatives.

The report from Migrationwatch said the financial benefits of immigrants amounted to less than a few pence.

"Of course many immigrants make a useful contribution to the economy but taken in total the economic benefit is at best marginal," said the group's chairman Sir Andrew Green. "The main beneficiaries are the immigrants themselves who are able to send home about 10 million pounds ($19.5 million) a day, not the host nation."

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Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. added a greater-than-forecast 167,000 workers to payrolls in December and incomes grew by the most in eight months, adding to evidence the economy is weathering a slump in housing and manufacturing.

The gain in employment followed a 154,000 rise in November that was larger than previously estimated, the Labor Department reported today. The jobless rate held at 4.5 percent.

The job market's resilience suggests incomes will grow enough to keep consumers spending and the economy expanding. The report may ease concern among some Federal Reserve policy makers about slowing growth, while increasing the risk that higher wages will fuel inflation.

``The economy's in pretty good shape,'' said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. ``There is no likelihood of a near-term change in monetary policy.''

Economists predicted payrolls would rise by 100,000 following a previously reported 132,000 November increase, according to the median estimate of 70 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from no change to an increase of 164,000.

Treasuries slumped after the report, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up 8 basis points to 4.69 percent at 8:48 a.m. in New York.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats' promise of a quick increase in the minimum wage ran aground Wednesday in the Senate, where lawmakers are insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses that rely on low-pay workers.

On a 54-43 vote, Democrats lost an effort to advance a House-passed bill that would lift the pay floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour without any accompanying tax cut. Opponents of the tax cut needed 60 votes to prevail.

The vote sent a message to House Democrats and liberals in the Senate that only a hybrid tax and minimum wage package could succeed in the Senate. But any tax breaks in the bill would put the Senate on a collision course with the House, which is required by the Constitution to initiate tax measures.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Union membership dropped to 12 percent of U.S. workers last year, extending a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a third belonged to unions. After membership had held steady at 12.5 percent in 2005, it declined anew last year, a decrease of more than 325,000 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to boost the federal minimum wage by $2.10 to $7.25 an hour over two years, but packaged the increase with controversial tax cuts for small businesses and higher taxes for many $1 million-plus executives.

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- About 13,000 Chrysler workers will lose their jobs under a plan designed to cut the struggling automaker's costs and return it to profitability by next year.

The plan, announced Wednesday, also calls for closing the company's Newark, Del., assembly plant, and reducing shifts at plants in Warren, Mich., and St. Louis. A parts distribution center near Cleveland also will be closed.

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DETROIT (AP) -- The fallout from Chrysler's big downsizing announcement will hit eight factories in addition to the three initially identified by the company.

The eight plants, in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, make components that go into slower-selling mid-sized sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and other large vehicles on which Chrysler plans to cut production through 2009.

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The Chrysler Group, which had an operating loss of $1.475 billion in 2006 and expects to show losses through 2007, announced Wednesday that it would eliminate 13,000 positions, including 11,000 production jobs and 2,000 white-collar posts, as it seeks to cut costs and return to profitability in 2008.

Of the production job cuts, 9,000 are in the U.S. and 2,000 are in Canada.

Chrysler, part of Germany-based DaimlerChrysler AG, said Wednesday it plans to close the Newark, Del., assembly plant during the next two years and cut shifts at plants in Warren, Mich., and St. Louis. The company also announced that a parts distribution center which employs 100 workers near Cleveland also will close this year.

On Thursday, company officials said much of the impact would be in southeastern Michigan, where 5,300 people will lose their jobs by 2009.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Monday its plans for nine stores in areas in need of economic revitalization and said it will use those stores to help other businesses in the area develop.

Wal-Mart Vice Chairman John Menzer, who heads the company's U.S. operation, was traveling to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh to announce that the company is moving into neighborhoods in each of those cities where commerce has faltered.

Menzer said Wal-Mart is working with local chambers of commerce, business groups and minority-owned businesses with the goal of guiding new suppliers and helping new or existing shops thrive.

"We're looking at working families that need us the most," Menzer said. "That's where we want to go."

As jobs are created around the new Wal-Mart stores, tax revenue will rise and the neighborhood economy will improve, Menzer said. Two of the stores are already open -- in Chicago and Portsmouth, Va.

In April, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said the company planned to build 50 stores in areas with high crime or high unemployment. At the store on Chicago's west side and at the nine identified Monday, Wal-Mart will offer advertising to the other businesses in local newspapers and through the audio feed in Wal-Mart stores.

At each of the stores, five small businesses will be picked each quarter for the special treatment, the ultimate focus of which will be "how to take advantage of having a Wal-Mart in your market," Menzer said.

