Tag Archives: Labor and Jobs

President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on a scale unseen in nearly a century is more than a shot across the bow at U.S. trading partners. If kept in place, the import taxes will also launch an economic project of defiant nostalgia: an attempt to reclaim America’s place as a dominant manufacturing power. In the postwar heyday of American manufacturing, which …

President Trump’s sweeping tariffs are expected to raise the cost of cars, electronics, metals, lumber, pharmaceuticals and other products that American consumers and businesses buy from overseas. But Mr. Trump and his advisers are betting that it can sell an inflation-weary public on a provocative idea: Cheap stuff is not the American dream. “I couldn’t care less if they raise …

In recent weeks, managers of the nation’s resorts, plant nurseries, fish processors and racetracks started getting very worried. The Trump administration had yet to release a batch of H-2B visas — those available for seasonal businesses that often can’t find enough workers domestically to fulfill demand. Usually, the Department of Homeland Security releases them a few days after receiving more …

When Starbucks announced last month that it was laying off more than 1,000 corporate employees, it highlighted a disturbing trend for white-collar workers: Over the past few years, they have seen a steeper rise in unemployment than other groups, and slower wage growth. It also added fuel to a debate that has preoccupied economists for much of that time: Are …

The railroad tracks that slice through downtown Freehold, N.J., used to be lined by dozens of men, waiting for work. Each morning, the men — day laborers, almost all from Latin America and undocumented — would be scooped up by local contractors in pickup trucks for jobs painting, landscaping, removing debris. In recent weeks, the tracks have been desolate. On …

It might be a moment of hush before chaos ensues, or it may be business as usual. U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs in February, the first full month under the new Trump administration, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The gain extended a streak of job growth to 50 months. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 4.1 percent, from …

For about a year now, the labor market has existed in a state of eerie calm: Not many people were losing their jobs or quitting, but not many of those seeking work were getting job offers. The mass layoffs now underway across the federal government, along with its employees who are voluntarily heading for the exits, could disrupt that uneasy …

President Trump inherited an economy that was, by most conventional measures, firing on all cylinders. Wages, consumer spending and corporate profits were rising. Unemployment was low. The inflation rate, though higher than normal, was falling. Just weeks into Mr. Trump’s term, the outlook is gloomier. Measures of business and consumer confidence have plunged. The stock market has been on a …

President Trump said Monday that sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect on Tuesday morning, saying in remarks at the White House there was no chance for a last-minute deal to avert the levies. “The tariffs, you know, they’re all set,” Mr. Trump said. “They go into effect tomorrow.” The tariffs will add a 25 percent fee …

A Senate committee voted on Thursday to advance President Trump’s nominee as labor secretary to a full Senate vote, with some crossing of party lines — a reflection of intraparty divisions over organized labor. The nominee, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, faced pointed questions at her confirmation hearing last week over her history of support for labor …