Brad Kadrich

Officials at UPS, just four months after reaching a deal for a new contract with its union workers, said this week it will trim 12,000 jobs from the payroll. The news came as UPS released its revenue outlook that was troubling enough to send the value of its shares down at the opening bell, according to reporting from the Associated Press. The Teamsters just voted to...

Layoffs remain historically low, and the unemployment rate is still low, but first-time applications for unemployment assistance are on the rise. According to statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor, applications for unemployment benefits rose to 224,000 for the week ending Jan. 27. That’s 9,000 more than the previous week and represents the highest total for those applications in nearly three months. The four-week average...

Consumer confidence continues to be strong, as demonstrated during a strong holiday season for spending. For the third straight month, a report from The Conference Board, a business research group that monitors such things, said Tuesday its consumer confidence index went up. It’s at 114.8 for January, up six points from December. The index measures how Americans are feeling about current economic conditions and their outlook...

Higher interest rates don’t seem to be impacting the U.S. job market. America's employers posted 9 million job openings in December, up from November’s 8.9 million, which itself was revised upward in a Tuesday report from the government. Job openings have gradually — though steadily — declined since hitting a record 12 million in March 2022. Before 2021, monthly openings had never topped 8 million, according...

A study commissioned by Inforum Michigan shows women are making progress in reaching C-Suites and boards of directors in Michigan's public companies.

A fondness for math helped E'Lois Thomas carve out her career path.

Well, that was unexpected. The nation’s economy grew at a 3.3% annual rate in the last quarter, with Americans showing a continued willingness to spend freely despite high interest rates and price levels that have frustrated many households. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product decelerated from its 4.9% growth rate the previous quarter, the Associated Press reported. It’s the sixth straight quarter in...

It’s taken awhile, but Americans appear to be feeling better about the U.S. economy. A measure of how consumers are feeling done by the University of Michigan has climbed by more in the past two months than at any time since 1991, the Associated Press reported. A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that Americans' inflation expectations are as low as...

It’s true more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but it’s also true that levels of those claims remain historically low. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, 214,000 workers filed applications for unemployment assistance for the week ending Jan. 20. That’s up some 25,000 from the week before. The four-week average of claims, however, fell by 1,500 to 202,250. Weekly unemployment claims are...