Near the Chicago store -- the first in the city limits for the retail giant -- Menzer said a number of new businesses are under development nearby, including a coffee shop, a drug store and a home improvement center.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of laid-off workers filing for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week after having been driven higher the previous week by storm-related layoffs. The Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits totaled 332,000 last week, down by 27,000 from the previous week.

The prior week jobless claims had jumped by 46,000, the biggest one-week surge since September 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Part of that big increase occurred because of winter storms which boosted layoffs in such industries as construction.

The four-week moving average for claims edged up from 326,700 to 328,000, the highest level for this average since early December.

But economists cautioned that the jobless claims figures at the moment may merely reflect the difficulty the government has in seasonally adjusting the numbers at this time of year when major winter snowstorms can alter the number of people showing up at claims offices in any one week.

"We may not get a clear read on the underlying pace of layoffs until March," said Omair Sharif, an economic strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. He said it would be premature based on current information to contend that layoffs have diverged significantly from the 315,000 weekly average for all of last year.

The nation's unemployment rose to 4.6 percent in January, the highest level in four months, and economists believe that rate will rise further perhaps as high as 5 percent in coming months as a slowing economy increases layoffs. Already the slump in housing and weakness in auto manufacturing are triggering layoffs in those industries.

Nevertheless, a seasonally adjusted civilian jobless rate of 4 percent to 5 percent is low by historical standards.

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March 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. workers were less productive last quarter than initially estimated and labor costs jumped, making it harder for the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates even as manufacturing and housing continue to slump.

Productivity, a measure of how much an employee produces for each hour of work, rose at an annual rate of 1.6 percent, down from the 3 percent pace reported last month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Labor costs climbed 6.6 percent, reflecting a one-time increase in bonuses. Separately, the Commerce Department said factory orders fell in January by the most in more than six years.

The figures mean inflation may be slow to dissipate even though economic growth is tailing off, creating headaches for Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke as concerns about a possible 2007 recession mount. Housing, whose slump triggered the slowdown in growth, so far shows few signs of bouncing back: A report from the National Association of Realtors today showed fewer Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes.

``The Fed's room to maneuver has diminished considerably,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. ``The inflation numbers are worrisome, and we would have to have substantially more weakening in the economy for the Fed to cut rates soon.''

For all of last year, productivity -- how much an employee produces for each hour of work -- increased 1.6 percent, the slowest since 1997. Labor costs rose 3.2 percent, the most in six years.

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By Brian K. Sullivan and James M. O'Neill

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street recruiters can be as aggressive as professional football players, says Chris Eitzmann, who will receive his master of business administration degree in May from Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business.

``Once given the offer, you are getting anywhere from two or three to four phone calls a day,'' said Eitzmann, 29, who graduated in 2000 from Harvard College and spent three years in the National Football League. ``They want to know if they can talk to your wife. Can they have their wife talk to your wife?''

Competition for MBAs from banks such as New York-based Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may push starting- pay packages above last year, when graduates averaged a record $186,174 in total compensation at Harvard Business School and $183,000 at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. It also is prompting universities to crack down on the timing and number of on-campus recruiting events...

...Salaries and signing bonuses for newly minted MBAs nationwide were the highest last year since the data have been tracked, said Bob Ludwig, a spokesman for the Graduate Management Admission Council in McLean, Virginia. The average salary was $92,360 and the signing bonus was $17,603.

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Wal-Mart made its annual bonus for store employees public for the first time in two decades Thursday, saying that about 80 percent of hourly workers in its stores would split more than a half-billion dollars.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the target of union-backed critics who decry its pay and benefits. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said it was making the bonuses public as a new way to honor its employees, not in response to critics.

Based on the numbers Wal-Mart released, the mathematical average payment would be $651 per worker but Wal-Mart said the individual amounts varied. It declined to provide a range or the specific level of payments, citing competition with other employers.

In the past, the bonus has been $1,000 for full-time workers and up to $500 for part-timers, according to former Wal-Mart managers who declined to be named because the information is competitive.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark declined to provide individual figures but said the payments varied based on two main benchmarks: whether an employee's store met profit and sales targets for the year and whether an employee is full time or part time.

Adele Phillips, whose contact information was provided by Wal-Mart, said her bonus was "substantially over $1,000" and more than last year. The full-time administrative assistant at a Wal-Mart store in Moreno Valley, Calif., declined to be more specific.

"Most of the stores are having a barbecue or some kind of special lunch today because everybody's worked hard for this," said Phillips, who has worked for Wal-Mart since 1982.

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ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) -- Fastened to the wall of a florist shop a block from where thousands of autoworkers once toiled is a black foil balloon splashed with musical notes and the words "Good Luck." This central Indiana city -- once pulsing with 22,000 auto jobs and a dozen auto plants -- is hoping for some.

The last auto manufacturing job will disappear in July, ending a love affair between the city and the auto industry after nearly 100 years. Recruiting new businesses and diversifying the economy represent Anderson's future.

