Labor

The U.S. Supreme Court have rejected a please by Nestle to throw out a lawsuit holding them liable for the use of child labor slaves to harvest cocoa in the Ivory Coast.  The court says that Nestle must face the charges filed by former victims of child slavery represented by Global Exchange (a human rights organization) Msn.com reports: The plaintiffs, who were originally from Mali, contend the companies aided and abetted human rights violations through their active involvement in purchasing cocoa from Ivory Coast.

Back in September, we noted that Chicago’s schools are in trouble. Deep trouble.

Amid Illinois’ intractable budget crisis, the city’s public school system opened with a budget shortfall of nearly a half billion dollars.

Borrowing and trimming the proverbial fat helped close some of the $1.1 billion hole but once the board reached the point where “further cuts would reach deep into the classroom” (to quote system chief Forrest Claypool), the schools asked Springfield to make up the difference which amounts to $480 million.

Monsanto have announced that they going to cut a further 1,000 jobs amid a decline in worldwide sales and a blaming “sluggish farming economy”.  The layoffs are in addition to the 2,600 already planned, which amounts to a staggering 16 percent of the company’s entire workforce. Bizjournals.com reports: The scope of the cuts will vary from country to country and will continue into 2018, they said.

If Mark Zandi and his "whatever it takes" seasonal-adjusters at ADP are to be believed, the US manufacturing sector added the most jobs in 11 months in December. Our question is simple - with ISM Manufacturing Employment at post-recession lows and US Manufacturing PMIs at post-recesssion lows, and inventories-to-sales ratios at post-recession highs, why are goods-producers hiring at such a frantic pace?

Double-Seasonal-adjustment?

Great news right? For those hoping for some "bad news is good news to slow The Fed down" data, ADP is a disappointment. The December monthly change was a rise of 257k - hugely better than the expected 198k and th ebiggest rise since December 2014. Most importantly the goods-producing sector added a shocking 23,000 jobs - despite every single manufacturing indicator deep in recession. Service-sector jobs added 234k.

Best jobs gains in a year (does that sound right?)

The details from the report: