The U.S. job market’s recent improvement has some economists wondering if 2012 will break from last year’s pattern of strong job growth in the winter followed by a slowing in the spring and summer. Read the full story here.
The U.S. government allocated more than $10 billion under section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to promote job creation and renewable energy through the establishment of wind farms, solar projects, and other alternative energy initiatives. However, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the actual number of jobs produced was significantly lower than the 100,000 direct jobs reported by companies benefiting from the program. This discrepancy underscores the challenges in accurately quantifying the economic impact of stimulus spending, with some plants laying off workers and others shutting down altogether....
The share of American workers in the science and engineering professions fell slightly in the past decade, ending what had been a steady upward trend in the proportion of workers in fields associated with technological innovation and economic growth. Read the full story here.
Smaller U.S. banks and savings institutions are cutting jobs in a sign of a deepening financial-industry retrenchment that is shaking firms from Main Street to Wall Street. Read the full story here.
Despite a decade of technological advances that make it possible to work almost anywhere, many of the nation’s most educated people continue to cluster in a handful of dominant metropolitan areas such as Boston, New York and California’s Silicon Valley, according to census data released Thursday. Read the full story here.