Employment

Veteran substitute teachers, who have recently lost teaching assignments because of an effort to help laid-off full-time instructors, won't be getting the work back any time soon, Los Angeles school officials confirmed this week. L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines stands by a one-year deal signed in July with teachers union President A.J. Duffy, according to a district statement. Under the pact, full-time teachers who were laid off have priority for random substitute assignments, even if that means passing over veteran substitute teachers with more seniority.

The White House said Friday that the $787-billion stimulus package had created or saved about 1 million jobs so far -- a number that is hard to verify because of the guesswork involved in determining whether businesses had retained workers due to the stimulus who otherwise would have been laid off. After compiling reports from more than 100,000 businesses, nonprofit groups and state and local governments that received stimulus money, the Obama...

Ford Motor Co.'s surprisingly strong quarterly earnings capped a day of upbeat news that showed the U.S. economy continuing to gain strength in key sectors including manufacturing and housing. The only U.S. automaker to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection this year, Ford on Monday reported a nearly $1-billion profit from July to September, helped by cost-cutting, the government's "cash for clunkers" program and strong demand for its new F-150 pickups. But Ford's strengthening financials underscore the major weakness plaguing the nascent economic recovery.

By all appearances, Dong Bo has been living the good life since returning home this month for the Chinese New Year holiday that starts Monday. He spends his days leisurely, waking up late, visiting with friends playing mah-jongg and taking walks with his freckle-faced girlfriend in this peaceful farming town in central China. But, as with many of China's 130 million migrant workers, the grim realities of the global economy weigh heavily in Dong's heart. For the first time since leaving home seven years ago, the 25-year-old does not have a city job waiting for him after the weeklong festival ends.

Note to President Obama: Energy efficiency and clean technology can help jump-start the U.S. economy. That's the message of a report released today by Next 10, a nonprofit research group in Palo Alto, which says California's experience underscores how the green sector is emerging as a key component of growth. Among the findings: Green-collar jobs are growing faster than statewide employment. Clean-tech investment in the state hit a record last year, despite steep stock-market declines.

IBM Corp. said that it had resolved a lawsuit against its former vice president and that the executive, Mark Papermaster, could go work for Apple Inc. after April 24 -- six months after leaving his post at IBM.

The Labor Department reported that 21,137 mass layoffs took place last year, up from 15,493 in 2007. That's the highest annual total since 2001, the last time the economy was in recession. More than 2.1 million workers were fired in last year's mass layoffs, which are job reductions of 50 or more by a single employer. The department said that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, mass layoffs did drop slightly in December, to 2,275 from 2,328 in November.

Congress is closing in on the down payment of a huge spending package, designed to create jobs to ward off double-digit unemployment and begin a revival of the tanking U.S. economy. So here is a modest proposal: The federal government -- which means you and I -- should pump $62 billion into the nation's nonprofit cultural infrastructure. Yes, that's billion-with-a-b, not million-with-an-m. Forget about the silly dickering over an anemic $50-million boost for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a hiring freeze throughout the county, excluding critical health and safety positions, and severely clamped down on the purchase of services, supplies and fixed assets. The vote essentially formalized a policy that, with some exceptions, has been in place for months as the county grapples with the economic downturn. Aides were unable to estimate how much money will be saved, but said the decision was needed as the county braces for the delay of $106 million in state payments by Controller John Chiang beginning Friday.

Even before the stimulus deal was complete in Congress, President Obama said Wednesday that evidence already showed his economic rescue plan would improve the lives of American workers. The White House asserted three times Wednesday that Caterpillar Inc., which has laid off workers recently, would be able to rehire employees if Congress approved the stimulus bill. But as the president prepared for a trip today to visit a Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Ill., it was unclear whether the world's biggest maker of earth-moving equipment could provide an example of the stimulus bill's job-creating powers.