Of the 387 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks, six had unemployment rates of 8.0 percent or higher in August, and five of them are in California. They are El Centro, Visalia, Merced, Hanford-Corcoran and Bakersfield-Delano. The sixth, Yuma, is in Arizona. The rates come from BLS’s metro unemployment table, which covers August…

Employment in financial activities, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ category for banks, insurers, brokerages and real estate, is down 129,000 jobs from its May 2025 peak. BLS said so in its September jobs report, released Oct. 2, and added that “most of the job loss” came in insurance carriers and related activities, which are down…

In 373 of the nation’s 387 metropolitan areas, the number of jobs on payrolls in August was essentially the same as a year earlier. Only nine metros posted a gain, and five posted a loss, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ metropolitan area release of Sept. 30. What stands out in the data is…

The federal government had 2,682,000 people on its payroll in September, down from 2,914,000 in September 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both counts are seasonally adjusted, and the September number is preliminary. On those two published levels, the federal workforce is about 232,000 jobs smaller than it was a year ago. Federal…

Federal agencies have funding only through Dec. 11 under a stopgap spending bill signed on Sept. 2. The measure, H.R. 6500, is titled the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027. The White House describes it as “a short-term continuing resolution that provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations to Federal agencies through December 11, 2026, for continuing…

Starting January 1, 2027, the lowest hourly wage a Washington employer may pay a 14- or 15-year-old will be $15.07. The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) posted the figure on its minimum wage page, alongside a new $17.73 hourly minimum for most other workers. The youth number is a floor, not a…

Two rate tables sit side by side on the New York State Department of Labor’s 2027 minimum wage page, and only one of them moves. The general minimum wage stays where it is on January 1, 2027, while the minimum for home care aides rises to $20.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island…

A salary does not settle whether a Maine worker is owed overtime. A salaried employee who works more than 40 hours in a week can be exempt from overtime pay only if the job is a bona fide executive, administrative or professional one and the pay clears a salary test. From January 1, 2027, the…

New Jersey’s WARN archive does not print the day a notice was filed. Its columns are company, city, month posted, effective date and workforce affected, and the September rows include three large ones: Bristol Myers Squibb in Princeton at 265, Prudential Insurance in Newark at 125 and Novo Nordisk in Plainsboro at 108. Bristol Myers…

Ohio’s minimum wage will be $11.40 an hour on January 1, 2027, but that figure is not owed to every hourly worker in the state. The Ohio Department of Commerce says it applies to employers with annual gross receipts of more than $420,000. Workers at businesses at or under that line, and 14- and 15-year-olds…