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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The United States logged another month of lackluster job growth in November, but the mediocre growth was enough to push the unemployment rate down to 8.8 percent.

The Labor Department said Friday that employers in the nation added 120,000 jobs in November, after adding 100,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent after having remained stagnant at around 9 percent for most of 2011.

November’s jobless rate was the lowest recorded since March 2009. For investors, that was good enough to spark a rally on Wall Street.

Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 92 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 10 points and the NASDAQ climbed 21 points

Also adding optimism to stocks was news out of Europe that suggests European leaders appear more willing to engage in a tighter fiscal union.

European markets were broadly higher after German Chancellor Angela Merkel called a proposal to create national funds to administer excessive debt in eurozone nations an “interesting idea.”

Commodities were also gaining ground. Oil was trading up a half a dollar at $100.70 a barrel and gold was better by $15 to $1,756 a troy ounce.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims during the week ending Nov. 12 dropped to 388,000, the lowest level since April.

That number was down by 5,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 393,000 first time claims for unemployment compensation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The less volatile 4-week moving average fell below the 400,000 mark for the first time in seven months. It was 396,750, down by 4,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 400,750 claims.

There was no change in the percentage of unemployed workers covered by the unemployment compensation program. The adjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 2.9 percent for the week ending Nov. 5.

Some data always lags and is only available for earlier weeks. That includes the total number of people on unemployment compensation and the states with the largest increase in unemployment rates.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs during the week of Oct. 29 was 6,773,326, a decrease of 62,278 from the previous week.

States with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Nov. 5 were in Michigan (+3,106), Illinois (+2,516), Texas (+2,335), Washington (+2,278) and Pennsylvania (+2,261).

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Although the economy added 103,000 jobs in September, it was not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone make a dent in getting 14 million jobless Americans back to work.

Nevertheless, 45,000 of the jobs were not new positions, but represented striking Verizon workers returning to work, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate remained unmoved at 9.1 percent for the third consecutive month. The unemployment rate has remained in the range of 9.0 to 9.2 percent since April.

Job gains occurred in professional and business services, and the health care and construction industries. Government entities continued to shed jobs rather than create them.

The civilian labor-force participation rate remained stable with 64.2 percent of all working-age Americans holding either a part- or full-time job. Before the recession, 89 percent or more of all working-age Americans had a job and paycheck.

In addition, another 9.3 million people were involuntarily working part-time in September. That included people who had their hours cut, or they could not find full-time work.

Long-term unemployed individuals accounted for 44.6 percent of the jobless Long-term unemployment is defined as people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, and 6.2 million fell into that category in September.

Unemployment rates among major groups remained largely unchanged in September:

• adult men (8.8 percent)
• adult women (8.1 percent)
• teenagers (24.6 percent)
• whites (8.0 percent)
• blacks (16.0 percent)
• Hispanics (11.3 percent)

Economists say the nation needs to create from 150,000 to 220,000 new jobs monthly to keep up with people entering the labor force for the first time. Anything above that number would begin to provide jobs for the people who lost a job during the recession, or who entered the labor market and were unable to get their first job.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Teen unemployment in the United Kingdom is higher than in some lesser-developed countries in Europe, a study has found.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study released on Tuesday showed that teen unemployment rate in the United Kingdom was 10 percent. That level is above international averages and higher than developing European nations such as Estonia, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The study classified as unemployed young people between the ages of 15 through 19 who did not have jobs or were not in college.

The only European Union countries that had higher rates than the UK were Spain, Italy and Ireland – which are also known as the debt-ridden eurozone nations.

Responding to the report, National Union of Students President Liam Burns warned that more Briton youths would end up unemployed, not in training or not in school if the coalition government continued to reduce college budgets and allow large hikes in university tuition fees.

The forecast of a prolonged period of weak growth and high unemployment rate in Britain prompted International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde to urge the British government to increase its ability to respond to heightened risks.

Lagarde suggested that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King ease monetary policy if the British economy failed to improve soon. However, King has resisted pressures to extend the quantitative easing and kept the key lending rate at a record-low level of 0.5 percent.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The good news is that fewer adults are lighting up. The bad news is the rate of decline of adult U.S. smokers is slowing, according to a new report released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC report showed that 19.3 percent, or some 45 million, Americans older than 18 were smokers in 2010, versus 20.9 percent in 2005. While the percentage does show a decline, the trend is slowing. One in five U.S. adults still smokes, putting themselves and others at risk for myriad health problems. Smoking remains a significant health concern in the United States.

