Kelly Services News Release (01/31/13)

Kelly Services Inc. today reported net earnings of $8.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with $24.1 million reported for the same period in 2011. Net earnings for the full year of 2012 totaled $50.1 million, down 13.6% from the prior year.

Earnings from operations for the fourth quarter of 2012 totaled $9.8 million, compared with $12.7 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2011—a 2.9% decline. U.S. revenues were $877.9 million in the quarter.

Earnings from operations for the full year of 2012 totaled $72.3 million, a 14.6% increase from the $57.7 million reported in 2011. U.S. revenues were $3.4 billion in 2012.

Wall Street Journal (01/31/13) Laura Meckler

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, and the Service Employees International Union are working together to develop rules that would allow low-skilled employees into the U.S. The aim is to craft a visa program geared toward filling jobs at hotels, janitorial services, meat-packing companies, and other businesses that use low-skilled labor. Eight U.S. senators have endorsed a bipartisan framework for legislation that would let companies bring foreign employees to the U.S. if they can’t find Americans for open jobs. More foreign employees would be allowed into the country when the economy is strong and fewer would be allowed in when the economy is weak.

Wall Street Journal (01/31/13) Janet Adamy; Melanie Trottman

Although labor unions were big proponents of President Obama’s health care reform plan, now that the law is being implemented, some unions are rethinking their views. Union officials say many of the law’s mandates will boost costs for their health care plans and make companies with unionized employees less competitive, particularly compared with competitors too small to come under the law’s new mandates. Some unions are advocating that their lower-paid members receive federal insurance subsidies while staying on their union-sponsored plans. However, this would drive up the cost of federal health care reform.

Wall Street Journal (01/31/13) Josh Mitchell; Eric Morath

The number of people who filed new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000 in the week ended Jan. 26, putting them at a one-month high, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor. The overall level still signaled a slowly growing labor market. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast 365,000 new applications for jobless benefits last week. Claims still remained below the 400,000 level, which many economists view as the threshold between a labor market that is improving or deteriorating. The four-week moving average edged up by 250 to 352,000.