Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 jobs in February 2012 while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.3 percent, according to ‘THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — FEBRUARY 2012’ report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The report also changed employment figures for December 2011 from a gain of 203,000 jobs to 223,000 jobs, while January 2012 figures were revised from a gain of 243,000 jobs to 284,000 jobs. The Employment Situation Report for February 2012 is available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf until the March 2012 Employment Situation report is released on Friday, April 6, 2012. (more…)

In an effort to help stop discrimination against unemployed Californians looking for work who may be passed over by employers or employment agencies only interested in hiring applicants who already have a job, newly proposed legislation in the state – California Assembly Bill No. 1450 (AB 1450) – would fine California employers and employment agencies that refuse to consider jobless applicants for job openings. The full text of California AB 1450 is available at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_1401-1450/ab_1450_bill_20120105_introduced.pdf. (more…)

According to a new report issued by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) – “Hanging on by a Thread” – nearly two million unemployed Americans will be cut off from federal unemployment insurance in January 2012 and millions more will face the same fate in the months following unless Congress reauthorizes the programs before they expire on December 31, 2011. The report warns a cut in federal unemployment insurance programs known as Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) would deal blows to the unemployed, businesses, and the U.S. economy. The report is at: http://www.nelp.org/page/-/UI/2011/NELP_UI_Extension_Report_2011.pdf. (more…)

A quarter of a million petition signatures gathered in an online campaign urging major job websites to stop posting ads online specifically excluding unemployed job seekers were delivered to Congress Wednesday in support of legislation – the ‘Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011’ (S. 1471)   – that would end the practice by employers, recruiters, and staffing firms of refusing to consider unemployed workers for jobs, according to a blog from Unemployedworkers.org.  The sponsors of the legislation, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representatives Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) and Hank Johnson, Jr. (GA-4), have called for bipartisan support for their measure. (more…)

With a bill (H.R. 2501) already introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and support in Congress building to end discrimination against unemployed jobseekers, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have sponsored the ‘Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011’ (S. 1471) that would bar employers and employment agencies from screening out or excluding job applicants solely because they are out of work, according to a press release from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a national advocacy organization for employment rights of lower-wage and unemployed workers. (more…)