American employers added an unanticipated barrage of workers in May, reaffirming the labor market’s vigor. Defying expectations of a slowdown, payrolls grew by 339,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday. The increase, the largest since January, suggested that the job market was still piping hot despite a swirl of economic […]
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Weeks after revelations that migrant children are being regularly exploited for cheap labor in the United States prompted bipartisan outrage and calls to action on Capitol Hill, Congress has moved no closer to addressing the issue, which has become mired in a long-running partisan war over immigration policy. Legislation to crack down on companies’ use […]
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The labor market is still defying gravity — for now. Employers added 253,000 jobs in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported Friday, in a departure from the cooling trend that had marked the first quarter and was expected to continue. The unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down from 3.5 percent in […]
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Last week, expanded protections for nursing mothers, officially known as the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, or PUMP Act, went into full effect, giving more workers the right to break time and a private space to pump. Congress passed the new legislation in December with large bipartisan support, but it was rolled […]
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Inflation isn’t as high as it was last year. The job market isn’t as hot. The economy is slowing down. But none of this is happening as quickly or as smoothly as Federal Reserve officials would like. The latest evidence came on Friday, when a set of government reports painted a picture of an economy […]
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Wage growth remained strong in early 2023 — good news for workers trying to keep up with the rising cost of living, but a likely source of concern for Federal Reserve officials as they try to tamp down inflation without causing a recession. Wages and salaries for private-sector U.S. workers were up 5.1 percent in […]
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Government data on Friday will provide one final update on inflation, spending and wages before the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next week. Forecasters expect data from the Labor Department to show that a key measure of wages and salaries increased about 4.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. While that would […]
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Just over a year ago, the White House suffered an embarrassing defeat when three Democratic senators voted against advancing President Biden’s pick to run a key labor agency, dealing a blow to the administration’s pro-labor agenda. On Thursday, the administration and Senate Democrats tried to ensure that history wouldn’t repeat itself, only this time the […]
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For the past several years, Ms. Jones has been developing one central philosophy: Because Black women have historically been concentrated in low-paid caregiving jobs, which are often excluded from labor laws and benefits like Social Security, they have accumulated less wealth and experienced worse health outcomes. Furthermore, Ms. Jones argues, helping Black women — through […]
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After an explosion in job growth at the start of the year, new data on Friday will show whether employers moderated their hiring in February — and whether any slowdown was enough to fundamentally upend the labor market’s momentum. Forecasters estimate that the economy added 225,000 positions last month, which would constitute a return to […]
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For four years beginning in 2014, Tiffany Palliser worked at Panera Bread in South Florida, making salads and operating the register for shifts that began at 5 a.m. and often ran late into the afternoon. Ms. Palliser estimates that she worked at least 50 hours a week on average. But she says she did not […]
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President Biden on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate Julie Su, the deputy labor secretary, to succeed Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, who has said he plans to leave the department in March. Ms. Su has helped oversee a department that put forth a series of rules meant to benefit workers, including rules designed to […]
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The Biden administration on Monday announced a wide crackdown on the labor exploitation of migrant children around the United States, including more aggressive investigations of companies benefiting from their work. The announcement came days after The New York Times published an investigation that revealed the growth of migrant child labor throughout the United States. Children, […]
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It has recently cited six Amazon warehouses for creating work environments that have high risk for musculoskeletal injuries among workers. Amazon has said the accusations don’t reflect the steps it takes to ensure worker safety. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, […]
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Other recent measures were also offering reasons to believe the economy was coming off its rolling boil. Consumer spending fell at the end of last year, a sign that Americans were finally becoming more cautious in the face of rising prices, dwindling savings and fears of recession. And the housing market appeared to be slowing […]
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