Business category, Page 181
U.S. investigating airlines over slow refunds during pandemic
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department is detailing efforts it says it is making to help airline customers who were wrongfully denied refunds after flights were canceled or changed during the pandemic. The department says in a new report that it investigated 20 airlines over failures to issue prompt refunds to...
Federal mandate takes vaccine decision off employers’ hands
Larger U.S. businesses now won’t have to decide whether to require their employees to get vaccinated against covid-19. Doing so is now federal policy. President Joe Biden announced sweeping new orders Thursday that will require employers with more than 100 workers to mandate immunizations or offer weekly testing. The new...
Fast hiring: UPS to hire 100,000, many in 30 minutes or less
NEW YORK — Besides packages, UPS is promising to deliver something else fast: job offers. The package delivery company said Thursday that it plans to hire more than 100,000 people for the busy holiday shipping season, many of whom will get job offers within 30 minutes of applying. UPS needs...
Stocks higher in early trading, still lower for the week
Stocks were slightlyi higher Thursday morning on Wall Street, as the market continues to wobble between gains and losses in this holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. The S&P 500...
Ford pulls plug on India production after decade of losses
Ford will cease production in India for vehicles sold there by next year after logging accumulated operating losses of more than $2 billion over the past 10 years. The restructuring means job losses of about 4,000, the company said in a filing Thursday with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Demand...
Economic oddity: Record job openings and many unemployedVideo
WASHINGTON — The disconnect is jarring: Across the United States, employers who are desperate to fill jobs have posted a record-high number of job openings. They’re raising pay, too, and dangling bonuses to people who accept job offers or recruit their friends. And yet millions more Americans are unemployed compared...
Amazon to open 2 cashier-less Whole Foods stores next year
There will be something missing at two Whole Foods stores opening next year: the rows of cashiers. Amazon, which owns the grocery chain, said Wednesday that it will bring its cashier-less technology to two Whole Foods stores for the first time, letting shoppers grab what they need and leave without...
Report: Solar could power 40% of U.S. electricity by 2035
WASHINGTON — Solar energy has the potential to supply up to 40% of the nation’s electricity within 15 years — a 10-fold increase over current solar output, but one that would require massive changes in U.S. policy and billions of dollars in federal investment to modernize the nation’s electric grid,...
Facebook slams U.K. antitrust watchdog over call to sell Giphy
LONDON — Facebook has criticized the U.K. competition watchdog’s provisional decision ordering that it sell off Giphy because it said the acquisition of the company stifles competition for animated images. The social network’s strongly worded response to the Competition and Markets Authority sets the stage for a battle over the...
Stocks close mostly lower, but Nasdaq still inches higher
Stocks indexes on Wall Street closed mostly lower Tuesday, though solid gains by Apple, Facebook and other tech heavyweights helped nudged the Nasdaq to another all-time high. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%, losing some ground after two straight weekly gains. Roughly 80% of companies in the benchmark index fell. Industrial...
Early stumble as El Salvador starts Bitcoin as currency
SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours and President Nayib Bukele said the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning. For part of the morning, El Salvador’s president became tech support for...
Dick’s Sporting Goods opens new store to promote, protect outdoors
Dick’s Sporting Goods will officially open its first Public Lands store in Cranberry Township on Sept. 24. According to Dick’s, Public Lands, “will focus on helping more people get outside to explore and protect America’s public lands.” “Did you know that nearly one-third of America is public land? We’re launching...
Jobless Americans will have few options as benefits expireVideo
NEW YORK — Millions of jobless Americans lost their unemployment benefits on Monday, leaving only a handful of economic support programs for those who are still being hit financially by the year-and-a-half-old coronavirus pandemic. Two critical programs expired on Monday. One provided jobless aid to self-employed and gig workers and...
John Dorfman: My fat profit margin stocks returned 78% in 2020; here’s another 5 to try
It’s been a great year for stocks with fat profit margins. Five fat-margin stocks that I recommended on September 7, 2020 have returned 78.6% through September 3 of this year. Gamco Investors Inc. (GBL), Mario Gabelli’s investment company, led the way with a 136% return. A year ago, I wrote...
Western Pa. business owners lament: Where have all the workers gone?Video
Rod Darby has a great location for The Trailside Pub & Restaurant, overlooking the Youghiogheny River in West Newton. Diners can sit on the deck watching hikers, bikers and runners travel the Great Allegheny Passage, the popular trail connecting Pittsburgh with Washington, D.C. Attracting customers to his business has not...
Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after covid
Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks. “It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the...
Alle-Kiski Valley employers across all business sectors looking for workers, employment agency says
PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski said Friday it has received more than 300 job postings in the past month. “Jobs are available from virtually every business sector,” said Phil Grove, account representative for PA CareerLink Alle-Kiski. Jobs range from ones for which applicants need no previous experience to ones requiring advanced degrees,...
Electric boats making waves without the noise
The auto industry has raced ahead on an electric wave with more manufacturers joining the race seemingly every day. The boating industry has sputtered far behind, bogged down by low-horsepower engines and batteries that take up nearly half the boat. That’s in the process of changing. Bolstered by new technology,...
$4M deal: Hempfield purchases 43 acres from Excela, agrees to transfer grant
Excela Health will receive $4 million in a deal with Hempfield supervisors, who agreed to pay the health care provider $1 million for a 43-acre parcel of land in the township and transfer funds from a $3 million state grant. County records show Excela originally bought the land for $3.75...
Stocks decline after negative jobs report, bond yields rise
Stocks were falling Friday after a critical report on U.S. hiring showed employers created far fewer jobs than expected. It gave investors pause on whether the delta variant of the coronavirus was starting to impact economic growth out of the pandemic. The S&P 500 index fell 0.1% as of 10...
U.S. hiring slows to just 235,000 jobs after 2 strong months
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a surprisingly weak gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping and eating out. The August job gains the government reported Friday fell far short of...
Stocks shake off an afternoon stumble to end modestly higher
The stock market recovered from an afternoon stumble Thursday and ended with some modest gains, enough to mark more record highs for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite. Investors had a fresh batch of economic data to weigh as they gauge the economic recovery, but much of the focus...
GM, Ford halt some production as chip shortage worsens
DETROIT — The global shortage of computer chips is getting worse, forcing automakers to temporarily close factories including those that build popular pickup trucks. General Motors announced Thursday that it would pause production at eight North American plants during the next two weeks, including two that make the company’s top-selling...
East Huntingdon firm gets $579,000 low-interest state loan to build plant
An East Huntingdon firm that manufactures wood shipping crates, pallets and non-wood crates for the military and industry was awarded a $579,072 low-interest loan from the state to buy a 6.7-acre industrial property to build a new manufacturing plant and consolidate operations in a $1.44 million project, the state said....
U.S. jobless claims reach a pandemic low as hiring strengthens
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low, another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jobless claims dropped by 14,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The weekly count has mostly...
