Employers

More than 25 employers will be on hand for a job fair on Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the William H. Gray Youth Center, 12th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Employers include Temple University, Kensington Hospital, the Philadelphia Police Department, SEPTA, UPS, Einstein Healthcare Network, Wells Fargo and LIFT-Philadelphia. "The statistics on unemployed and underemployed residents in Philadelphia continue to be at a record high," said state Rep. W. Curtis Thomas, sponsor of the annual job fair.

When labor and employment lawyer Mike Curley noticed several years ago that the world of Big Law was focusing more on scale and profits and less on client relationships, his first thought was that wasn't the reason he had gone to law school. But then Curley, one of the nation's most prominent employment lawyers, decided maybe it was time to create his own, smaller firm, where clients would get more attention. And maybe even be friends. "I just wanted to get all of the baggage out of the way," Curley said.

LAST WEEK'S news that unemployment dropped to 7.8 percent prompted a form of schizophrenia among some conservatives who asserted that the numbers weren't that good, and also that they had been fabricated to help President Obama. Former GE chairman Jack Welch claimed Obama's team had somehow cooked the books. His proof? Welch said he talks with a lot of business leaders, and they tell him they aren't hiring. Turns out there's a reason for that. There are two surveys that contribute to a jobs report like Friday's.

WASHINGTON - Sasquatch might as well have traipsed across the White House lawn Friday with a lost Warren Commission file on his way to the studio where NASA staged the moon landing. Conspiracy theorists came out in force after the government reported a sudden drop in the U.S. jobless rate one month before Election Day. Their message: The Obama administration would do anything to ensure a November victory, including manipulating unemployment data. The conspiracy was widely rejected.

WASHINGTON - September's lower unemployment rate breaks the 8 percent psychological and political barrier that has stubbornly dogged Barack Obama through his presidency, halting the kind of stagnant high joblessness that has weighed down past presidents seeking reelection in economically troubled times. For Obama, the trend line now looks more like Ronald Reagan's in his successful reelection in 1984 than Jimmy Carter's in his losing effort in 1980. The 0.3 percentage point drop to 7.8 percent unemployment last month comes at a welcome time for Obama, one month before Election Day and less than 36 hours after he delivered a lackluster debate performance that reinvigorated the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

You are your brother's keeper The problem with relying solely on charities and religious institutions as a safety net is that these organizations are often financially strapped and cannot help everyone who needs it. In addition, they can and frequently must be selective about whom they assist. It should be clear from the economic events of the past few years that misfortune can befall even the most virtuous among us, regardless of individual initiative. What conservatives often miss is the basic idea of citizenship, that society is interconnected and that something exists beyond themselves.

The great unknown looms - what will happen to employer-provided health insurance in 2014 when the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick in, if they kick in, depending on the election? Then there is the matter of 2013. Early responses from a survey conducted by Mercer Inc., the New York-based employee and benefits consulting firm, indicate that employers expect premium increases of about 8 percent in 2013, Mercer said Tuesday. By the time employers renegotiate with their insurers, make trims to their offerings, and pass costs on to employees, the employer share will go up 6.5 percent.

ViroPharma Inc. will lease an additional 71,000 square feet of office space in Exton, nearly doubling its current space in Chester County. The specialty-biopharmaceutical firm, with 188 employees, will create 151 new jobs within three years, Gov. Tom Corbett said Monday. ViroPharma received $583,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development that included a $130,000 grant and $453,000 in job-creation tax credits. "For us it is about growth," said president and CEO Vincent J. Milano.

After leaving employees to fend for themselves with retirement-savings plans in the 2008 financial crisis, companies are now giving workers extra money to stash away for their futures in 401(k) plans. Companies have been restoring 401(k) matches abolished amid frantic cost-cutting during the Great Recession. Matches are considered powerful incentives to get people to save money every payday because they are often worth hundreds or thousands of dollars in extra pay a year per individual.