Jobs (News)
U.S. unemployment rate hits 4-year high
Dateline:
08/02/2008(08-01) 13:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The nation's job market contracted in July and unemployment rose to a four-year high as employers across a broad swath of industries hunkered down.
Payrolls outside the farm sector dipped by 51,000, while the jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from June, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The economy has lost jobs every month this year, with payrolls down by 463,000 since December. The unemployment rate hasn't been this high since March 2004.
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Study paints grim picture of East Bay
Dateline:
08/01/2008OAKLAND — A new study shows the East Bay is leading the Bay Area in increasing poverty levels, low living-wage job opportunities, decline of housing affordability and sinking high school graduation rates.
These were among the findings released Thursday by the East Bay Community Foundation. Their 2008 East Bay Community Assessment Update is a "study of studies," based on a review of data from 58 other reports focused on barriers to justice and equity, as well as solutions to improve quality of life issues for East Bay residents.
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Plan Afoot to Get S.F. Workers Out of Cars
Dateline:
07/30/2008BUSINESS' OBLIGATION: Firms would have to provide transit passes or shuttle service or help employees set up pretax accounts
(07-30) 21:11 PDT -- Businesses with more than 20 employees working in San Francisco would be required to help their workers ditch their cars and commute to work on transit or in vanpools under a proposal being considered by city officials.
The goal of the plan, which would be the first in the nation, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality by getting more people out of polluting cars.
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Swanson marches with Port drivers
Dateline:
07/29/2008Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, recently joined with nearly 1,000 labor leaders, port drivers, environmentalists, clergy and others in a march and rally to draw attention to the plight of California’s port truck drivers, including those working at the Port of Oakland.
“The current system is broken. It is wreaking economic havoc and creating a public health crisis for our workers and local communities,” said Swanson.
The march began at the Oakland Marriott and ended at the Port of Oakland headquarters near Jack London Square.
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New Target store is another piece in Richmond's revitalization puzzle
Dateline:
07/22/2008Richmond's long-awaited Target store opens today, one piece of a larger redevelopment plan that city officials hope will return foot traffic to the Macdonald Avenue corridor.
The 146,000-square-foot store is projected to generate $600,000 in sales tax revenue a year, said Steve Duran, the city's community and economic development director.
The store at the east end of Macdonald Avenue near Interstate 80 opened its doors for a preview Tuesday night, when the City Council and public milled around inside. Employees in red shirts lined up by the cash registers to greet customers. Shiny white floors and neatly stocked shelves with "New store special" signs beckoned.
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Jobs outlook weak as state's unemployment rate hits 6.9% in June
Dateline:
07/19/2008SACRAMENTO -- California's jobless rate crept ahead Friday as experts saw weakness spreading into new areas of the economy.
For months, job losses were concentrated in the state's housing industry. But with June's increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9%, it was evident that a broader downturn is underway.
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East Bay loses 6,800 jobs in June
Dateline:
07/18/2008The East Bay plunged in June to its worst month of job losses in seven years, and California also suffered employment losses, prompting two economists to declare on Friday that both regions have lurched into a recession.
Employers jettisoned 6,800 jobs in the East Bay in June, state labor officials reported Friday. The East Bay has lost 18,500 jobs in 2008. More than 10,000 of those jobs vanished in the past two months. The numbers were adjusted for seasonal changes.
"The East Bay is being pummelled," said Christopher Thornberg, a partner with Beacon Economics. "The whole state is in recession and so is the East Bay."
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Loans Approved for Oakland’s Fox Theater
Dateline:
07/17/2008The Oakland City Council approved $14.45 million in new city loans and grants to the Fox Oakland restoration project Tuesday night. Councilmembers made no comment in voting for the new expenditures, but not before a small coalition of Oakland residents had plenty to say in opposition.
The reasons given by the city administrator’s office for the funding requests were cost overruns since 2006, design changes and modifications, and the projected cost of tenant improvements by the theater management as well as the Oakland School for the Arts.
The council decision brings the total projected cost of the Fox Restoration project to $82.7 million.
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Bio-Rad fills up business park
Dateline:
07/16/2008RICHMOND — A big new lease by Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. has completely filled up an industrial park here and spurred the developers of the complex to launch a major expansion of the project.
Bio-Rad has rented 116,000 square feet of industrial warehouse and distribution space in Pinole Point Business Park in Richmond. The life sciences equipment company is moving to the business park in northern Richmond from a site at the south end of the same city.
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