Employment Stats 10/22/09

Weekly Jobless Claims (Seasonally Adjusted), Week Ending 10/17 (reported 10/22) 531,000
Weekly Jobless Claims Change from Previous Week (seasonally adjusted) 11,000
Payroll Employment (Nonfarm Jobs Created or Lost), September -263,000
Unemployment Rate, September 9.8 percentPut Content Here.

This Week in HR: Bank Bonuses Spark Talent War By Vault

Bank Bonuses Spark Talent War
For as long as there has been outrage over Wall Street megabonuses, executives have justified their handsome rewards by warning that if companies didn't pay up, talent would flee to rival firms. Now it appears that theory is being confirmed. Recruitment experts hired by Wall Street trading houses, which are expanding to handle booming stock and bond trades, say they are zeroing in on companies such as Citigroup, American International Group, and others that are under U.S. or European pay restrictions. BusinessWeek.

"Continuous Workday," or Commuting Time?
A technician working in California is, like his colleagues, paid only from the time he arrives at his first customer's home until he leaves the last customer's home. He maintained that he and all other company technicians should be paid for the extra time, because they are required to perform some tasks before leaving home and additional ones after arriving home. He sued for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). HR.BLR.com

Go home! Keeping swine flu out of the office
Would you have granted this worker, who was absent due to drunkenness, FMLA leave?

Here's what happened:

A steel mill worker in Arkansas had been demoted after having four unexcused absences for drunkenness.

The man filed suit, claiming his employer violated the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by demoting him.

He claimed that several phone calls he'd made to his supervisor during the four-day absence should've alerted the company to his need for FMLA leave. HRMorning

Anheuser-Busch 'frat party' culture hurts women, Katz suit alleges
Anheuser-Busch encourages a "locker room" and "frat party" atmosphere, excludes women from informal social networks and pays women less than their male counterparts, the brewer's former highest-ranking female executive alleges in a lawsuit. Bizjournals.

Former GM plant to make Fisker hybrid cars
The bankrupt shell of carmaker General Motors Co is making its first major asset sale, selling a Delaware manufacturing plant to Fisker Automotive, which will make plug-in hybrid electric cars beginning in 2012.

Fisker is using a $528 million U.S. government loan to overhaul the 62-year-old Boxwood Road plant in Wilmington, which made Pontiacs and Saturns before it was closed during GM's bankruptcy this year.