Money & The Economy

The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in April while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, making March the 103rd straight month of job growth, according to Department of Labor data released Friday. Economists predicted 190,000 jobs would be added and the unemployment rate would hold at 3.8 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jobs numbers for March were ...

Both the GDP report and today's jobs numbers blew out analyst expectations and have largely killed the narrative that the Trump economy is short-lived and that a recession is near.

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued an “opinion letter” Monday recognizing a gig business’s workers as contract labor, a favorable sign for other companies built on the gig economy business model. A gig business is a company that uses a tech platform based online or on a smartphone app to connect customers to service providers. A couple of popular examples ...

The rate of high school graduates enrolling in higher education increased from 2017 to 2018 despite record levels of open jobs in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reports. Roughly 69 percent of all high school graduates enrolled in some form of higher education by October 2018, according to Labor Department data analyzed by WSJ. The rate is about a ...

The U.S. economy grew at an amazing pace during the first quarter of 2019, according to data from the government. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at 3.2% smashing economists’ expectations of only 2.5% and the best showing in the first quarter since 2013. The great quarter came due to private industries increased investment spending, an increase in exports by American ...

Tesla’s first quarterly earnings report of 2019 showed the company took a massive financial hit after losing a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit on Jan. 1, Greentech Media reports. Tesla released its Q1 earnings report Wednesday, showing losses greater than the already pessimistic predictions from analysts. The electric car company posted a $702 million net loss, according to Generally Accepted ...

By Chris Woolston, Knowable Magazine Whether a business model is built on gigabytes, interest rates or the latest innovations in aluminum siding, every company ultimately depends on its people — some more than others. Businesses of any size have stars that drive productivity and get results, but look beyond those high achievers — the break room might be one place ...

McDonald’s Corporation entered a partnership Wednesday with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to fill its need for morning workers and expand diversity. The fast food chain aims to attract older Americans who can fill employment gaps at the company. AARP is “the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they ...

CZ-USA, the U.S.-based affiliate of a Czech firearms manufacturer, announced plans Tuesday to build its first-ever domestic manufacturing facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. The location will serve as the North American headquarters for CZ-USA, which will begin construction immediately on a 256,000-square-foot factory which will be located on a 73 acre site owned by the Port of Little Rock, the ...

The American economy is one of the largest in the world by most measures – and as a result, it’s a dynamic and ever-changing environment. One person’s experience of it is not the same as any other person’s – and a blue-collar worker in Iowa is likely to have a very different perception of the economy from an entrepreneur in ...

California’s minimum wage increase has cost the state thousands of jobs worth of growth in the state’s booming restaurant industry, according to a recent study by the University of California Riverside. California passed a bill in 2016 to bring the state’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour. For businesses with more than 25 employees, the state’s minimum wage rose ...

Food stamp users will be able to purchase their groceries online in a pilot partnership program between mega-supermarket companies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA announced Thursday its launch of a “SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot” permitting food stamp users to buy their groceries online for pickup or delivery. Amazon and Walmart are participating in the program, and ...

Not even one in ten American taxpayers got a tax increase this year, but a New York Times survey reveals that many Americans believed they did not get tax cuts because of Democratic misrepresentation. The New York Times conducted a survey through Survey Monkey in early April that found that 40 percent of Americans believed they had received a tax ...

Washington – Today, U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary, Steven T. Mnuchin, chaired a meeting of Ministers and other senior officials, representing the membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “Since its inception thirty years ago, the FATF has been at the forefront of efforts to combat money laundering.  This Minister-level meeting reaffirmed our collective commitment to protect the ...

The Department of Justice today announced that General Electric (GE) will pay a civil penalty of $1.5 billion under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) to resolve claims involving subprime residential mortgage loans originated by WMC Mortgage (WMC), a GE subsidiary. WMC, GE, and their affiliates allegedly misrepresented the quality of WMC’s loans and the ...