Jobs, Labor Market | featured news

Producer prices rose by the most in three years in August as energy costs surged, but underlying inflation pressures remained contained, keeping the door open to a further easing of monetary policy.

The state's labor market showed continued resilience in July as California employers added 25,200 nonfarm jobs in July, continuing a 12-month streak of job gains. With that figure, the state posted the largest month-over-month increase in the country, but the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.7%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region in July contracted for a third straight month and the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless aid surged last week, heightening worries about the economy's health.

The number of Americans signing up for new jobless benefits last week fell to a four-year low but an unusual pattern for summer factory shutdowns marred what would have been a hopeful sign for the struggling labor market.

Fiscal austerity and tough labor reforms have failed to create jobs, leading to an "alarming" situation in the global employment market that shows no sign of recovering, the International Labour Organization said on Sunday.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week but a trend reading rose to its highest since January, the latest sign of a weaker pace of healing in the still-struggling labor market.

Stocks are pulling back sharply on Wall Street as investors get their first chance to react to a slowdown in hiring in the United States in March. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 152 points to 12,908 shortly before noon Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 18 at 1,380, and the Nasdaq composite lost 36 points to 3,044.

Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased 209,000 last month, according to a national employment report published by payroll processor ADP. The gain was just above economists' median expectation of 200,000 contained in a survey done by Dow Jones Newswires.

Americans turned less optimistic about the economy in early February on worries about falling income even as their outlook on the jobs market rose to a record high, a survey released on Friday showed.

Amid signs that the overall jobs climate was improving, manufacturing stands out as an area of surprising strength.