Legislators postponed a $400 million tax hike to shore up Indiana’s bankrupt Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, but state’s
most
troubled employers still face automatic payroll tax hike this year.
Both parties reportedly agreed to tentative deals on the issues that threatened to push the legislative session all the way
to the brink, including a one-year delay for a planned increase in unemployment taxes.
The state’s unemployment rate in January remained unchanged from the seasonally adjusted figure of 9.7 percent Indiana reported
in December.
The Labor Department figures suggest the job market is slowly healing but that significant hiring has yet to occur.
Out of six professionals IBJ profiled a year ago, three have found jobs, although all have accepted lower pay than
they were getting before. One could not be reached, but she still lists herself as looking for work on LinkedIn.com. Two tried
to start their own businesses, with one giving up and one, Bruce Flanagan, still trying.
New claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week, mostly because state agencies processed a backlog of
claims caused by snowstorms the previous week.
Programs will bolster job opportunities for some 1,700 Indiana workers in sectors including health care and advanced manufacturing.
Whether to delay increases in taxes that employers pay to Indiana’s unemployment insurance fund is becoming a
contentious issue in the General Assembly.
Kmart’s announcement that it will close its store in Connersville in May will put 59 employees out of work. Fayette County,
where the city is located, already is strapped by steep job losses.
The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, a hopeful sign the job market may
be improving.
January’s report offers hope that employers may start adding jobs soon. Excluding the beleaguered construction industry, the private sector as a whole added 63,000 positions.
The president’s unemployment strategy is twofold: create jobs, and force Republicans to choose between helping Main Street
and Wall Street.
The fate of a bill that would delay unemployment tax increases on businesses remains unclear in the Democrat-controlled Indiana
House.
Indiana’s jobless rate made its biggest increase since mid-2009. Department of Workforce
Development Commissioner Teresa Voors attributed the rise, in part, to a decrease in construction in December.
The number of newly-laid off workers seeking jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week.
For the year, retail sales fell 6.2 percent, the biggest decline on government records that go back to 1992.
The Labor Department said Friday that employers cut 85,000 jobs last month, worse than the 8,000 drop analysts expected. But
the nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent.
The decade ahead could be a brutal one for America’s unemployed—and for people with jobs hoping for pay raises.
The 131,000 jobs lost
in the 12 months ended in November amounted to a 7.2-percent decline and were nearly equivalent to the combined populations
of Carmel and Fishers.
