Three employers have told state labor departments they plan to cut 577 jobs: Bristol Myers Squibb in Princeton, New Jersey, the auto-parts retailer Pep Boys in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and a Pepsi bottler in Hyattsville, Maryland. The notices are WARN filings, made under a law that requires advance warning of large layoffs. The layoffs are…

California added 39,400 payroll jobs in August, the largest gain among the only four states where the Bureau of Labor Statistics found payrolls rose significantly. Wisconsin, South Carolina and New Mexico were the other three. In the remaining 46 states and the District of Columbia, BLS called the monthly change “essentially unchanged,” which is not…

Washington, D.C., posted the highest unemployment rate in the country in August, 5.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national rate held at 4.1%, and South Dakota’s 2.0% was the lowest. The District’s own labor department reports that the rate is lower than a month and a year earlier, which makes the ranking…

Most private-sector workers can sign up for a health plan through work. Fewer than half of them do. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 71% of private-industry workers had access to a workplace medical plan in March 2026, but only 46% actually took part in one, a gap of 25 percentage points between what…

For every dollar a man working full time, year-round earned in 2025, a woman working the same schedule earned 83.9 cents, the Census Bureau reported, up from 80.6 cents the year before. The jump, more than three full cents in a single year, is one of the larger annual moves in a ratio that has…

A household exactly in the middle of the U.S. income scale kept about $76,060 after taxes in 2025, the Census Bureau reported, up 3.1% from $73,760 the year before. The figure, released as part of the bureau’s annual income, poverty and health insurance report, measures what is left once Social Security and Medicare taxes and…

Starting Sept. 28, Whole Foods Market is raising its average store wage past $21 an hour and layering on two benefits with price tags of their own: a free Amazon Prime membership worth $139 a year for every hourly team member, and a company health plan priced from $5 a week for eligible full-time workers…

Spirit Halloween plans to hire 52,000 seasonal associates to staff 1,575 stores this year, according to the holiday hiring outlook Challenger, Gray & Christmas published Sept. 23. The costume chain leases empty storefronts each fall and closes most of them within days of Halloween, making it one of the largest single seasonal employers named in…

Retailers plan to add about 450,000 seasonal jobs this holiday season, according to the outlook Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Sept. 23. That would fall below last year’s total of 461,500 seasonal hires, a number Challenger had already flagged as the smallest holiday hiring season since 2008. If the 450,000 forecast holds, retailers will have…

Average hourly pay is still climbing in dollar terms, but not as fast as prices are. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Sept. 11 that real average hourly earnings, pay adjusted for inflation, fell 0.3% over the twelve months ending in August 2026. The dip means a typical hour of work bought slightly less…