US job gains weaken in August, show economic recovery is still prone to occasional slowdowns
WASHINGTON — A surprising drop in hiring and in the number of people seeking work in August sent a reminder that the U.S. economic recovery is still prone to temporary slowdowns.
Employers added just 142,000 jobs last month, well below the 212,000 average of the previous 12 months. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent. But that was because more people without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed.
Analysts took Friday’s Labor Department report in stride. They noted that other gauges of the economy — from manufacturing and construction to auto sales — remain solid. Layoffs have dwindled, too. Analysts also noted that month-to-month volatility in hiring is common even in a healthy economy.
But the dip in hiring also suggests that, though the Great Recession officially ended more than five years ago, the economy has yet to shed some of its lingering weaknesses. Held back by sluggish pay growth, for example, consumers continue to spend cautiously.
Most economists foresee an economy that’s poised to make further strides, punctuated at times by modest setbacks.
Maine teenage mother fights do-not-resuscitate order placed on brain-damaged daughter by state
PORTLAND, Maine — A teenage mother is fighting a do-not-resuscitate order imposed on her brain-damaged daughter, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions. Child welfare officials who intervened after the baby was severely injured say life-saving measures in the event she stops breathing would only prolong her suffering.
The mother, Virginia Trask, originally agreed to the do-not-resuscitate order. At one point, the infant was removed from life support and placed in her arms to die, then opened her eyes and began breathing.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine and Christian Civic League of Maine are joining the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based conservative legal group, in supporting the 18-year-old mother’s request to lift the judge-approved order.
Maine’s supreme court will hear arguments later this month.
Obama spells out immigration goals; says he is reviewing recommendations for executive action
WASHINGTON — Leaving his timing uncertain, President Barack Obama laid out ambitious objectives Friday for immigration steps he intends to take on his own and said he had already received some recommendations from the Homeland Security and Justice departments for executive action he could implement without Congress.
Facing competing pressures from immigration advocacy groups and from Democrats nervous about November’s midterm election, Obama made no commitment about whether he would act in the coming weeks as he had earlier pledged.
“My expectation is that fairly soon, I’ll be considering what the next steps are,” he said during a news conference in Wales at the end of a two-day NATO summit.
Nebraska medical staff: Doctor who caught Ebola in Liberia is sick, but stable
OMAHA, Neb. — A doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia is sick but in stable condition and communicating with his caregivers at the Nebraska Medical Center, officials said Friday.
Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, is being treated at a 10-bed special isolation unit, the largest of the United States’ four. It was built to handle patients with highly infectious and deadly diseases, according to Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of the infectious diseases division at the center.
Sacra — the third American aid worker sickened with the virus — arrived at 6:38 a.m. Friday at the Omaha hospital. Sacra was wheeled on a gurney off the plane at Offutt Air Force Base, transferred to an ambulance and then wheeled into the hospital, said Rosanna Morris, chief nursing officer for the medical center.
Sacra was conscious Friday and was able to communicate with medical staff, Morris said.
The first two American aid workers infected by Ebola — Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol — have recovered since being flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment. Sacra came to Omaha instead of Atlanta because federal officials asked the medical center to treat him in order to prepare other isolation units to take more Ebola patients if needed.
By wire sources