This article provides a roundup of recent news stories related to employment. Team ZipRecruiter will share frequent updates.
- The U.S. added just 266,000 payroll jobs in April, well short of the expected 1 million. March’s originally estimated total of 916,000 was revised down to 770,000, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 6.0%.
- Employers boosted wages and increased hours for employees in April. Average hourly earnings jumped 4.8% in leisure and hospitality in a single month, and 0.7% overall across industries. The average workweek rose 0.1 hour to 35 hours. The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons decreased by 583,000 as many part-time workers found full-time employment.
- The Chamber of Commerce urged an immediate end to the $300 weekly unemployment benefit supplement, citing the unexpectedly weak jobs report and arguing that the payments are preventing people from returning to work.
- Republican Senator Ben Sasse announced that he will soon introduce legislation to redirect expanded unemployment benefits into signing bonuses for new hires.
- The governors of Arkansas, Montana and South Carolina announced that they would end the $300 weekly federal boost to unemployment insurance payments early, in June rather than September.
- The governor of Indiana announced that the state will soon reinstate work search requirements for unemployment insurance.
- A new Center for Public Integrity report on minimum wage and overtime violation data from the Department of Labor found that many U.S. businesses often pay less than the minimum wage, make employees work off the clock or refuse to pay overtime rates, especially during recessions.
- Rhode Island’s State House of Representatives voted 57-to-16 to raise the state minimum wage from $11.50 an hour today to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2025.
- The White House directed the Department of Labor to work with states to reinstate work search requirements for unemployment insurance recipients.
