The tight labor market is prompting more employers to eliminate one of the biggest requirements for many higher-paying jobs: the need for a college degree.
Companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Delta Air Lines Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. have reduced educational requirements for certain positions and shifted hiring to focus more on skills and experience. Maryland this year cut college-degree requirements for many state jobs—leading to a surge in hiring—and incoming Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro campaigned on a similar initiative.
U.S. job postings requiring at least a bachelor’s degree were 41% in November, down ...
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NYC Taxi Bailout Plan May Provide a Bonus to the IRS
As an attorney who has had his finger on the pulse of the taxi industry since the crisis began in early 2016, I am compelled to comment when I think that an injustice is occurring
Although, on the surface, the NYC restructuring program with Marblegate/Depalma/Fieldpoint that formally rolled out on September 19, 2022 looks promising on the surface, an issue that had held the rollout back until now has not been adequately addressed - namely the tax consequence of the loan reduction.
Since this issue has not been adequately resolved, it has been buried in a general disclosure and disclaimer that most taxi owners may be missing since their ...
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Car Prices Are Surging and Affordability is Decreasing
The purchaser of a new car financed an average of $40,290.00 during the second quarter of 2022, according to credit monitoring company Experian - an increase of 13.2% over the last year’s figure. The price of the average new car has also soared over the past year to $48,182.00 in July, 2022 compared with $42,736 in July 2021.
Overall, incomes have not kept pace with these increases, which have left many working longer than ever to pay off their new cars over ever-increasing terms. As of July, 2022, the average wage earner would need to work 42.2 weeks to pay off the average new car. In addition, the average borrower is now committing to ...
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Five Credit Mistakes Older Americans Make
Seniors are getting squeezed in so many ways. Healthcare and other basic expenses are rising. Fewer have pensions to supplement their Social Security income in retirement. Low interest rates mean what savings they do have isn’t growing quickly — unless they are willing to invest in higher-risk financial products.
And then there’s the other side of the equation: credit. debt, credit report mistakes and identity theft can quickly bring down credit scores older Americans have carefully built over several decades. Here are five major credit mistakes older Americans make, and what to do about them.
1. Using Too Much Credit
Older Americans ...
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NY Catholic Dioceses Bankruptcies Place Abuse Claims in Limbo
New York-based Roman Catholic dioceses that filed for Chapter 11 protection to address child sex abuse lawsuits are fueling tensions by asking Bankruptcy Courts for a victims’ claim filing window that’s shorter than what survivors were given under a recently enacted state law.
New York’s Child Victims Act, signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2019, has spurred a flood of abuse lawsuits against the church and other organizations. Victims have filed more than 4,800 lawsuits against alleged abusers and institutions that harbored or concealed them, state court records show. Four of New York’s eight local dioceses — Syracuse, Rochester, ...
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Credit Card Companies Not Seeing Economic Reality – Too Much Debt Is A Bad Thing
Americans are projected to fall seriously behind on their credit card bills at the highest rate in a decade as banks push a record number of people to get plastic.
The share of credit card borrowers who are at least 90 days past due on their accounts will probably tick up to 2% next year, the highest level since 2010, according to a forecast by TransUnion. Still, the credit-rating company said the increase isn’t a cause for concern, noting that bad card debt still remains much lower than the level seen during the last recession.
The number of people with access to revolving credit reached a record 200.5 million in the third quarter. That ...
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Social Security Benefits Sooner Rather Than Later – Not a Bad Idea
Though your Social Security benefits are calculated based on what you earned during your career, the age at which you first file for them can impact your ultimate payout. If you claim benefits at full retirement age (FRA), which, for today's workers, is 66, 67, or somewhere in between, you'll get the exact amount you're entitled to based on your earnings history. However, if you hold off past FRA, you'll boost your payments by 8% a year, up until age 70.
Now, on the one hand, that's a pretty good deal, because you're basically getting a risk-free 8% return on your money by waiting until age 70. On the other hand, filing for Social Security ...
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Senate Passes Bill Providing for Free Credit Freezes – Possible Expansion of VantageScore
The Senate has passed a bill that would roll back some banking regulations. Indirectly, the bill addresses Equifax’s historic data breach in which Social Security numbers and other personal data of 150 million people were exposed — a number that comprises well over half the U.S.’s adult population.
Though Sens. Mark Warner (D-Virg.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had put forth a bill in January that would hold credit reporting agencies responsible for breaches, it did not progress and Congress had failed to issue a legislative response to the Equifax breach.
In a move meant to benefit consumers, the new Senate bill, which was introduced ...
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Supreme Court To Consider Challenge to Merchant Vendor Fees
Every time a consumer swipes his or her credit card, the credit card company collects a merchant vendor fee. Do most consumers know this? Probably not. This is because American Express policies prohibit retailers from educating consumers about these fees or giving consumers benefits for using lower-cost cards. Although retailers are fighting for the right to disclose these fees, credit card companies are determined to keep consumers in the dark.
Retailers are supporting an action that will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The case, Ohio et al. v. American Express, began when the Federal Government and 11 states sued ...
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Job Polarization Forcing More Baby Boomers Out of Job Market
Men in their prime working years have left the labor force at an astonishing rate and they may never return if the state of the U.S. job market holds, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This does not bode well for those approaching retirement and still carrying debt obligations. This may cause bankruptcy filings to spike in the 55-64 age group.
A decline in demand for middle-skilled work — a phenomenon dubbed “job polarization,” because more positions are concentrated at the higher and lower ends — has played a role in keeping prime-age men out of the job market an economist at the Kansas City Fed, ...
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