Employer-Paid

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week, evidence that the job market isn't improving.

America's sickly economy can be healed with jobs, jobs and more jobs. On that, everyone agrees. Figuring out how to produce them is what is stumping everyone.

First, do no harm. Economists say the most important part of the jobs plan President Barack Obama will unveil Thursday night is the renewal of two measures already in place a cut in Social Security taxes and emergency aid for the unemployed.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to block Florida's new law requiring new welfare recipients to pass a drug test, filing the lawsuit on behalf of a Navy veteran who was denied assistance to help care for his 4-year-old son because he refused to take the test.

The number private-sector employees who are enrolled in a defined benefit plan dropped from 38 percent in 1979 to 15 percent in 2008, according to a EBRI study.

With bipartisan buy-in and no big price tag, a Georgia program pairing job seekers with potential employers for on-the-job training is gaining momentum as President Barack Obama crafts a plan to tackle the nation's bedeviling unemployment problem.