"It's going to be long and slow on the recovery here," said Troy Davis, owner of the Flower Hut. "It's better than it was. Five years ago, everybody was hemorrhaging."

Struggles of the U.S. auto industry have accelerated a drop in American union membership that is helping transform communities such as Anderson across the Midwest.

As foreign automakers eat away at the market share of their U.S. counterparts, unionized plants run by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and their former parts operations have closed or downsized and some jobs have moved overseas.

Union membership in manufacturing has fallen 1.3 percentage points to 11.7 percent, the first time statistics have shown it at a lower rate than among the national work force. Membership in the UAW fell below 600,000 in 2005, from a peak of 1.5 million in the late 1970s.

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Circuit City to Cut More Than 3,500 Store and IT Jobs

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Circuit City Stores Inc. said Wednesday it plans to cut costs by laying off about 3,400 store workers and hiring lower-paid employees to replace them, and by trimming about 130 corporate jobs.

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Citigroup Reportedly Considering Plan to Cut About 15,000 Jobs, or Nearly 5 Pct. of Work Force

Monday March 26, 6:27 pm ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. expects to have completed its corporate cost review by mid-April, company officials said Monday, as published reports suggested the nation's largest bank was considering cutting about 15,000 jobs.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Newly laid-off workers signed up for unemployment benefits at a faster pace last week as companies try to cope with sluggish growth in the national economy.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for jobless benefits rose by a seasonally adjusted 11,000, to 321,000, for the work week ending March 31.

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April 6 (Bloomberg) -- American employers added more workers than forecast in March and the jobless rate matched a five-year low, giving the economy a spark as it struggles to overcome slumps in housing and manufacturing.

The 180,000 increase in employment, the most in three months, followed a 113,000 gain in February that was larger than previously estimated, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The jobless rate fell to 4.4 percent, a level last seen in October, defying predictions it would climb.

Plentiful jobs and bigger paychecks are giving more people the means to spend, preventing the housing recession from spreading to the rest of the economy. The report takes some of the pressure off Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to cut interest rates. Bonds tumbled and the dollar jumped.

``The expansion is going to keep rolling,'' said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services Inc. in Boston. ``The Fed isn't going to move rates any time this year.''

Separately, the Commerce Department reported that sales at U.S. wholesalers outpaced inventories in February, which may lay the groundwork for a manufacturing rebound in coming months.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest financial institution, said Wednesday it will eliminate about 17,000 jobs as part of a companywide restructuring to reduce costs and improve profit.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in two months. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless benefits totaled 342,000 last week, up 19,000 from the previous week.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jobseekers had a harder time finding work last month as the economy cooled and wary employers added the fewest positions in two and a half years. The jobless rate edged up to 4.5 percent.

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By Joe Richter

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Hiring in the U.S. rebounded in May from a two-year low and wage gains accelerated, providing a lift to an economy buffeted by a struggling housing market and record gasoline prices, reports this week may show.

The projected 135,000 increase in payrolls would follow a 88,000 gain in April, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The jobless rate is forecast to remain at 4.5 percent, according to the survey.

Rising wages are helping Americans cope with fuel costs and decreased home values, helping stabilize growth and increasing the odds that the economy will recover in the second half as the Federal Reserve forecasts. That's after the economy expanded in the first quarter at the slowest since late 2002. The Commerce Department will issue a new estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product this week.

``We're getting decent job growth, consistent with moderate growth in the economy,'' said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc. in New York. ``Consumer spending probably won't stay up at the pace we've seen, but it will be enough to keep the economy moving ahead. Growth is adequate for the Fed.''

The Labor Department's payroll figures are scheduled for release on June 1.
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May 30 (Bloomberg) -- The slump in homebuilding, the deepest since 1990, has so far taken only a modest toll on the U.S. job market. Workers like Francisco Leon may be part of the explanation.

Two years ago, Leon, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, had little trouble finding construction work five days a week in northern Virginia. Nowadays, the 22-year-old mainly does odd jobs, often only two days a week.

As Congress debates whether to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, workers like Leon, hired off the books for day labor, are among the first to lose their jobs as homebuilding falters. Such workers often go uncounted as well, meaning official labor statistics don't fully reflect the decline in construction-related jobs.

``There have been cuts already; we just haven't seen them in the official statistics,'' said Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York. ``We've already done half of the adjustment. The other half will be more visible.''

Credit Suisse Holdings Inc. estimates that about 173,000 housing-related payroll jobs, including builders, painters and construction-materials makers, have been shed in the past year. As many as 250,000 more may be lost, figures Jay Feldman, senior economist at Credit Suisse in New York.

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June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. hired more workers than forecast last month, signaling the economy is rebounding from the weakest growth in four years.

