employment

Real Work From Home Jobs Amazon

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real work from home job amazon

A surprising number of people come to this website looking for information on real, non-scam, work from home jobs. Unfortunately, many of them leave discouraged, because there are so many work from home scams out there. That does not mean that there are no work from home jobs, there are actually tons of real work at home jobs, they are frequently referred to as telecommuting. What are almost always scams, are jobs that only require a few hours, no skills, not much work, and have high pay. Honest Work From Home Job Opportunity I happened to come across a news story about Amazon hiring work from home customer service employees for the holiday season. These are seasonal jobs, so they may just be temporary, but they are real telecommuting jobs from a real company. If you look at the job’s posting, you can see how to spot the difference between a real job offer, and a fake work from home job. First up, note the pay. This is no “Make Six-Figures Working From Home!” job posting. The pay is $10 per hour. Whether that is enough or not, is a personal decision, but it is realistic. An entry-level customer service position …

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June Jobs and Mid-Year Economy Review

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Monitoring the economy is tricky business. The monthly reports that we get from the government require gathering reams of data over hundreds of hours, and all manner of processing to get us a simple sounding number like, “The U.S. economy added 287,000 new jobs.” Even then, those numbers are routinely readjusted up or down later as more data comes in. The May employment numbers were enough to stop a Fed rate hike in its tracks. Are the new June numbers good enough to put an interest rate increase back on track? June Employment and the Fed Employment numbers are very important to the Fed. A tightening labor market often is visible before any actual signs of inflation. The theory is that lower unemployment forces businesses to offer higher wages in order to attract and retain workers, which will eventually lead them to raise prices in order to cover higher costs. So, if employment jumps too fast, too far, it might be time to take a look at a rate hike. The increasing transparency and ability to buy goods online has shaken this up a bit, however. Just because Macy’s raises prices on something doesn’t mean that you have to pay …

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June Rate Hike Is Off

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fed interest rates caution

Last week, the April inflation numbers came in a little bit high. At the time, I (and several other analysts) pointed out that the higher number was almost all due to a long coming recovery in fuel prices, and that even with that higher number, inflation was nowhere near being a real issue. However, the Fed members went running to just about any media outlet that would listen telling everyone that those shaky numbers were the reason the Fed was very likely to raise interest rates in June. I wrote at the time, that it seems like this Federal Reserve is more interested in showing that they are inflation hawks than they are interested in following the actual data. The Federal Reserve has two official mandates, to keep inflation in check, and to keep employment as close to full employment as possible. This begs the question of why, exactly, the Fed seems so keen on raising rates right away. Employment is doing better, but nowhere near full, and wage growth is stagnant, so no issues there. The twelve month inflation rate, even with April’s increase, is just 1.1 percent, well short of the Fed’s supposed 2.0 percent inflation target. A …

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Job Losses Now Due to Market :)

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Not too long ago, I wrote about how context in articles and statistics is critical regarding the huge boom in employment in North Dakota. Now, North Dakota and a handful of other states lead the U.S. in job losses. Of course, not too long ago, the gains in these states were due to the genius of their governors or legislatures. Now, it’s just market forces. Of course, it was the same thing both times around, the oil and gas industry. When oil was booming and drillers were hiring as fast as people would show up, job growth exploded in North Dakota. Now, that oil prices have plunged and the industry is mothballing rigs, while entirely stopping drilling new ones, employment numbers are crashing. Context is everything. Overall, nothing new is happening, good or bad, in the states with the greatest number of job losses, it is just that in one particular industry, the bottom fell out. Interestingly enough, this might be the actual bottom, meaning that there is nowhere but up for these job numbers to go. When they do start climbing, watch for the politicians who claim no blame for this downturn, come scurrying out of the woodwork to …

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Higher Minimum Wage in 2016

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minimum wage help wanted

We’ve talked a bit about minimum wage increases here before. In particular, I’m interested in the effects these minimum wage increases end up having. Most reports you read, whether positive or negative, are pretty much pure speculation, or cherry picking of data to fit an agenda. The reality is that the whole, higher minimum wage movement is still too young to produce the kinds of data needed to draw actual, mathematically and economically sound conclusions. Where Is Minimum Wage Higher in 2016? Part of the problem with knowing how higher minimum wage affects things is that it is nearly impossible to isolate individual geographic regions from the power of the national economy. This is particularly true for cities that are raising their minimum wage. Since employment in the U.S. is picking up after having been slammed by the Great Recession, most areas, regardless of minimum wage laws, are seeing higher employment. Still, the only way to find data is to look for it. First, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. No Minimum Wage Increase for 2016 There are seven states that either have no minimum wage laws, or a state minimum wage law below the federal minimum (Georgia, Wyoming). They …

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States Still Not Recovered Jobs Lost In Recession

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A researcher published some data showing how the individual states are doing recovering jobs lost during the recession. The highlight is that 15 states have not recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession. The interesting part is what that might mean. (Note: this is from total nonfarm employment and counts both part-time and full-time jobs) The 15 states that still haven’t recovered all the jobs lost during the recession are: Alabama Arizona Connecticut Illinois Maine Mississippi Missouri Nevada New Jersey New Mexico Ohio Rhode Island West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming If your life is all about politics, I’m sure you’re rushing to count Democrats and Republicans as a way to “prove” that your side is the best side. Sorry, but that shows little understanding of economics. But, if you insist, there are more Republican governors than Democrat governors on the list. Of course, to be fair, a lot of those states are the so-called purple ones. A more realistic analysis shows some obvious ones. Nevada and Arizona were the poster children of over-heated housing markets that collapsed, so it’s natural, they are one the list. On the other hand, Florida was hit pretty hard by the housing bubble but is not …

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July Jobs Numbers

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Just a quick update today. After all, it’s Independence Day week and I’m a freelancer, so that’s double time off (without pay). The July jobs data has a slightly unusual split thanks the Fourth of July holiday. The new unemployment numbers were released on Wednesday, a day early because Thursday is a federal holiday, while the hiring numbers will come out on Friday. July Unemployment Numbers The numbers released today are for new unemployment claims. In other words, these job numbers are a measure of how many people recently lost their jobs, not how many people are unemployed, or how many are being hired. Theoretically, you could have a huge first time unemployment number and a huge drop in the overall unemployment rate if a bunch of people were hired and fired over the same time period. In real life, it seldom works that way. So, without reading too much into these employment statistics, the initial jobless claims number dropped by 5,000 to a seasonal adjusted 343,000, which is slightly less than economists were predicting, but by no means any sort of blockbuster drop. Certainly nothing here will make anyone worry about inflation. The uptake is simply that the economy …

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Exempt vs Nonexempt Employees

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One topic that generates a lot of confusion in people’s personal finances is what is the difference between exempt and nonexempt employees? There are actually a lot of nuances and pages of labor law that deal with the difference between nonexempt and exempt employees. However, the practical implications of what it means to be an exempt employee or non exempt employee are pretty straight forward. Basically, it comes down to whether you have to be paid for overtime or whether you have to be paid the minimum wage. What Is An Exempt Employee The definition of exempt employee is one who is not subject to the minimum wage or overtime rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. An FLSA exempt employee must fall into one of several categories to qualify as exempt. What determines exempt employee by labor law standards is what role the employee has in their job. A job title is not enough to make an employee exempt. There are several types of exempt employees including certain employees under age 20, employees of a motor carrier (drivers), and certain types of seasonal and farm workers. In addition, a broad category of salaried exempt employee allows certain …

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