US jobs barely rise, dousing recovery hopes

US employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months, dousing hopes the economy would regain momentum in the second half of the year.
Non-farm payrolls rose only 18,000, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said yesterday, well below economists’ expectations for a 90,000 rise.
The unemployment rate climbed to a six-month high of 9.2%, even as jobseekers left the labor force in droves, from 9.1% in May.
“The message on the economy is ongoing stagnation,” said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision economics in New York. “Income growth is marginal so there’s no indication of momentum.
US stock index futures fell sharply on the data, while US bond prices rose. The dollar rose against the euro.
The government revised April and May payrolls to show 44,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported.
The report shattered expectations the economy was starting to accelerate after a soft patch in the first half of the year. It could prompt calls for the Federal Reserve to consider further action to help the economy, but Fed officials have set a high bar.
The US central bank wrapped up a $600bn bond-buying programme last week designed to spur lending and stimulate growth.
“This confirms our view that the Fed will continue to keep rates on hold into 2012 and if weak employment continues it will be pushed out even further,” said Tom Porcelli, chief economist, RBC Capital Markets in New York.
Hopes were high that the economy was starting to find firmer ground as motor vehicle manufacturers ramped up production and gasoline prices descended from their lofty levels.
Economic activity in the first six months of the year was dampened by rising commodity prices and supply chain disruptions following Japan’s devastating earthquake in March.
Signs the labour market is struggling is a major blow for the Obama administration, which has struggled to get the economy to create enough jobs to absorb the 14.1mn unemployed Americans.
The economy is the top concern among voters and will feature prominently in President Barack Obama’s bid for re-election next year. So far, the economy has regained only a fraction of the more than 8mn jobs lost during the recession.
“Today’s report is more evidence that the misguided ‘stimulus’ spending binge, excessive regulations, and an overwhelming national debt continue to hold back private-sector job creation in our country,” House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.
The economy needs to create between 125,000 and 150,000 new jobs a month just to absorb new labor force entrants.
The private sector added 57,000 last month, accounting for all the jobs created, with government employment shrinking 39,000 because of fiscal problems at local and state governments.
Details of the report showed widespread weakness, though factory payrolls rebounded 6,000 after contracting in May for the first time in seven months, with the recovery reflecting a step-up in motor vehicle production.
Construction employment fell 9,000 last month after declining 4,000 in May. Government employment declined for an eighth straight month as municipalities and state governments continued to wield the ax to balance their budgets.
The report also showed the average workweek fell to 34.3 hours from 34.4 hours. Employers have been reluctant to extend hours because of the uncertainty surrounding the recovery.
Average hourly earnings slipped a penny, more evidence that wage-driven inflation is not a risk.

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Historic Change to Internet's Domain Name System

ICANN's (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet's Domain Name System. The Board vote was 13 approving, 1 opposed, and 2 abstaining.

During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.

In short, it means, people/companies are going to be able to use other names, for example, .coke, .car, .red, .addidas etc.

The application fee is set to be $185,000, and an annual fee is $25,000

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Residency Cap Eyed To Limit Expats - Foreigners Cut To 45% Of Population

Kuwait government is working on plans to introduce residency caps on expatriates to slash their number in the country to 45 percent of the total population, local Arabic daily Annahar reported on Sunday.

“The government will suggest imposing a cap of six years on unskilled labourers, eight years on semi-skilled employees, ten years on semi-skilled employees who are with their families and 12 years on skilled employees. Foreigners with rare expertise will be given an open stay,” Annahar daily quoted a source as saying, the report said.

According to 2010 estimates, the number of foreign workers in Kuwait stands at 2,340,000 and make up 69 percent of the population, the report said. The total number of Kuwaitis is said to be 1,120,000.
A source cited by the Annahar daily said the government is interested in proceeding with the residency cap plans after the World Bank ranked Kuwait as having the fourth highest rate of foreigners compared to the nationals.

The proposal to restrict the number of expatriates will be submitted by a committee made up of representatives of various ministries.

The source disclosed the Cabinet has instructed several ministries to present their recommendations to resolve the issue of foreign and marginal workforce in Kuwait.

The source explained the government decided to implement these plans when the World Bank released a report showing that the ratio of foreigners to citizens in Kuwait is the fourth largest in the world — 69 percent of the total population. The top three countries are Qatar with 87 percent, Monaco with 72 percent and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 70 percent. Kuwait is also one of the biggest sources of remittances sent by immigrant workers to their native countries, the source added.

The Kuwait government already has in place the National Manpower Development Program, which started many years ago and enforces a law which requires private companies to have a certain percentage of Kuwaitis.

These percentages, depending on skills required by various industries have been increasing every year and transactions of firms not complying with the percentages are stopped.

Saudi Arabia last month said it will not renew the work permits of foreign workers who have spent six years in the country as part of its plan to create jobs for nationals.

However, it did not say when the decision would be implemented or whether it would be applied to all foreign workers or to specific jobs

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Filipino teen Junrey Balawing declared world's shortest-man

A FILIPINO blacksmith's son who stopped growing when he was a toddler has been declared the world's shortest man as he celebrates his 18th birthday.

Measuring just 59.93cm, Junrey Balawing is the eldest of four siblings - the rest all of normal stature - born in the rural town of Sindangan on southern Mindanao island.

"Officially he is the world's shortest man," said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of the Guinness Book of World Records who measured Balawing in front of cheering relatives and villagers.

The previous record holder was Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who was measured in 2010 at just over 66cm.

"Thank you to all of you for supporting my son, the world's shortest man," Junrey's father, Reynaldo, told a crush of reporters and photographers.

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That Microsoft update is virus

Security company Sophos has warned users against a fake anti-virus attack that masquerades as Microsoft Update.

According to Sophos, criminals are looking for increasingly convincible ways to persuade consumers to download fake antivirus and copying Microsoft's own security seems to be their latest trap.

"We are seeing the criminals behind fake antivirus continuing to customise their social engineering attacks to be more believable to users and presumably more successful," said Chester Wisniewski on the Sophos blog.

"This week they've started to imitate Microsoft Update." According to Sophos, the drive-by page is an exact replica of the real Microsoft Update page, but only appears on Firefox.

"It only comes up when surfing from Firefox on Windows," said Wisniewski. "The real Microsoft Update requires Internet Explorer."

According to Sophos, the attacks are becoming increasingly complex and targeted and it is time users start considering communications from software providers with the same level of suspicion previously reserved for fake bank emails.

"They use high quality graphics and are using information from UserAgent strings that are sent by the browser to customise your malware experience," Wisniewski said.

"Just like visiting your bank, you should only trust security alerts in your browser if you initiated a check with Microsoft, Adobe, Sophos or any other vendor for updates to their software." 

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