Finance Globe

The percentage of employees who were members of a union was 12.3% in 2009, virtually unchanged from the rate of 12.4% in 2008, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today.The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions declined by 771,000 to 15.3 million, largely reflecting the drop in employment due to the recession. As a comparison, in 1983 - the first year that comparison data was available - the rate of...

Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 1,000 to 434,000 for the week ending January 2, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, was 450,250, a decrease of 10,250 from the previous week's average of 460,500.Seasonally adjusted, the insured unemployment rate was 3.6% for the week ending December 26, down .2% from the previous week's figure of 3.8%. Unadjusted, the advance national insured unemployment rate for the same...

President Obama announced on Friday awards of $2.3 billion in Recovery Act funds to go towards new clean energy manufacturing across the U.S."Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future," said Obama. "The Recovery Act awards I am announcing today will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security."The...

Consumer delinquencies in nearly all loan categories declined in the third quarter of 2009, according to a report released today by the American Bankers Association (ABA). This is the first time since 2007 that so many loan categories experienced a decline in delinquencies, which the ABA defines as a late payment that is 30 or more days overdue.The ABA's composite ratio, which tracks eight closed-end installment loan categories, fell 12 basis points to 3.23% of all...

Pending home sales fell sharply in November but remained "comfortably" above the level of activity from a year ago, the National Association of Realtors reported today. The index used to measure contracts signed in November fell 16% to 96.0 from an upwardly revised 114.3 in October, but is 15.5% higher than November 2008 when it was 83.1.The slide in pending contracts comes after a strong surge in previous months when buyers scrambled to beat the original...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today that they are suing the world's leading computer chip maker Intel Corporation, saying that the company "has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly."In it's complaint, the FTC alleges that "Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation...

New claims for jobless benefits rose by 17,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 474,000 for the week ending December 5, the Department of Labor reported today. The unexpected rise in initial jobless claims comes after five straight weeks of declines. The four-week moving average was 473,750, down 7,750 from the previous week's revised average of 481,500. The advance seasonally-adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ending November 28 was 3.9%, a .2 percentage point decrease from the previous...

Bank of America announced last week that it would repay the entire $45 billion received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).Paying back the funds would allow the North Carolina-based bank to break free of the federal government's restrictions and save approximately $3.6 billion annually in interest payments to the government. BofA has already paid $2.54 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury since the bank initially received TARP funding.And on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department...

I received an automated call a couple of months ago. After listening to the message from the other end, I thought it sounded strangely like my credit card company was calling me to give me a better interest rate - but when has that ever happened? The recording said that they were calling from "card services" so I pushed whatever number they told me to and was transferred to a real person.The salesperson sounded very excited...

Existing home sales in October surged 10.1% as the first-time home buyer credit continues to drive sales, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today.Existing homes sales last month were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.10 million units, which includes single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops. The October pace of sales activity was 23.5% higher than they were a year ago, and is the highest it's been since February 2007.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, was...