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Anderson County lands Signature Foods USA plant, 202 jobsANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. —Signature Foods USA, a food products manufacturer, announced Thursday it has chosen Anderson County for its first South Carolina operation. The company’s $11.5 million investment will create 202 new jobs. Signature Foods USA produces refrigerated prepared foods for the American market, including prepared meats and cheeses, dips, spreads, wraps, and rolls. The company is headquartered in New York City and the Anderson County plant will be the company’s first manufacturing operation in the U.S.Signature Foods USA’s new manufacturing facility, located at 211 Pine Road in Easley, will produce dips and spreads to be sold in the deli section of retail grocery stores. Individuals interested in applying should contact the company’s Human Resources Manager Corderiette Calhoun (corderiette.calhoun@signaturefoods.com).The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. The council also awarded a $400,000 Set-Aside grant to Anderson County to assist with the costs of building...

Nonetheless, the report isn't universally strong, with 33k downward revisions to the previous two months. The breakdown shows that it is the three usual suspects that contributed virtually all the jobs: leisure & hospitality +47k, government +22k and private education & healthcare services +59k. Remember, the federal government workers who accepted deals to leave won't drop off until the October report, which will now be combined with the November report and released on 16 December. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% and wage growth rose only 0.2% month-on-month. The unemployment rate comes from a separate survey of households. This showed a 470,000 increase in the labour force, but only 251,000 found jobs, so unemployment grew by 219,000. This survey tends to be more volatile than the establishment survey of firms that generates the non-farm payrolls number. Source link...

Over the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers.But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact of tariffs, overhiring during the Covid-19 pandemic and perhaps simple maximising of profits.In short, the CEOs are allegedly engaged in “AI-washing”.“You can say, ‘We are integrating the newest technology into our business processes, so we are very much a technological frontrunner, and we have to let go of these people,’” said Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute.In 2025, AI was cited as a reason for more than 54,000 layoffs, according to a December report from the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.In January, Amazon alone laid off 16,000 workers after making 14,000 reductions in October.Beth Galetti, senior vice-president...

Building gold-standard AI systems requires gold-standard AI measurement science. The Applied Systems team at the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) is seeking an AI Research Scientist (IT Specialist) with expertise in evaluation methods to join our small, high-powered group within the National Institute of Standards and Technology.The Applied Systems team leverages multidisciplinary methodologies to identify, assess, and measure AI systems in application and real-world settings to accelerate trustworthy innovation, support the adoption of reliable AI, and protect national security. Our projects run the gamut of deliverables, including guidelines, tooling, innovative AI measurement, research papers for publication, workshops and convenings, and reports, several of which are in furtherance of the AI Action Plan. We work with the wider community of practitioners, industry (small and large), and government agencies, among others. Join us!Position Title: IT Specialist (AI), ZP-2210-IV/VJob and Organization Description: Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Center for AI Standards and InnovationIn this position, you will:Evaluate...

The U.S. labor market barely budged in January, with hiring below even muted expectations, according to a report Wednesday from payrolls processing firm ADP.Private companies added just 22,000 positions for the month and the number would have been negative had it not been for a surge of 74,000 hires in the education and health services category. The total was less than the downwardly revised 37,000 increase in December and below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 45,000.The report starts 2026 off on basically the same note where 2025 ended: A lackluster job market in a low-hire, low-fire environment that likely will do little to quell fears from Federal Reserve policymakers that more support may be needed."Hiring is softening. It continues a pattern that we've noticed for the past three years," Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said on CNBC. "Employers are very reticent to hire in the current economy."Richardson noted that benchmark revisions the firm employed to its data showed that...

The next big data point will be the January jobs report (released Wednesday), which will include the annual benchmark revisions – where the Bureau for Labor Statistics realigns their sample-based employment estimates with unemployment insurance population counts. The consensus is for a 71k increase in January non-farm payrolls with the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.4%. We are forecasting a modestly stronger outcome of 80,000, but as is always the case with the jobs data, there is very little conviction in our forecast. Jobless claims remained low during the period and while the Challenger report noted the worst January for lay-off announcements since 2009, they will be spread over a number of months. At the same time, the ISM services employment reported a second consecutive print above 50, indicating expansion, after six months of contraction. The ISM manufacturing reported the slowest pace of job losses for 12 months. Assuming we are in the right ballpark, the bigger market reaction...

The NZD/USD pair advanced toward the 0.5700 level on Thursday as the US Dollar (USD) weakened following softer-than-expected United States (US) employment data. The move reflected a broad reduction in USD demand, as investors reassessed the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook following signs that the US labor market is cooling.The US Nonfarm Payrolls report showed that the economy added only 57,000 jobs in June, well below expectations of around 110,000. May’s figure was revised lower to 129,000 from the previously reported 172,000, reinforcing the view that hiring momentum is losing strength. The Unemployment Rate fell to 4.2%, although this was partly driven by a drop in labor force participation to 61.5%, the lowest level since 2021.Wage growth remained steady, with Average Hourly Earnings rising 3.5% YoY, suggesting that inflation pressures have not fully disappeared even as job creation slows. Still, the weak headline payrolls figure reduced expectations of a near-term Fed rate hike. China will remain a key external driver for...

Note: The terms "nonmetropolitan" (nonmetro) and "rural" are used interchangeably, as are "metropolitan" (metro) and "urban." References to metro and nonmetro areas reflect either the 2003 or the 2013 definition of metropolitan counties, as determined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, as indicated.  This topic page examines employment and labor force trends in rural and urban areas from 2007 to 2022, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Three indicators are tracked: employment levels (number of people employed), labor force participation rates (the share of the civilian noninstitutionalized population that is working or actively looking for work), and prime-working-age unemployment rates (the share of the labor force age 25–54 that is unemployed). The time period covers the Great Recession (2007–09), the ensuing economic recovery (2010–19), and the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing economic recovery (2020–22). Employment and labor force impacts varied by metropolitan status, age group, and race/ethnicity—revealing the uneven impacts of economic recession and recovery across the rural...

We’ll get a first look Wednesday at the state of the US job market as 2026 kicked off, as well as a clearer picture of hiring in 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the January jobs report at 8:30 am ET Wednesday. The crucial employment snapshot is slightly delayed because of the brief government shutdown and will show whether the trajectory improved for the US labor market, which has been stuck in a low-hire and low-fire lull. Last year, the economy posted its weakest year of job gains outside of a recession since 2003. The year ended with the...

The U.S. economy experienced almost zero job growth in 2025, according to revised federal data. On a more encouraging note: Hiring has picked up in 2026.Preliminary data had indicated that the U.S. economy added 584,000 jobs last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised that number after it received additional state data and found that the labor market had added 181,000 jobs in all of 2025. This is far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024. One bright spot was last month, when hiring increased by 130,000 roles. This was significantly more than the 55,000 additions that had been expected by economists. “Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs,” BLS said in a statementWednesday’s reports further complicate the task for President Donald Trump and Republicans as they attempt to craft an economic narrative going into the 2026 midterm elections. Polls show that the president’s...