The 157,000 increase in employment followed a 80,000 gain in April, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate stayed at 4.5 percent, close to a five-year low.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The productivity of American workers slowed sharply in the first three months of this year but wage pressures eased as well, providing evidence that inflation is being restrained.
The Labor Department reported that the amount of output per hour of work for nonfarm businesses rose at annual rate of 1 percent in the January-March quarter. That was the slowest advance since the third quarter of last year and was below the government's initial estimate that productivity rose at a 1.7 percent rate in the first quarter.

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MILWAUKEE — Only 29 percent of companies expect to add new positions in the next three months, which is typically the best time of the year for hiring, according to a survey of 14,000 employers being released Tuesday.

The survey by Milwaukee-based global staffing company Manpower Inc. also showed 7 percent of companies said they expect to reduce employment.

In the same quarter last year, a larger 31 percent of employers predicted they'd increase hiring and a smaller 6 percent expected a decrease.

People looking for jobs in the summer months will have to prove to employers they have the right skills, Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres said.

"There's still demand out there for people," Joerres said. "The demand will only be used in very judicious ways. But they are interested in hiring and they're going to do it carefully."

In the latest report, the majority of employers _ 58 percent _ expected no change in hiring between July and September, while 6 percent of companies were unsure of their plans.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits shot up unexpectedly last week, rising to the highest level in two months.

The Labor Department reported that unemployment claims totaled 324,000 last week, up 10,000 from the previous week. The big increase was unexpected.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid off people signing up for jobless benefits went up last week but that didn't darken the big picture of a mostly healthy employment climate across the country.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 2,000 to 318,000 for the week ending June 30. The level of claims was slightly higher than the 315,000 that economists were expecting but nevertheless was in a range that pointed to a sturdy job market -- aside from pockets of weakness in construction and other industries still feeling the strain of the yearlong housing slump.

The four-week moving average of new claims, which smooths out week-to-week fluctuations, rose by 1,750 last week to 318,500, the highest since late April.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits increased to 2.57 million for the work week ending June 23, the most recent period for which this information is available. That was the highest since mid-April.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers boosted payrolls by a better-than-expected 132,000 jobs in June, enough to keep the unemployment rate at a relatively low 4.5 percent. It was another sign that the economy is snapping out of a nearly yearlong sluggish spell.

The latest picture of the nation's employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, also showed that workers saw solid gains in their wages last month.

The tally of 132,000 new jobs was stronger than the 125,000 that economists were forecasting. They did, however, predict that job growth would be sufficient to hold the unemployment rate at 4.5 percent, where it has stood for three straight months.

"The economy seems poised to return to its full potential," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at LaSalle Bank. "Employers are seeking opportunities to add to their talent pools. The demand for labor is being driven by very solid demand for goods and services."

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In Peru, Ines Gonzalez-Lehman directed a 14-person marketing team at a high-tech firm. After marrying an American and immigrating legally to the U.S., she found herself making copies and answering phones at the bottom of the corporate ladder.

The immigration reform bill that recently failed in the Senate would have increased the number of visas for highly educated workers. But there remain tens of thousands of skilled immigrants like Gonzalez-Lehman who are here and authorized to work, but stuck in jobs where their experience is wasted.

Learning how their industry works in the United States, finding out about openings, talking up their assets in a way that appeals to an American employer -- those steps, simple to someone educated in the United States, can block the path between a newcomer and work she is well-trained to perform.

"This is clearly an under-leveraged talent pool," said John Bradley, director of human resources at the investment bank JP Morgan Chase & Co. "We're in constant need of a supply of talent and this is a viable, well-trained source that we hadn't focused on in the past."

JP Morgan Chase is among the dozens of companies actively seeking trained immigrants already in the United States through Upwardly Global, a San Francisco-based nonprofit placement agency. The organization, which also has a New York office, is unusual among immigrant advocacy groups in that it focuses solely on well-educated legal immigrants, sharpening their ability to market themselves and connecting them with employers interested in their skills.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of laid off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in two months.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell to 301,000 last week, a decline of 8,000 from the previous week. It marked the second straight weekly improvement and pushed total claims down to the lowest point since the week of May 12.

The second straight weekly decline in jobless claims pushed the four-week average down to 312,000 last week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday's increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.

Many lawmakers, along with advocates for low-wage workers, are celebrating the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Yet many acknowledge that raising it from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 will provide only meager help for some of the lowest paid workers.

About 1.7 million people made $5.15 or less in 2006, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"The reality for a minimum wage worker is that every penny makes a difference because low-wage workers make the choice between putting food on the table and paying for electricity or buying clothes for their children," said Beth Shulman, former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
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WAYNE, Mich. (AP) -- As he walks along a row of partially built sport utility vehicles, Curtis Giles is watching the overhead signs, hoping for green but looking for red letters that could spell trouble.

