Yahoo in the rough

The once popular search engine in the 90s has gone through a steady decline; Yahoo is having a hard time. The Los Angeles Times mostly blames Yahoo's CEO, Carol Bartz for the gradual down-spiral of the website, whose stocks have fallen 15% in this year alone. However, according to USA Today, the struggle can be to having a difficult time trying to keep up with new booming websites such as Facebook and Google, which are the two dominating companies as of this moment. Twitter is also another company that is trying to keep up with top websites by pushing its advertisement spots hard on companies, says New York Times. If you want to have a successful website, then providing its advertisement services seems to be the best definition of it. Google and Facebook seem to dominate well, all while Twitter is beginning to follow in its footsteps and Yahoo is struggling.

Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz struggles to maintain
interest for Yahoo users after her 4 year contract is
 almost over(LA Times).

-Betty Villalobos 10/10/10

Bank of America foreclosures on halt

With the unstable economy and lost jobs all over the U.S., home owners are feeling the crunch when pay cuts or unemployment make it difficult to keep up with mortgage payments. BofA is trying to work out a solution. According to The Los Angeles Times, this temporary pause in the foreclosure process could hurt the economy because home buyers could be concerned about buying foreclosure homes, and simultaneously also pause the rebuilding of the economy . On the other hand, however, USA Today points out that the halt can actually boost the economy in short term within the estimated six months of wait since there won't be low priced homes on the market yet, which means that the economy will have time to recover. After that, the economy would be stable enough or the new low-priced homes. The New York Times looks at a completely different angle by elaborating on the problems that would arise with title insurance, or lack there of, where owners of fore closed homes could claim the home rightfully theirs. Although this halt seems like a breath of air for people with potential foreclosed homes, it will simply put them in "home-owner limbo."

Homeowners line up outside the LA Convention center in hopes of finding an answer through loan modifications through the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times)

-Betty Villalobos 10/9/10

Jobs lost but unemployment claims oddly decline

As the economy continues with its rough patch, the people of the United States become more and more anxious to find ways to make ends meet. According to The New York Times, local governments are making history by making the biggest job cuts in 30 years, ever since the 1981-2 recession. The article states that 76, 000 government jobs have been lost and 143,000 in just 3 months, while private employers have been hiring at an increasing rate. In addition, USA Today adds the federal government has also recently made approximately 77,000  cuts form the U.S. Census, "as expected". However, with all these unemployed individuals, not many of them seem to be rushing to apply for unemployment benefits according to Los Angeles Times. The number of new files claims dropped 11,000 in the latest week, and the Los Angeles Times believes it's because there is a small "steady increase in job creation." It is unclear if the job is actually increasing or decreasing.

The 3 month change in local-government jobs.
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, via Haver)

-Betty Villalobos 10/8/2010

Elaborating on Unemployment

For the past few years, the recession has had an effect on the hearts of many Americans due to job loss, home foreclosures and possibly bankruptcy. Unemployment and the decline in job opportunities leads many into a larger slump, all-the-while affecting the US economy. The New York Times reports that private employers cut nearly 39,000 jobs this previous September, compared to the 10,000 lost in August. While the Los Angeles Times elaborates by adding that the increase is due to enormous budget pressures and that there is minimal hope for hiring gains the rest of the year. Though unemployment severely increased, USA Today reports applications for unemployment benefits has decreased the fourth time in 5 weeks and the rate of jobless Americans is predicted to shift from 9.7% to 9.6%. Though the numbers appear inconsistent, it seems to indicate employers are willing to step up in hiring new employees.

(Source: Labor Department, USA Today)

(Source: Labor Department, USA Today)

Charts indicate shift in unemployment applications from September to October 2010.

-Ida Corporal 10/7/2010

Employment and the on-going recession

With a 9.5% national employment rate, the recession gradually continues and depresses many of those unemployed and/or facing unemployment. However, according to USA Today, electronic company Samsung hopes to increase employment, specifically in Austin, by expanding their company to increase more job opportunities and their payroll for current employees. Despite popular belief that the holiday season will increase potential jobs, the New York Times reports that "holiday hiring" does not look so optimistic given the downgrading of most companies due to the predicted "slow Christmas". Additionally, the "offshoring" and outsourcing of jobs to other countries, according to the Los Angeles Times, can potentially better the economy and also create more possibilities for American laborers in the future.

Chinese workers answer customer queries at a Hewlett-Packard Co. call center in Dalian in Liaoning province. In addition to their existing offshore operations, HP is laying off human resources employees in California and nine other states and transferring their functions to Panama.
(Photo Credit: Associated Press)

-Ida Corporal 10/6/2010

Community College Summit Pushes for Employment Recovery

By raising the profile of community colleges nationwide, President Barrack Obama is hoping to induce labor recovery through the advancement of education. The president plans to align business leaders, the White House and educators in order to better enhance not only the workforce but also the strength of community colleges. The Los Angeles Times details President Obama's proposal to boost graduation rates, and the working coalition with companies to provide jobs to graduates. Companies that have signed on such as McDonald's and Gap, according to USA Today, are looking to hire up to 1,2000 graduates from community colleges in the next year. While the first two articles seem to be in favor of the Obama's summit, the The New York Times argues whether or not the plan will benefit the economy due to the already minimal government funding to community colleges. 

President Obama remarks alongside Dr. Jill Biden at the Community

College Summit in the East Room at the White House in Washington,

October 5, 2010.

(Photo Credit: Jim Young, REUTERS)

-Ida Corporal 10/5/2010

Economic report

The start of a new week has not been good to the economy, per the Los Angeles Times, who reported that stocks have fallen as after a steady month of September. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 80 points today and while this isn't good for businesses, analysts expected the drop after a 10.4 percent gain in the Dow last month. The New York Times reports that they are expecting consumer credit reports for August and weekly jobless claims this week in addition to unemployment and nonfarm payrolls for September. The new data will shed a more precise light on the current economic state as we move closer to the end of the year. The USA Today mentions Obama’s meeting with his economic recovery advisory board, who have urged him not to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, favoring an extension of former president Bush’s tax cuts.

President Obama with economic recovery advisory board members William Donaldson, second from right, and Martin Feldstein, right. (Photo Credit: Susan Walsh, AP)

Posted by Joseph Apodaca