The National Federation of Independent Business said employment fell by an average of 0.1 per firm from 0.3 in September, according to its survey of 2,077 small businesses.
The jobless rate is seen holding steady at 9.1 percent for a fourth straight month.
The NFIB survey showed 12 percent of small-business owners added an average of 3.2 workers over the past few months, while 11 percent reduced employment by an average of 3.6 workers, an improvement from September.
The remaining 77 percent of owners made no net change in employment, with just under a third reporting few or no qualified applicants for positions.
Over the next three months, about 9 percent of small-business owners plan to hire new workers, down 2 percentage points from September, while 12 percent intend to reduce their head count.
Here’s another way to reach local customers and give them the service or product they need: Register with MiNeeds.com. MiNeeds.com allows customers to post their needs, such as a local photographer or graphic designer, and allows businesses to bid on offering their services or products. The MiNeeds online marketplace lets you register for free and then receive leads. To send a proposal to a potential customer, you need to choose one of the MiNeeds monthly membership packages depending on how many customers you plan on contacting. T
Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet Saturday, suddenly locking out striking workers after weeks of flight disruptions an executive said could close down the world’s 10th largest airline piece by piece.
The Australian government called for an emergency arbitration hearing, which was adjourned early Sunday morning after hearing evidence from the unions and airline. It will resume Sunday afternoon when the government will argue that the airline be ordered to fly in Australia’s economic interests.
Planes in the air continued to their destinations, and at least one taxiing flight stopped on the runway, a flier said.
Bank of America will likely offer its customers more ways to avoid paying the unpopular 5 fee for debit card use that it announced last month, a source at the bank told the Herald yesterday.
Still, customers might not want to get too excited.
Consumers may rejoice, and may say, We showed them, said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com. But you can bet B of A and the other banks will find other ways to get an increase in revenue. It might not be the PR nightmare the debit fee was, but theyll find other ways.
Bank of America may waive the debit fee if a customer has a minimum account balance or directly deposits paychecks, among other criteria.
The banks concession comes on the heels of a report that JPMorgan Chase, now the nations largest bank by assets, has decided against charging fees for debit card use.
Argentine oil company Tecpetrol plans to make local investments in excess of US$400mn next year, company president Carlos Armachea told journalists on the sidelines of the IAPG Interactive Energy Congress in Buenos Aires.
Around US$50mn-60mn will be spent in the country’s prolific Neuquйn basin next year, where Tecpetrol operates four licenses.
Investment is expected to center on the Los Bastos block in particular, where three wells have been successfully drilled by the company over the past year.
Armachea added that the firm’s main area of concentration in Argentina continues to be the Golfo San Jorge basin, where the majority of its oil production is based.
There’s a global crisis of unimaginable import and the powers that be aren’t doing anything about it, despite Seattleites’ strident efforts to raise awareness.
No, it’s not “Occupy Seattle.” We’re talking about a threat to the world’s coffee supply; and Starbucks executives, not underemployed young people, are ringing the alarm.
Jim Hanna, the Seattle coffee empire’s sustainability director, told The Guardian that climate change is already spurring severe hurricanes and more resistant bugs that are reducing crop yields.
“What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road – if conditions continue as they are – is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain, which is the Arabica coffee bean,” Hanna said in the story.
Hanna said Starbucks is part of a business coalition that has been trying, without success, to push Congress and the Obama administration to act on climate change.
But wait, there’s more bad news.
The Guardian pointed to new research by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture warning that it would be too hot to grow chocolate in much of the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s main producers, by 2050.
Gah!
Hat tip to KOMO news.
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Google’s Local Search function can be both a boost and a pain to small business owners. On Google Place Pages, local businesses can post photos, videos, and descriptive text, while Google provides directions (via Google Maps), transit options, and customer reviews from around the web. If you optimize your Place Page listing, you can show up in the Google 7-Pack at the top of the search results page and draw valuable new traffic to your website. That’s the boost part. But for many small businesses that don’t fit neatly into Google’s Place Page template, Local Search can be a royal pain. We’ve helped many clients to claim and fix their Place Page listing and to rank in the 7-Pack – but not without pain in many cases. Here are ju