He's a union guy with what could be a management job, helping production workers at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck plant solve problems and keep quality as high as possible as Lincoln Navigators and Ford Expeditions slowly move down the assembly line.

But this summer, life is different inside the hot, sprawling 2.9 million-square-foot plant west of Detroit that once made the big sport utility vehicles almost around the clock. And things have changed dramatically for the worse at Ford since the early part of the century when demand for profitable SUVs was almost insatiable.

Michigan Truck is down to one shift and has about 1,400 hourly employees, producing about half of the 1,000 SUVs it made daily back in the good times. Ford has fared about the same, borrowing billions to restructure as gas prices rose and consumers shifted from its SUVs and trucks to more fuel efficient models.

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BERLIN (AP) -- When Thomas Haebich started working on the assembly line at Daimler-Benz AG two decades ago, he thought he had a job for life. But he no longer feels he can count on it.

On the contrary, today the 40-year-old auto worker often fears that he might lose his job at the car plant in the southern German town of Sindelfingen. He is convinced that on the long run German companies will not be able to compete with the emerging automobile industry in Asia.

"Only last year, Daimler paid compensation for 3,000 workers because they wanted them to leave the company," Haebich said. "If you look ahead another 10 years, China will push forward on the automobile market in such an aggressive way that we will no longer be able to beat their cheap products."

Haebich works weekly rotating shifts at the assembly line that makes the Mercedes E-class model, installing pedals and brake systems on up to 260 vehicles during a regular eight-hour workday.

Technically he has a 35-hour week, but in practice he works 40 hours a week and then gets to take compensatory time off when the company has fewer orders and not enough work to keep all 22,000 employees at the Sindelfingen plant busy.

Haebich became a member of the IG Metall union when he joined Daimler-Benz -- now DaimlerChrysler AG -- at age 20. He earns $4,682 a month pretax -- after all deductions he has $2,118 left to cover his living expenses. By German law, Haebich has to have health insurance, pays into a pension fund and also deposits money into a life insurance fund offered by Daimler.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070722/global_auto_workers_germany.html?.v=2

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Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. added fewer jobs in July than forecast, a private report based on payroll data showed today.

The 48,000 increase followed a revised gain of 143,000 for the prior month that was less than previously estimated, ADP Employer Services said.

The worst housing slump in 16 years and high fuel costs have damped consumer demand, prompting companies to slow hiring. A Labor Department report this week is forecast to show the economy added jobs in July at about the same pace as in June, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

``Employment growth is slowing to some extent,'' said David Sloan, senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, before the report. ``Housing remains weak, and will be a negative for the labor market. The manufacturing sector is still laying off workers though not at the strong pace we'd seen earlier.''

The ADP report was forecast to show a gain of 100,000, according to the median estimate of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from 60,000 to 120,000.

Employers added 130,000 workers to their payrolls last month after a gain of 132,000 in June, according to the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey ahead of the Labor Department's Aug. 3 report. Economists also forecast the unemployment rate held at 4.5 percent for a fourth month and wages were up 3.8 percent from July 2006.

ADP includes only private employment and does not take into account hiring by government agencies. Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis produces the report jointly with ADP.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aThEqKlUD7a0&refer=home

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid off people signing up for jobless benefits went up modestly last week, although the latest figures suggest employment conditions around the country remain good.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 4,000 to 307,000 for the week ending July 28. That was a better showing than economists expected; they were forecasting claims to rise to 310,000.

New claims also are lower now than a year ago, when they stood at 315,000.

In another report, U.S. factories saw demand for their products improve in June -- but not as much as some hoped. The Commerce Department said new orders rose 0.6 percent, compared with a 0.5 percent drop in May. Economists, however, were calling for a bigger, 1 percent gain.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070802/economy.html?.v=11

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hiring cooled off in July, pushing the nation's unemployment up to 4.6 percent, a six-month high.

The fresh snapshot of employment conditions around the country, released by the Labor Department Friday, also showed that new job creation slowed. Employers increased payrolls by 92,000 last month, the fewest add-ons in a single month since February.

Job losses in construction, manufacturing, retailing and by the government blunted gains in education and health care, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality.

Even with the uptick from June's 4.5 percent unemployment rate, the current jobless rate is still low by historical standards. Those with jobs, meanwhile, did see modest wage gains...

Average hourly earnings rose to $17.45, a 0.3 percent increase from June. That matched economists' expectations. Over the past 12 months, wages grew by 3.9 percent...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070803/economy.html?.v=11

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DETROIT (AP) -- As bargainers for the United Auto Workers and the domestic automakers try to reach a new contract, Kenneth Cooksey is one of many workers who doesn't understand why the companies are so focused on the cost of labor.

By most accounts, labor expenses for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC amount to about 10 percent of the price of a new vehicle, including wages, benefits and "legacy" costs for retiree pensions and health care.

