employment data

Unemployment rates fell in 43 states in November, reflecting a modest pickup in the nation's job market. Nationally, the unemployment rate dropped in November to 8.6%, the lowest since March 2009.

New government data shows that the U.S. added just 54,000 new jobs in May, far less than what economists were expecting. The news, which sent the jobless rate up to 9.1%, sent stocks lower on Wall Street.

A slight slip in the price of oil allowed Japanese investors to focus attention on positive employment figures out of the U.S., boosting the Nikkei 225 Index by 0.9%. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng also Index added 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.4%.

Initial jobless claims fell 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted figure of 457,000 in the week ending July 24. The revised figure for the previous week was 468,000. The four-week moving average, a clearer measure of unemployment trends, fell 4,500 to 452,500, the Department of Labor said in a...

Microsoft may start laying off more workers as early as tomorrow.

Some of Thursday's best online stories for investors: Is the Gulf disaster spilling into Obama's approval ratings? Is Apple (AAPL) really selling three iPads a second? And could tomorrow's employment report be the best since 1983?

Plenty of job news is in this morning, starting with the Challenger Gray & Christmas layoff data. The firm announced that layoffs from major U.S. corporations increased by 31 percent in July to 97,373. This increase is the first since January, indicating that corporate layoffs are picking up...