No big pickup in job growth in 2012, forecasters say
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-economic-outlook-20120226,0,5491303.storyThe recent acceleration in hiring may have brightened consumers' spirits and the recovery's outlook, but professional forecasters still see just moderate growth ahead for jobs and the economy.
In their latest outlook, forecasters at the National Assn. for Business Economics said they expect job growth to average 170,000 a month this year. That's up from the 127,000 that the group's panel projected for 2012 in November.
Even so, if the new forecast to be released Monday pans out, many people are likely to be disappointed.
The economy added 203,000 net new jobs in December and 243,000 last month. That knocked down the unemployment rate to a three-year low of 8.3% and raised hopes that the hiring momentum may be building. The February jobs report comes out March 9.
= new reply since forum marked as read
And was recently acquired by a much larger firm. Supposedly, they are not in favor of this practice and will be "reducing hours" to 50 instead of 55. Oooh, we're so grateful. 
This practice is especially common in the retail world, where the "management" team is worked to the bone so they don't have to pay hourly people. It's not uncommon that my hubby is "encouraged" to work up to 65 hours a week with no pay over his 40-hour base.
Then, in Saturday's mail, he got a notice of a class action suit against the company for requiring unpaid, excess work for "salaried" pay. This happened once before, about three years ago, and the company settled out of court, paying the class an average of about $8000. It'll be interesting to see how this round plays out, but it seems clear that the so-called reduction in extra hours was probably a preemptive move if they knew this lawsuit was coming.