So Cooksey, a 37-year Ford worker from Detroit, doesn't buy the companies' logic that they have to erase a roughly $25 per hour labor cost gap with their Japanese competitors -- Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.

"We can't help it because the foreigners don't have the legacy costs because they just came over," said Cooksey, who works at a plant just west of Detroit that assembles the Focus small car.

Nissan, Honda and Toyota all pay about the same wages as the Detroit Three. The companies say the cost gap comes in other areas such as health care for active and retired workers, absenteeism, paid days off, and the jobs bank, in which workers get most of their pay when laid off.

By some accounts, the biggest chunk of that $25 the companies want to shave is in retiree health care.

But the union likely will focus the contract talks on the nonlabor costs of building cars and trucks, much of which is controlled by the companies. The current pacts with the Detroit Three expire Sept. 14.

"The vast majority of the costs of producing a vehicle and transporting it to a dealership and preparing it for sale -- including design, engineering, marketing, raw materials, executive compensation and other costs -- are not related to direct or indirect manufacturing labor," the UAW said in a fact book written for reporters covering the talks.

However, the domestic automakers pay $1,200 to $1,500 per car just for health care, a huge competitive difference that has to be addressed, said Laurie Harbour-Felax, managing director at Stout Risius Ross Inc., a financial and strategic advisory company.

"We'll never be able to compete in the same situation with the Japanese because they don't have the same issues," said Harbour-Felax, who wrote a study that found a $2,400 profit gap per vehicle between the Detroit Three and the Japanese automakers.

About half the gap can be attributed to the labor cost difference, she said.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070805/auto_talks.html?.v=5

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DETROIT (AP) -- Delphi Corp. cleared another hurdle in its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings when a key union ended a strike threat and tentatively agreed to a four-year contract. The two sides reached the revised labor agreement about 10 p.m. Sunday, the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America said in a news release.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070806/delphi_bankruptcy.html?.v=4

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The productivity of American workers rebounded in the spring while wage pressures eased, a combination that should be welcomed at the Federal Reserve.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that worker efficiency rose at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the April-June quarter, more than double the 0.7 percent pace of the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile, unit labor costs rose at a 2.1 percent rate, marking the second consecutive quarter that wage pressures have eased. While rising wages are good for workers, if wages rise too quickly they can spur unwanted inflation.

Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, is the key ingredient for rising living standards. As long as productivity is rising at a solid rate, the increased output allows businesses to pay their workers more without having to boost the cost of their products, which increases inflation.

The 1.8 percent rise in productivity in the second quarter was slightly below the 2 percent advance that had been expected.

The productivity increase reflected the fact that overall economic output, as measured by the gross domestic product, jumped sharply in the spring to an annual rate of 3.4 percent, the fastest pace in more than a year and up sharply from an anemic 0.6 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year.

Economists believe that the continued slump in housing and the spillover problems in credit markets will depress growth for several more months. They are forecasting that overall economic growth will slow to around 2.5 percent in the second half of this year and unemployment will edge up. The jobless rate rose in July to 4.6 percent.

After slowing sharply for two decades, productivity began to rebound in the mid-1990s, thanks to increased business investments in labor-enhancing equipment such as computers.

But productivity has been slowing in recent years, leaving economists to wonder if it is just a normal occurrence as part of the business cycle or a sign that the productivity boom of the late 1990s and early part of this decade is beginning to fade.

Revised data released Tuesday showed that the slowdown in productivity growth was even more pronounced than previously believed. The government said that productivity rose by just 1 percent last year, down from a previous estimate of 1.6 percent. For 2005, the increase was 1.9 percent after a 2.7 percent rise in 2004. Previously, 2005 had been put at 2.1 percent and 2004 at 2.9 percent.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070807/economy.html?.v=11

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Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- FedEx Corp. is speeding toward a collision inside an Indiana federal courthouse where drivers at the company's ground-delivery unit are demanding full-time status.

The court is weighing suits filed by 150 independent contract drivers who say they are treated as full-time employees and should be paid as such. Limiting the FedEx ground delivery unit's use of contractors may wreck its chances of gaining on larger rival United Parcel Service Inc. The unit helped FedEx take as much as 19 percent of the ground delivery market while UPS has fallen from 82 percent to 70 percent in the last decade.

Losing the battle could flatten the company's model of using workers who are self-employed and don't get benefits or paid time off. FedEx may have to buy as many as 15,000 drivers' trucks for $45,000 apiece. That $630 million bill could jump even higher if health care, pension costs and back pay are added.

``Treating any particular class of workers as independent contractors is, in many ways, an all-or-nothing proposition,'' said Carey Bartell, a labor lawyer at Reed Smith in Chicago. ``If you're right, you avoid certain expense and hassle. If you're wrong, however, you can lose big.''

