Employer-Paid

Although pay increase budgets are now at 2.8 percent, an increase from the all-time lows of 2.2 percent in 2009, this bump does not seem to come from employers distributing larger pay increases, finds the 39th annual WorldatWork 2012-2013 Salary Budget Survey.

While Augusts hiring gains are expected to be small, they should surpass the rate from August 2011, according to the Leading Indicators of National Employment report from the Society for Human Resource Management.

The Senate's tax-writing panel voted to renew dozens of tax breaks for businesses like biodiesel and wind energy producers, even as the GOP-controlled House passed symbolic legislation to erase them and create a new tax code with lower rates and fewer special interest tax breaks.

From last month, job openings have grown 4.5 percent while they have grown 9.9 percent year over year, according to the August 2012 Employment Outlook by job site Simply Hired.

President Barack Obama would exempt military personnel from any automatic defense spending cuts, the White House says amid the congressional clamor for specifics on how the administration would implement the looming across-the-board reductions.

Automatic Data Processing Inc., the world's biggest payroll processor, said Wednesday its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 7 percent as it benefited from some new hiring in a slowly improving economy.