Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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The government just erased 178,000 private-sector jobs from its count through March
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ running count of private-sector jobs through March 2026 was too high by 178,000, the agency disclosed on August 28, 2026, in a preliminary revision to its Current Employment Statistics program. Total nonfarm employment for that same month, once government hiring is folded back in, was overstated by 79,000. The gap…
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Starting in 2027, the IRS will match half of what a low-income worker saves, up to $1,000
The Treasury Department and the IRS confirmed this month that a new federal program, the Saver’s Match, will begin adding federal money to the retirement accounts of low- and moderate-income workers — but not until contributions made in 2027, and not paid out until 2028. The match replaces a decades-old tax credit that worked very…
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The IRS says overtime pay is still fully withheld, and the new deduction shows up only at filing
Overtime pay is not getting any bigger on payday under the federal tax law that created a new deduction for it. The Internal Revenue Service made that explicit on August 6, 2026, when it published a substantially rewritten set of frequently asked questions on the deduction for qualified overtime compensation, replacing guidance the agency had…
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Student loan borrowers who switch on auto pay by September 30 keep a 1 percent interest cut through mid-2028
The U.S. Department of Education is offering federal student loan borrowers a real discount for doing something most servicers have offered for years: paying automatically. Borrowers who enroll in auto pay by September 30, 2026, or who are already enrolled, get their interest rate cut by a full percentage point starting July 1, 2026, quadrupling…
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A Missouri credit union was liquidated this month, and two more sit in conservatorship
When a small credit union fails, most of the country never hears about it, but the roughly 183 people who banked there want to know exactly what happens next. In early August 2026, federal regulators closed a tiny credit union in the St. Louis suburb of Saint Ann, Missouri, while two other credit unions, one…
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Walmart is recalling another 165,250 dressers for full refunds after resold units reached shoppers
Roughly 165,250 fabric dressers sold at Walmart carry a tip-over and entrapment hazard serious enough to have already triggered one nationwide recall earlier this year, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says a second public notice was necessary because some of the originally recalled units kept moving into shoppers’ homes anyway. The agency’s May…
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Beef prices are running nearly 10 percent higher as cattle supplies stay tight
Beef and veal cost 9.4 percent more in July 2026, the most recent month with published federal price data, than they did a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The department’s Economic Research Service now forecasts beef and veal prices will finish all of 2026 up 9.8 percent, a projection tied directly…
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The federal government wants states to cover 75 percent of what it costs to run SNAP
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration wants to cut in half the federal share of what it costs states to run the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Right now Washington reimburses state agencies for 50 percent of their SNAP administrative costs — the eligibility workers who process applications, the computer systems behind them, the cards issued to…
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SNAP benefit amounts reset October 1, and next year’s numbers are still unpublished
Every October 1, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program resets its maximum benefit amounts for the new federal fiscal year, and this year’s reset falls a little more than a month from now. The formula behind that reset is fixed by law and runs on a Thrifty Food Plan calculation the U.S. Department of Agriculture completes…
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The IRS lets savers aged 60 to 63 add $11,250 extra to a 401(k) this year
Workers who turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 at any point in 2026 can set aside far more of their pay in a 401(k) or similar workplace plan than any other age group saving through payroll deductions this year. The Internal Revenue Service confirmed the exact 2026 numbers in Notice 2025-67: employees in that four-year…
