The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's final report into the wine grape sector makes 10 recommendations to improve the efficiency and fairness of Australia's wine grape markets.

COVID-19 has resulted in widespread job losses — so what happens next for those who lost their jobs? ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie says if you're out of employment for more than 12 months, your chances of ever working again fall by 40 per cent. Is she correct?

Youth unemployment has soared as a result of the coronavirus, prompting some young people to start their own businesses to try and claw their way back into the workforce.

Scottish stonemasons with experience in restoring castles, restore a historic woolshed in South Australia's outback with quite a bit of help from the locals.

An autoimmune disease that has robbed textile artist Annemieke Mein of her sense of touch will not stop the ecologist, collector, researcher, and activist.

Many towns are home to unutilised but grand former theatre buildings, once hives of activity that helped people forget their cares with the help of ice-cream in paper cups and green lemonade.

A successful WA program turning job seekers into beekeepers looks likely to fold when federal funding runs out in 2018.

Some regional areas of Queensland see unemployment rates skyrocket above 14 per cent with experts warning it will get worse if the Government doesn't step in.

We could all use a break from reality these days, but so many of us find ourselves attached to the computer for virtual meetings. Why not bring a little escapism into your day with the help of Winsor McCay? The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will be releasing a series of virtual backgrounds for […]

The American economy plunged deeper into crisis last month, losing 20.5 million jobs as the unemployment rate jumped to 14.7%, the worst devastation since the Great Depression.The Labor Department's monthly report Friday provided the clearest picture yet of the breadth and depth of the economic damage -- and how swiftly it spread -- as the coronavirus pandemic swept the country.Job losses have encompassed the entire economy, affecting every major industry. Areas like leisure and hospitality had the biggest losses in April, but even health care shed more than 1 million jobs. Low-wage workers, including many women and members of racial and ethnic minorities, have been hit especially hard."It's literally off the charts," said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America. "What would typically take months or quarters to play out in a recession happened in a matter of weeks this time."From almost any vantage point, it was a bleak report. The share of the adult population with a job, at 51.3%, was the lowest on record. Nearly 11 million people reported working part time because they couldn't find full-time work, up from about 4 million before the pandemic.If anything, the numbers probably understate the economic distress.Millions more Americans have filed unemployment claims since the data was collected in mid-April. What's more, because of issues with the way workers are classified, the Labor Department said the actual unemployment rate last month might have been closer to 20%.It remains possible that the recovery, too, will be swift, and that as the pandemic retreats, businesses that were fundamentally healthy before the virus will reopen, rehire and return more or less to normal. The one bright spot in Friday's report was that nearly 80% of the unemployed said they had been temporarily laid off and expected to return to their jobs in the coming months.President Donald Trump endorsed this view in an interview Friday morning on Fox News. "Those jobs will all be back, and they'll be back very soon," Trump said, "and next year we're going to have a phenomenal year."But Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said that such optimism was misplaced, and that many of the jobs could not be recovered."This is going to be a hard reality," Swonk said. "These furloughs are permanent, not temporary."Many businesses have indicated that employees can work from home throughout the summer, hurting sales at downtown restaurants. Meetings and conferences have been put off as well, reducing demand at hotels and other gathering places. And the longer the pandemic lasts, the more businesses will fail, deepening the downturn.The broad nature of the job cuts, too, means it will take longer for the labor market to recover than if the losses were confined to one or two areas."There is no safe place in the labor market right now," said Martha Gimbel, an economist and labor market expert at Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative. "Once people are unemployed, once they've lost their jobs, once their spending has been sucked out of the economy, it takes so long to come back from that."Carrie Hines, a managing director at an advertising firm in Austin, Texas, had the kind of professional job -- adaptable to working from home -- that seemed insulated from the pandemic's effects. But her firm worked closely with companies in the airline, hotel and amusement park industries. When their business evaporated as a result of the outbreak, it was only a matter of time before Hines' firm felt the impact. She was laid off April 20."I was shocked," she said. "I've never had a gap in work since college."Hines and her husband are cutting back where they can, and they have canceled plans to send their three children to summer camp. "I never imagined this kind of job market where the entire advertising industry has been crushed," she said.The scale of the job losses last month alone far exceed the 8.7 million lost in the last recession, when unemployment peaked at 10% in October 2009."I thought the Great Recession was once in a lifetime, but this is much worse," said Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at S&P Global.The only comparable period is when unemployment reached about 25% in 1933, before the government began publishing official statistics. Then, as now, workers from a variety of backgrounds found themselves with few prospects for quickly landing a new job.The government's official definition of unemployment typically requires people to be actively looking for work, making the measure ill-suited to a crisis in which the government is encouraging people to stay home. Some 6.4 million people left the labor force entirely in April, meaning they were neither working nor looking for work.Joblessness -- by any measure -- could be even higher in the report for May, which will reflect conditions next week. Some economists say the unemployment rate should fall over the summer as people begin to return to work. Several states have begun to reopen their economies, and others are expected to do so in coming weeks.But with the virus untamed, it's not clear how quickly customers will return to businesses. And epidemiologists and economists warn that if states move too quickly, they could risk a second wave of infections, imperiling public health and the economy."That would stop people from shopping and cause austerity," Bovino said.For businesses, the uncertainty about the path of the pandemic and about consumers' response to it is making planning difficult.When Austin Ramirez heard about the coronavirus earlier this year, his initial concern was for his supply chain. Ramirez runs Husco International, a manufacturer of hydraulic and electromechanical components for cars and other equipment. The company has a factory in China and receives parts from suppliers there and around the world.By April, virtually the entire U.S. auto industry was shut down, Husco included. (The company's nonautomotive production continued at a reduced rate.) Ramirez said he didn't know when business would bounce back. His goal is to weather the storm."There's no visibility or certainty on what the future demand is going to look like," he said. "We can't build a business model that relies on there being a big recovery six months from now."While most of Husco's roughly 750 North American workers have been furloughed during the crisis, the company has mostly avoided large-scale, permanent job cuts. Ramirez said he expected that most of his workers would come back when he needs them.But particularly in industries like retail and hospitality, layoffs that were initially temporary might not remain so as bankruptcies mount and business owners confront shifts in consumer behavior.Most forecasters expect the unemployment rate to remain elevated at least through 2021, and probably longer. That means that it will be years before workers enjoy the bargaining power that was beginning to bring them faster wage gains and better benefits before the crisis.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Saturday that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada "back into confinement this summer." Trudeau, who represents a Montreal, Quebec parliamentary riding, told reporters in a daily briefing that he is concerned about the virus' spread in that province, the country's epicenter. Although health officials have pointed to a flattening rate of daily cases in many provinces, Trudeau said Canada was "not in the recovery phase yet."

