Law Firm Newswire (01/23/2013)

Legalpeople LLC and the Partners Group LLC, two legal placement, staffing, and document review companies, announced on Jan. 23 the completion of their merger. The management team intends to maintain both the Legalpeople and the Partners Group brands with no changes to operations in existing markets.

Associated Press (01/23/13)

The staffing firm Everything Staffing plans to sue Black Sparta LLC after dozens of construction workers looking for jobs say they were scammed by the subcontractor. WSB-TV in Atlanta reports the workers responded to a Craigslist posting promising two-year job openings across the country. Everything Staffing assembled a group of workers for Black Sparta, which agreed to provide food, gas, money, and lodging for workers in Columbia, MO. Would-be contractors arrived in Missouri only to be told their services were not needed and were stranded at a hotel when no one paid for the workers’ hotel rooms.

Associated Press (01/24/13) Christopher Rugaber

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000 in the week ended Jan. 19, marking the lowest level since January 2008. Today’s report from the U.S. Department of Labor may be evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring, although the decline could reflect the government’s difficulty adjusting its numbers to account for layoffs after the holiday shopping season. The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, fell by 8,250 to 351,750, the lowest level since March 2008.

Wall Street Journal (01/23/13) Melanie Trottman; Kris Maher

The percentage of employees who belong to unions declined in 2012 to the lowest level since World War II, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some 11.3% of the work force was in a union last year, down from 11.8% in 2011. Most of the decline took place in the public sector, which accounts for the majority of union members. Manufacturing was particularly hard hit. Union membership fell despite an increase in manufacturing employment. Construction, steel plants, and food manufacturing also were hit by union membership declines, says the Center for Economic and Policy Research. However, unions are adding Latino members and employees in fast-growing sectors of the economy, such as some components of the health care industry.

Bloomberg BNA (01/22/13)

Bloomberg BNA‘s annual Economic Outlook, a forecast of economists at 21 top financial, consulting, and academic organizations, predicts that the U.S. unemployment rate will slip to 7.5% from 7.8% in the second half of this year. Although the payroll tax increase and federal spending cuts will put a damper on growth early in the year, business investment, job creation, the housing recovery, and consumer spending will help the economy pick up steam in the latter half of 2013. The report predicts modest job growth during the first half, but 176,000 jobs per month will be added during the last six months of the year. It also forecasts a 2.6% increase in total hourly compensation for private-sector employees, compared to a 2% gain through the third quarter of 2012.