The study also found that of those who smoke, 78.2 percent, or 35.4 million, smoke daily, However, on a positive note, even those smokers are lighting up less often.

Smoking costs the U.S. $193 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity. Roughly 443,000 Americans die each year from smoking or second hand smoke.

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Adelaide, Australia (AHN) – The unemployment rate in Australia unexpectedly increased in July to 5.1 percent, according to a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Australia’s jobless rate rose by 0.1 percentage point from June’s 4.9 percent.

That puts the jobless rate at its highest level since last November. Analysts say it shows that the nation’s economy — powered largely by the mining sector — is slowing.

The increased unemployment rate comes on the heels of stalled retail sales and weak consumer confidence. Since the employment rate is a lagging indicator, economists expect unemployment to rise further.

News of the unemployment figures caused the Australian dollar to slump briefly in currency pairs trading against the U.S. dollars before recovering.

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Bill would give California the power to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The unemployment rate grew 9 percent in April despite the economy adding more jobs than was expected.

The Labor Department said on Friday nonfarm payroll increased 244,000 during the period, boosted by gains in the service, manufacturing and mining industries. In the private sector, 268,000 jobs were added while the federal and state governments lost 24,000 jobs.

There was an increase of 51,000 positions during the month in the professional and businesses services, specifically in technical consulting and coputers systems design.

Jobs related to healthcare rose 37,000, largely due to a 22,000 increase in employment in ambultory healthcare. Hospitals accounted for 10,000 jobs.

In the hospitatility industry, there was continued growth with 46,000 more jobs, mainly from a 30,600 spike in employment in accomodation and food services.

Manufacturing added 29,000 jobs to the economy and mining 11.4 percent.

Despite the gains, the unemployment trate rose to 9 percent in April from 8.8 percent in the previous month.

The number of jobless Americans remained little changed at 13.7 million. Those unemployed for less than five weeks rose by 242,000, but the number of jobless for at least 27 weeks dropped by 283,000 to 5.8 million.

There was virtually the same number of people involutarily working part-time, at 8.6 million.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) used the jobs report to assail the White House for “causing renewed uncertainty for private-sector job creators, crowding out private investment and punishing small businesses and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest.”

“While any improvement is welcome news, job growth in America is still nowhere close to what it should be,” the Republican leader added.

“Over the past month, rather than joining Republicans in focusing on policies that promote long-term economic growth to help balance the federal budget, the Democrats who control Washington have indicated they are planning to increase taxes and allow the government’s spending binge to continue.”

But the White House pointed out that there was an averge of about a quarter of a million private sector jobs created each month for three consecutive months.

“We’re pleased about that. We obviously have a lot more work to do,” presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “The recession cost the American labor force 8 million jobs and we’re still digging ourselves out of that hole.”

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The Republic of Ireland is to get an interest rate reduction on its big loans from the EU, the BBC has learned.

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Who is there to imagine that life of the people will be free from ailments? One, nevertheless, has reasons to feel disturbed as diseases have been growing in number. One is disturbed more as the budget for the medical treatment has always been on the rise. On the other hand, it is nothing new to the people that their source of earning is terribly limited. They, usually, own a deflated wallet in their possession. The odds they face include fees for the physicians, bills for medicines, bills for hospitals, charges for surgeons and so on. The people are to pass through the most difficult time when they confront all of them together. The financial market, considering all these factors, has made provisions for medical loans.

Medical loans are available on several heads. There are many patients who have purchased insurance coverage or have secured NHS coverage. It is possible for a patient to choose his physician. He will have to pay the bill for the physician. The people can obtain medical loans for different reasons relating to their treatment. Some people may find it necessary to apply for cosmetic surgery loans or plastic surgery loans if they consider that correction in some parts of their physique is important for their good health.

Most of the people prefer medical loans to credit cards, as interest rates for credit cards are comparatively high. Moreover, credit cards offer loan amount up to a limit whereas one can secure larger amount if one applies for medical loans. Again, people want to keep their credit cards reserved for the future.

The patients get another benefit from the medial loans. The rate of installments for medical loans is flexible. One can choose any standard amount as rate of installments. The rate of installments may be fixed for any month and financial status of the patient is considered when it is fixed. The borrowers, nevertheless, must be sincere and committed in repaying the loan amount every month.

Medical loans are not generally provided by the physicians or by the hospitals. The patents can get elective and non-elective sources as alternative means for funding when finance management is very tough for them.

Medical loans are as good as personal loans and the patients can apply for secured or unsecured form of medical loans. The loan-seekers can submit online application, because it is an easy and time-saving method.

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