Rivalling One Direction-ers in devotion, Australian fans of the musical maestro André Rieu are set to again be wowed at the cinema screenings of his 2016 Maastricht concert.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirming the superior court's determination that a movie theater being constructed using a loan from the city government and receiving city grant funds was subject to California's prevailing wage laws as they apply to 'public works.'

(California Court of Appeal) - Upheld the denial of a man's application for unemployment insurance benefits. Affirmed the denial of writ relief.

De coronacrisis luidt een nieuwe werkelijkheid in met een grote economische recessie en een anderhalvemeter-samenleving. Dat vraagt van bedrijven en instellingen een kritische blik op hun visie, ambitie en strategie. Business as usual bestaat immers niet meer. Hoe ziet die nieuwe werkelijkheid eruit? Wat betekent dat op korte en lange termijn voor jouw organisatie? Wat […]

The conversation around testing and when to reopen continues; we check in with the Solano County. Questions about filing for unemployment get some needed answers, and how children’s parties are still happening online.

(US 5th Circuit) - No. 18-60749

A Pure, Emotional Delivery Complimented By A Folk Arrangement With Mandolin And Acoustic Guitars, And Sweeping Traditional Country Vocal Harmonies On Her Favorite Dolly Parton Classic!

Each of us is morally and ethically called upon to do the right thing, make sacrifices, and take the necessary steps to keep our family, friends, co-workers and community safe.

A Pure, Emotional Delivery Complimented By A Folk Arrangement With Mandolin And Acoustic Guitars, And Sweeping Traditional Country Vocal Harmonies On Her Favorite Dolly Parton Classic!

"The big questions of the day for the workers is, 'I don’t feel safe. Do I have to go back to work?'" a Colorado Department of Labor and Employment official said Monday. "And, as with everything with unemployment, it depends."

Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades.

So far, state labor officials have opened investigations into 150 instances of workers being called back to their workplaces or being offered new jobs and refusing, choosing instead to continue requesting unemployment benefits because of coronavirus-related concerns.

The U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy.

“Shatter the Night” By Emily Littlejohn (Minotaur Books) Detective Gemma Monroe and her boyfriend, Brody, are taking their year-old daughter trick-or-treating when a car bomb explodes, killing a retired judge who happens to be an old family friend.  Gemma puts aside her wedding planning and vows to solve the murder, with the aid of long-time […]

Seriál „Byl jednou jeden život“ zná snad každý pod 40 let. V německé verzi tohoto populárního seriálu pro děti hodné bílé krvinky zabíjejí plynem zlé bakterie, které volají „To je hrůza!“. Volají to v židovském jazyku jidiš. Jazykové mutace v jiných zemích tento výkřik neobsahují a neobsahuje ho ani originální francouzská verze. To si toho opravdu za 35 let vysílání seriálu v Německu nikdo nevšiml? Nebo se nad tím jen dobře bavili? Na antisemitskou narážku upozornil nyní článek na německém webu zabývajícím se médii Übermedien.de.

On accorde "The World of Art Award" (WAA) aux artistes, aux galeries et aux musées qui poursuivent les "meilleures pratiques" dans l'art et la culture. Cette concurrence cherche à attirer dies artistes, galeries, les musées qui redéfinissent des normes de l'excellence d'art. Ceux qui défie des trends et des tendances existantes dans l'art et la culture.

IBM Security today announced the results of a global study exploring the implications and effects of data breaches on today’s businesses. Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by Ponemon Institute, the study found that the average cost of a data breach is $3.62 million globally , a 10 percent decline from 2016 results. This is the first time since the global study was created that there has been an overall decrease in the cost. According to the study, these data breaches cost companies $141 per lost or stolen record on average

[Image: An example of gravitational lens effects, via Wikipedia.] Over at WIRED, Daniel Oberhaus, author of the recent book Extraterrestrial Languages, takes a look at some proposals from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) program. “Among this year’s NIAC grants,” Oberhaus writes, “are proposals to turn a lunar crater into a giant radio dish, to develop … Continue reading "Gravitational Lensing, Interstellar Cinematography, and the Future of Magical Warfare in Space"

Today IBM announced the Australian results of the global 2017 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach report.

Watching the movie Joker, I felt repeatedly that I was watching a film that Greg Heisler could have lit. The use of color was unique, sophisticated and fearless — almost a character unto itself.

In this outstanding 15-minute short produced by Vanity Fair, Joker cinematographer Lawrence Sher dissects his own use of light and color in the movie. Read more »

Česká národní banka čeká propad české ekonomiky o 8 procent. Na předkrizovou úroveň se nedostane ani v příštím roce. Restart bude záviset i na tom, jak rychle lidé začnou utrácet. Napovědí příští měsíce, kdy se víc lidí bude hlásit na úřady práce.

U.S. Unemployment Reaches 14.7 Percent – Chart from Great Depression Shows Risks Ahead

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 8, 2020 ~   The data is out this morning and it’s not pretty. Nonfarm payrolls collapsed by 20.5 million jobs in April and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent. The United States is now seeing the worst unemployment rates since the Great Depression. We prepared the above chart from data available at the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) archives at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Following the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, it was not until August 1931 that the unemployment rate reached 15.01 percent. We’re now at 14.7 percent unemployment from a rate of 3.5 percent just two months ago in February. Consider using the chart above to figure out just how much cash on hand you need to maintain.

-

Říká se, že po krizi spojené s onemocnění covid-19 se probudíme do jiného světa. Otázka je, zda to bude platit i pro realitní trh. Podle odborníků s největší pravděpodobností ano. Což platí jak pro prodejní ceny nemovitostí, tak pro ceny nájemního bydlení.

Řada lidí přijde o práci a začne hledat novou. Už teď je dobré se na to připravit a před podpisem pracovní smlouvy vědět, na co si dát pozor. Je lepší kývnout na mzdový výměr, nebo na mzdu v pracovní smlouvě? A na co dalšího si dát pozor? Na otázky odpovídá advokát Pavel Nastis.