A new report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., nonprofit, tracks the number, survival and density of small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees) across the U.S. While small companies are making it past their fifth year at a near-record rate, business ownership and firm growth remain historically low, possible reflections of declining dynamism across the U.S. economy.
First Solar Inc. intends to lay off more than one-quarter of its staff and to restructure operations to focus on newer solar modules, which will lead to at least $500 million in charges and push the company into the red this year.
Just as we’ve started to get a handle on the ways online sharing platforms such as Uber and Airbnb are changing the nature of work in the U.S., it appears growth on the platforms may be slowing.
What’s missing are consumers, however. Auto makers are suffering from a glut of U.S. sedan and coupe inventory amid strong demand for light-trucks. The coming addition of electric-vehicle capacity could worsen that oversupply if shoppers continue to prefer pickups and sport-utility vehicles to plug-in cars.
Job gains from opening establishments as a percentage of overall private-sector employment dropped to 1% in the first quarter of 2016, the lowest level recorded since the Labor Department began the data series in 1992, and half what it was at its peak.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington approved ballot questions seeking to raise minimum wages in those states to $12 an hour or more, and then lock in those higher levels in real terms by binding future increases to the cost of living. And in two states, the provision also guarantees sick leave to workers.
The two annual time changes have a net negative effect on consumer spending, according to a report the JPMorgan Chase Institute released Thursday. . . The new report confirms U.S. consumer habits may be swayed by sunlight, in some cases. But the reduction in spending when most of the country “falls back” to shift daylight an hour earlier, as will occur this weekend, is larger than the boost in spending that occurs in the spring.
Employment outside of farms grew by 156,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department said Friday. That was the smallest gain since May, though it was a level that, if sustained, would deliver enough jobs to keep up with a growing population.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000 in the week ended Sept. 24, the Labor Department said Thursday.
In November, Washington state will vote on the country’s first revenue-neutral carbon tax. By embedding the cost of carbon dioxide emissions in the price consumers and businesses pay for energy, such a tax automatically encourages conservation and makes renewable energy more appealing, without regulations and subsidies that distort investment and undercut growth. Because the revenue is used to cut other taxes, it doesn’t crimp incomes or undermine business competitiveness.
Global container volumes are on track for zero growth this year, which would mark the sector’s worst performance since the 2009 economic crisis and a sure catalyst for further bankruptcies and possible acquisitions in the beleaguered shipping industry, shipping executives said.
But the details of the rules differ on certain provisions, including which workers and their family members are covered and how much sick time they can accrue. And that is posing problems for some businesses, especially smaller ones, that employ workers in multiple cities and states, even if they support paid sick leave. As a result, human-resources departments—and the lawyers and consultants who advise them—are scrambling to make sure they comply.
Volkswagen AG confessed last fall to installing “defeat devices” in diesel cars that overrode nitrogen-oxide controls. For these sins of emission, VW has agreed to compensate consumers and perform green acts of contrition including promoting electric cars, which may be another way for the government to supercharge Elon Musk’s Tesla.
Forecasters have sharply lowered their expectations for job growth in the coming year after employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, according to The Wall Street Journal’s latest survey of academic, business and financial economists.
Labor productivity, or the amount of goods and services employees produce per hour worked, fell at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The drop, while less steep than initially estimated, extended a troubling slowdown that has hindered the economy’s ability to lift Americans’ living standards.