The League of Iowa
Human & Civil Rights Agencies

Workforce Development Releases Survey on Unemployed

by Dar Danielson on July 1, 2010 in Business & Economy, Politics & Government (Radio Iowa)

A survey of unemployed Iowans by the state agency in charge of helping them find new jobs finds many have been out of a job for longer then ave...

HUD STEPS UP ENFORCEMENT OF JOB CREATION REQUIREMENTS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Published March 8, 2010 by HUD

3,100 agencies submit 2008 annual reports documenting efforts to hire low-income residents

WASHINGTON – More than 3,100 state and local government agencies have responded to the U.S...

Single Parents, Around the World

By Catherine Rampell

Published March 10, 2010, New York Times

A sizable minority of children in rich countries live with just one parent — a parent who is likely to be female, and also likely to be working.Those are some of the takeaways from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and ...

Risk and Opportunity for Women in 21st Century

By Katrin Bennhold, New York Times

Published: March 5, 2010

PARIS — Daniel Louvard does not believe in affirmative action. Time and again, the scientists in his Left Bank cancer laboratory have urged him to recruit with gender diversity in mind. But Mr....

New jobless claims filed last week dropped 29,000, to 469,000, slightly better than forecasters expected, the government said moments ago. Forecasters expected last week's new jobless claims to come in at 470,000. The four-week moving average for new jobless claims, which smooths out the week-to-week volatility, dropped 3,250 to 470,450. Continuing claims last week dropped to 4.5 million from 4.6 million the prior week.

House Adopts $15 Billion Plan to Spur Job Growth

By: Carl Hulse

Published: March 4, 2010 in the New York Times

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved a $15 billion measure intended to spur job creation by granting tax breaks to businesses that hire workers, as Democrats, bracing for new jobless figures, tried to show that Congress ...

While Washington debates how to help the country’s struggling small businesses, states and municipalities have stepped up with an array of initiatives to stanch closings and save jobs. The local approaches are as varied as subsidizing wages for new hires, running a $100,000 regional business-plan competition and giving out grants to help small manufacturers reposition themselves. Some states and cities are using federal stimulus dollars, and others are mixing federal, state and private ...

The Senate has passed a $15 billion package that is aimed at helping small businesses. There are two key parts. One is the extension of section 179 of the tax code, which allows up to $250,000 of capital expenditures to be expensed immediately instead of being depreciated over time. This will motivate some companies to make capital expenditures that will reduce their tax bills, which is good for the economy. The other part is the suspension of FICA payments for the rest of the year for new hi...

Industry reports consistently rate workers with disabilities as average or above average when it comes to employee performance, attendance, retention and safety. So why are so many people with disabilities unemployed? The No. 1 barrier preventing many companies from hiring people with disabilities continues to be "attitudes at all corporate levels," according to a report published in the February edition of T + D magazine, the trade publication for the American Society for Training & Deve...

Balan Nur had worked for Alamo Rent-A-Car for two years, wearing a headscarf as part of her Islamic religious practice during Ramadan. But after 9/11, she was told that Alamo's dress code prohibited head coverings, and she was subsequently fired for refusing to remove it. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought a suit on her behalf, alleging religious discrimination. Result: The court found in favor of Nur and eventually granted her more than $280,000 in damages. "No person should...