Breaking News

Local Business

US job market stalls in July as 23K cut

WASHINGTON — The U.S. job market stalled unexpectedly last month, delivering a political blow to President Donald Trump three months ahead of midterm elections and complicating decision-making for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve. Employers cut 23,000 jobs in July. And Labor Department revisions slashed 103,000 jobs from May and June payrolls. The unemployment rate fell but for the wrong reason: Thousands of people dropped out of the labor market so fewer people were competing for work. The July jobs numbers from the Labor Department Friday marked a sharp setback for ...

Stocks jump as hopes rise that rate hikes can wait

NEW YORK — Stocks rose on Wall Street Friday and Treasury yields fell after the government reported that employers unexpectedly cut 23,000 jobs last month. Every major index notched a second straight week of gains, which included several fresh records. It marks a strong start to August following several weak months. The S&P 500 rose 47.68 points, or 0.6%, to 7,757.64. That topped the all-time high it set on Tuesday. The benchmark index has been on a record run throughout the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 151.83 points, or 0.3%, to 54,036.93. That put it just short ...

Union asks judge to block Trump tax immunity deal

The labor union representing Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service workers asked a judge Thursday to block a sweeping tax audit immunity agreement for President Donald Trump, arguing it would force career employees to choose between following a political order and abiding by the ...

Briefcase: Penn Highlands secures accreditation reaffirmation

JOHNSTOWN Pennsylvania Highlands Community College has received reaffirmation of accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The commission granted the reaffirmation on June 25, confirming that the college continues to meet the rigorous standards of quality and accountability expected of accredited institutions. The reaffirmation followed a comprehensive multi-year self-study and an on-site evaluation visit by commission representatives held March 22-25. The peer review team visited the college’s main campus in Johnstown, along with the Somerset Center. As ...

Jobless applications rise to 199,000

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but layoffs remain in the historically healthy range of the past few years. U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending August 1 rose by 1,000 to 199,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s figure was revised up by 1,000 to 198,000. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market. Last week, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric, PCE, came in at 3.7% for June, ...

Ticker: Meta says AI model hacked another company

Meta on Thursday said that one of its artificial intelligence models accessed the internet on its own and hacked another company, the latest in a series of disclosures about AI models going rogue. In recent weeks OpenAI and Anthropic also have described instances of AI models going beyond humans’ instructions to access the web and find ways around other companies’ digital security. Meta said in a statement that a “misconfiguration” during cybersecurity testing by Irregular, an independent company hired by Meta, inadvertently allowed one of its models to access the internet. US ...