Job Market

Job growth stalled in May, as the nation's economy created 69,000 jobs, well below expectations, and less than the 100,000 new jobs needed monthly to keep up with population growth. May's unemployment rate rose slightly, from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent. One reason: Workers, perhaps encouraged by more positive reports in earlier months, re-entered the job market, but couldn't immediately find a position. As the election season heats up, Friday's closely watched monthly jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department prompted the expected reaction from both sides.

As Memorial Day approaches, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) has introduced legislation designed to toughen penalties against employers who discriminate against veterans when they return from their tours of duty. "These are brave men and women who should not have to worry about their jobs when they are defending our country," Casey said Wednesday. "The least we can do is make sure when they get home they are not discriminated against. " Federal law already requires companies to reemploy armed-services members promptly, and bans discrimination against them because of their past, present, or future service.

College graduates encountering today's tough job market often wish they could hit the rewind button, a new study from Rutgers University finds. Maybe then, they wouldn't face a situation in which four graduates in 10 get first jobs that don't use their degrees and work at low salaries barely covering their student-loan payments. Maybe then, more than half would have full-time jobs. According to the Rutgers study, released Wednesday, only one in two college graduates who earned diplomas between 2006 and 2011 now has a full-time job, and of those, four in 10 work in jobs that don't even require four-year degrees.

Periodically and cyclically, the economy will stink, even more so for people who are less experienced, educated or trained, the youngest members of the work force. The Depression walloped one generation. The recession, oil shortage, and stagflation whipped mine. Many classmates avoided the job market, or the pronounced lack thereof, by diving into grad school and further debt, which drove them toward more lucrative professional if not necessarily innovative endeavors. As The Inquirer's special report "Struggling for Work" makes clear, these are days of diminishing economic returns for the "millennial generation," adults 18 to 34, entering a challenging and rapidly changing marketplace.

In February, 42 percent of small-business owners among the 350,000 members of the National Federation of Independent Business tried to hire one or more workers. Seventy-six percent of those hiring reported finding few or no qualified applicants for their positions. Asked why so many applicants were unqualified, owners had some surprising answers. Overall, owners said the available pool had few or no qualified workers. Getting down to specifics, 26 percent reported applicants typically lacked the required skills for the position and 23 percent had a poor work history, which made them less attractive.

NEW YORK - The stock market posted substantial gains Thursday as Greece closed in on a deal to restructure its debt and avoid a default. That overshadowed a small increase in unemployment claims last week. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 70.61 points, or 0.55 percent, at 12,907.94. Two days of solid gains have erased about three-quarters of the loss from Tuesday, when the Dow fell 203 points, its biggest loss of the year. The close left the Dow up 97 percent on the eve of the third anniversary of its low point during the Great Recession.

NEW YORK - Banks dodged a big hit from the Greek debt crisis and rallied Thursday to lead the stock market higher. Strong retail sales and more encouraging news about the U.S. job market also helped stocks rise. The banks of the world are on the hook for as much as $70 billion in bond-insurance payments if Greece defaults on its debt. But a panel ruled that Greece's debt-restructuring plan should not trigger any insurance payments, at least not yet. Bank stocks pushed higher in relief.

NEW YORK - A widely watched barometer of consumer confidence surged in February to its highest level in a year as Americans took note of improving job prospects among friends and family and falling unemployment, which is now at a three-year low. The brighter assessment released Tuesday by a private research group reflected a more upbeat attitude for the nation generally as the economy picks up. That is a boon for President Obama as he seeks reelection....

Question: My boyfriend and I have been dating for four years, two long-distance. For the past year, we'd had an agreement that he would move to my city when his temporary contract with his dream company was up. Contract ran out, he got an OK job offer in my town, was offered a job by dream company, and he took the dream job. I don't know what to do: stay with him because we love each other, knowing it means another year of distance and...

The legislature and Gov. Corbett should give serious consideration to a package of bills proposed by State Rep. Dwight Evans to ramp up the state's efforts to create more jobs. Give the Philadelphia Democrat credit for seeking bipartisan support to lower the unemployment rate. The details in Evans' four "Made in Pennsylvania" jobs bills offer a stark contrast to the $27.1 million budget proposed by Corbett, which calls for a more business-friendly climate in Pennsylvania, but offers few new resources to get the state's unemployed residents back to work.