The FedEx cases are before a federal judge in South Bend, Indiana, who will decide after a hearing later this month whether the claims of contractors from 29 states should be combined in a single lawsuit. If the suit goes forward, the court will decide if the law allows for making the jobs full time.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aKKEUospuNr4&refer=exclusive

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Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- First-time applications for jobless benefits fell last week, evidence that the U.S. labor market is holding up in the face of a widening credit crunch.

Initial unemployment claims declined by 2,000, in line with forecasts, to 322,000 in the week that ended Aug. 18, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, rose to 317,750 from 313,000.

Business investment and strong economies overseas are supporting demand, prompting U.S. companies to retain workers. Americans facing falling home values and turbulent stock markets are getting help from income gains, keeping consumer spending from deteriorating, economists said.

``The job market appears to be holding up well enough to support consumer spending for now,'' Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. ``Despite some concerns that the turbulence could put the brakes on economic growth, the labor market continues to hang in there.''

Economists had forecast initial jobless claims would fall by 2,000 from an initially reported 322,000 the prior week, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.OyvZ1n7NeQ&refer=home

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WASHINGTON -- The Teamsters Union said it has been told by officials in the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks will be coming across the border on Saturday.

The union said Wednesday it would ask a federal appeals courts to block the Bush administration's plan to begin allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

Teamsters leaders said they planned to seek an emergency injunction Wednesday from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"What a slap in the face to American workers, opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year," said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.

Joining the Teamsters in seeking the emergency stay were the Sierra Club and Public Citizen.

"Before providing unconditional access throughout the country to tens of thousands of big rigs we know little to nothing about, we must insure they meet safety and environmental standards," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in a statement, said it was working closely with the department's inspector general "as his office completes an additional assessment of the program and we prepare a detailed response to that report."

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/politics/14003768/detail.html?rss=dgo&psp=news

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HOUSTON (AP) -- So much for sweating out that first job after college. Like star athletes, engineering students Julie Arsenault and Emily Reasor are prized prospects for the energy industry, which is experiencing dizzying demand for engineers.

Bustling oilfield activity and retiring baby boomers, among other factors, have petroleum outfits large and small trying to hire thousands of engineers, and experts say the trend is expected to extend into the next decade as worldwide energy demand grows.

"I've talked to quite a few of my peers, and we know we're in a good spot," Cornell University's Reasor said as she and Arsenault, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took part in a weeklong recruitment program sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell's U.S. arm. "It's nice to know we're needed."

Management consulting firm Oliver Wyman says roughly eight in 10 global oil and gas companies forecast a shortage of petroleum engineers through at least 2011. The American Petroleum Institute said U.S. energy companies will need at least another 5,000 engineers by decade's end.

In Houston, home to scores of exploration, engineering and services companies, simply check the classified ads: Row upon row of job listings for engineers at ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and numerous others.

Petroleum engineers evaluate potential oil and gas reservoirs, work with geologists and other specialists to understand rock formations, determine drilling methods and then monitor drilling and recovery operations. One of their big tasks is to design methods that achieve maximum recovery of oil and gas.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070902/engineering_shortage.html?.v=5

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Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. hired enough workers in August to keep the unemployment rate near a six-year low, helping the nation weather turmoil in housing and credit markets, economists project a report this week will show.

Employers added 109,000 workers to payrolls last month, following a gain of 92,000 in July, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of a Labor Department report Sept. 7. A private report Sept. 4 may show manufacturing continued to expand.

``The underlying fundamentals are sound and the economy continues to grind forward,'' said Carl Riccadonna, an economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. Growing employment ``largely avoids the economy going into a steeper downturn.''

Job and wage growth may sustain consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, as home values fall and loans become more difficult to get. The figures are the first economy-wide reports since credit costs surged globally last month in the wake of subprime losses that prompted the Federal Reserve to lower a key interest rate.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR1cPSKDREZo&refer=home

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private employers likely added 38,000 jobs in August, far fewer than analysts had expected and the slowest rate of growth in four years, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The report also revised July's private sector job growth downward to 41,000 from the originally reported 48,000 jobs. The employment report was developed jointly by ADP and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070905/usa_economy1.html?.v=3

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Worker productivity rebounded, growing at the fastest pace in nearly two years, while wage pressures eased sharply in the spring -- developments that should reduce inflation worries.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, jumped to an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent in the April-June quarter, even better than the 1.8 percent increase that was originally reported.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070906/economy.html?.v=13

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By Bob Willis

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost jobs in August for the first time in four years, raising the risk the economy may stall in the second half and serving as a warning for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

Employers cut 4,000 workers from payrolls, compared with a revised gain of 68,000 in July that was smaller than previously reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The unemployment rate held at 4.6 percent as almost 600,000 people left the workforce.

