In the week ending February 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 190,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 192,000. The 4-week moving average was 193,000, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 191,250. 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on President Biden’s announcement of his intent to nominate Julie Su as the next secretary of labor:

“I am grateful to President Biden for announcing his intent to nominate my dear friend and colleague, Deputy Secretary Julie Su, to succeed me as U.S. Secretary of Labor. 

WASHINGTON – With meaningful employment secured, formerly incarcerated people can fully integrate into their communities more successfully and avoid relapse. To help remove barriers to employment the U.S. Department of Labor today announces the availability of $48 million in funding to provide training and employment services to incarcerated individuals before their release from state correctional facilities, or county or local jails.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a $25 million funding opportunity for organizations to provide training and employment services to help veterans combat homelessness.

ATLANTA- Con un incremento de casi $1,000,000 en salarios atrasados recuperados en el sudeste para los trabajadores de la industria agrícola en 2022, la División de Horas y Salarios del Departamento de Trabajo de EE. UU. continúa su iniciativa de varios años para educar a los empleadores de la industria sobre el cumplimiento, y a los trabajadores sobre sus protecciones legales según la ley.

Employer:                                   North Sunflower Medical Center

Investigation site:                  840 N. Oak Ave.

EL PASO, TX – A federal workplace safety investigation of an El Paso jewelry metal-plating finisher found the company again exposing workers to serious hazards, including willfully failing to protect people working with dangerous acids and other chemicals from potentially permanent eye injuries. 

Employer:                               ELJ Inc.

Investigation site:                  133 Batting Cage Trail

                                                 Jacksonville, NC 28540

Quién:            Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos

Qué:                Seminario Agrícola Virtual 2023

Cuándo:         7 de marzo de 2023, de 9 a.m. a 4:30 p.m. CST

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor

What:             2023 Virtual Agricultural Seminar

When:             March 7, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST

TAMUNING, GUAM ‒ Federal safety inspectors found Pepsi Guam Bottling jeopardized the safety of their employees by disabling safety devices to allow workers to reach into a bottle-labeling machine as often as 15 times an hour to grab and fix labels and adjust tipping bottles to avoid slowing or stopping production.

ATLANTA – With a nearly $1 million annual increase in back wages recovered in the Southeast for agricultural industry workers in calendar year 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is continuing its multi-year initiative to educate industry employers about compliance, and workers about their legal protections under federal law.

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration

                        McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

What:              Strategic partnership

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the rescission of the rule “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption,” in effect since Jan. 8, 2021. The rescission ensures a return to the department’s prior policy and practice in place during the presidencies of George W.

WASHINGTON – Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor has seen a 69 percent increase in children being employed illegally by companies. In the last fiscal year, the department found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children in violation of labor laws. The maximum civil monetary penalty under current law for a child labor violation is $15,138 per child. That’s not high enough to be a deterrent for major profitable companies.

CONCORD, NH – Federal workplace safety inspectors have again cited a Derry contractor for not protecting their employees against potentially lethal falls, this time at worksites in Merrimack and Salem.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced it will publish a final rule to amend how the Adverse Effect Wage Rates for the H-2A program are set to improve the rates’ consistency and accuracy based on the work actually performed by these workers and to better prevent H-2A workers’ employment negatively affecting the wages of U.S. workers in similar positions.

WASHINGTON – A federal panel has affirmed that Walmart Inc. violated federal workplace safety standards at its warehouse in Johnstown, New York, when it failed to prevent stored merchandise from falling onto – and seriously injuring – an employee in 2017.

SAN FRANCISCO – Tras una investigación y litigio en los tribunales, el Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. ha logrado un fallo judicial que ordena a un contratista laboral de Salinas pagar más de $460,000 en compensación por daños y multas luego de descubrirse que el contratista retuvo los cheques finales de pago y de gastos de transporte de cientos de trabajadores agrícolas.

WASHINGTON – As part of its year-long commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the U.S. Department of Labor today hosted an online roundtable discussion and launched a new web page to inform workers about federal regulations for job-protected leave to care for a family member.