``Rate cuts will be right around the corner,'' Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. ``At this stage, they don't need the cover of any more weak economic data to act.''

The drop in jobs is the clearest sign yet that the deepening housing recession and turmoil in credit markets are hurting the wider economy. Payrolls are one of the main factors, along with sales, incomes and production, that help determine the starting point of economic contractions, and today's report may raise the odds the Fed reduces rates even before the Sept. 18 meeting.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast that payrolls rose 100,000 during the month, according to the median of 88 estimates, compared with an originally reported 92,000 gain in July. None of the analysts foresaw a decline, as predictions ranged from 35,000 to 140,000.

Revisions subtracted 81,000 workers from payroll figures previously reported for June and July.

Wages gained 3.9 percent in August from a year earlier. Workers' average hourly earnings rose 5 cents, or 0.3 percent, after a 0.3 percent increase the previous month.

Source of Losses

Manufacturers, builders and the government led the drop in payrolls last month. Factory payrolls slid by 46,000, the most since July 2003, after slipping 1,000 a month earlier. Economists had forecast a drop of 10,000 in manufacturing employment.

Payrolls at builders dropped by 22,000 after falling 14,000 a month earlier. Government payrolls decreased by 28,000.

Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, added 60,000 workers last month after boosting payrolls by 78,000 in July, the report showed. Retailers added 12,500 jobs after hiring 5,000 in July.

Average weekly hours worked by production workers held at 33.8. Average weekly earnings gained to $591.50 last month from $589.81 the prior month.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said the central bank would do what's needed to prevent the credit-market turmoil from undoing the six-year economic expansion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ajhV9Gbe1GOo&refer=us

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MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Employers are predicting another stable quarter of hiring, with 27 percent of companies expecting to add positions in the last three months of the year, according to a survey of 14,000 companies being released Tuesday.

Nine percent of companies said they expect to reduce employment, according to the survey by Milwaukee-based global staffing firm Manpower Inc.

The numbers are on par with hiring intentions from the same quarter last year, when 28 percent of employers predicted they'd increase hiring and 8 percent expected a decrease.

The numbers also show employers are holding off on making any big moves amid the ups and downs on Wall Street and a sagging housing market, said Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America. Given the uncertainty about the economy, stable hiring is good news, he said.

In the latest report, the majority of employers -- 58 percent -- expected no change in hiring between October and December, while 6 percent of companies were unsure of their plans.

For the July-September quarter, 29 percent of employers said they planned to increase hiring and 7 percent said they planned a decline.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070911/jobs_outlook.html?.v=4

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose last week in another worrisome sign that the labor market is weakening. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 4,000 last week to 319,000. It marked the sixth increase in the past seven weeks and was a further sign that the economy is feeling the impact of a steep slump in housing and a spreading credit crisis.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070913/economy.html?.v=11

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DETROIT (AP) -- The United Auto Workers union likely chose General Motors Corp. as the lead company in labor talks with the Detroit Three because GM is considered the healthiest and the UAW wants to prevent the nation's largest automaker from moving more manufacturing overseas, industry analysts said.

Two local union officials said they received notice Thursday afternoon that GM would be the lead company in the contract negotiations and the UAW's potential strike target. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

Contracts between the UAW and GM expire Friday at midnight. Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have agreed to indefinite extensions of their contracts, according to spokeswomen at those automakers. Typically, the union negotiates an agreement with the lead company it chooses, then reaches similar agreements with the other two.

Talks with the nation's largest automaker were continuing into the night Thursday, said a person who was briefed on the negotiations. The person requested anonymity because the talks are private.

Rumors of a possible bankruptcy were swirling around GM as recently as 2005. But the automaker has chalked up three profitable quarters as it shed thousands of jobs and closed plants in a massive restructuring. GM posted net income of $891 million in the second quarter of this year.

"Historically, the union picked the strongest company financially and operationally so that they could extract a rich contract out of the more prosperous one and go about imposing it on the weaker companies," said David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities.

Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst with the consulting firm Global Insight, said the UAW also wants GM to commit to building products at union plants.

GM has the best international connections of the Detroit Three and could easily move more products to lower-cost countries, Bragman said. For example, GM Daewoo exported nearly 117,000 Chevrolet Aveos from South Korea to the United States last year.

Bragman also said GM has been pushing hardest for the UAW to form a trust fund and take over the automakers' unfunded long-term retiree health care liability, estimated at a combined $90 billion. Negotiators were discussing how much the companies will put into the fund and what the union will get in exchange for taking on the liability.

News that the union was receptive to the health care trust fund was applauded by Wall Street on Thursday. GM shares rose $3.04, or 10.1 percent, to $33.29. Ford also rose on the news, closing up 42 cents, or 5.6 percent, at $7.92.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070914/auto_talks.html?.v=5

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