In the week ending July 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 222,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 238,000 to 239,000. The 4-week moving average was 233,500, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 238,500 to 238,750.

BRIDGEPORT, CT – An Easton concrete and earthwork contractor could have prevented an employee repairing an underground water line from suffering fatal injuries in a December 2023 trench collapse at a New Canaan work site but failed to follow federal safety standards for excavations.

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court to stop improper employment practices by a Virginia-based IT staffing agency that bind employees to their jobs, extract huge sums from them if they leave the firm and forbid them from engaging in protected activity under federal law.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of more than $39 million in grants to 46 states and territories to increase the capacity of Registered Apprenticeship programs across key industries and provide workers with access to the new, good-paying jobs created under the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda.

Employer:                             

Chicanos Inc., operating as Chicanos Cocina Bar and Grill

Investigation site:                  

523 E. Main St., Richmond, VA

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced up to $1 million in funding available in Brookwood-Sago grants to support the delivery of education and training to the nation’s mining community to help them identify, avoid and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions.

BOSTON – Twice in less than three months in late 2023, a Boston waterproofing contractor exposed employees to life-threatening cave-ins and excavation hazards at residential worksites in Arlington, Massachusetts, and Warwick, Rhode Island, federal workplace safety investigators found.

MOUNDVILLE, AL – A U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety investigation has found an industrial concrete construction contractor failed to follow required safety procedures that could have prevented a 65-year-old worker from suffering fatal injuries when a shipping container weighing more than four tons fell and struck the employee at a job site near Tuscaloosa.

Employer name:                Southern Care Connection LLC, operating as #1 in Homecare

Investigation site:            1539 Jackson Ave., Suite 120

                                                    New Orleans, LA 70130   

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal investigation has recovered $912,594 for 44 employees of a Londonderry brewery and restaurant that illegally kept workers’ credit card tips and incorrectly exempted several salaried employees, such as brewers, bartenders, cooks and administrative staff from overtime pay requirements.

HOUSTON – A La Porte tank cleaning company again chose to disregard federal safety standards that may have protected their employees from hazardous working conditions and prevented another employee from suffering a fatal injury. In December 2023, just two days before Christmas, the wife and son of an employee at the company grew concerned when he didn’t return after his shift. Later that day, he was found unresponsive.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Labor will hold a meeting of the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council from July 8-10 in the department’s Francis Perkins Building in Washington. Open to the public, the meeting will be in-person and accessible online and via teleconference.

WHO:            U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division            

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an award of $800,000 to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry for employment and training services for people in Montana affected by the closure of the Pyramid Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products lumber mills in Missoula County. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor will host an information session in Lisle, Illinois, on July 18 for current and former nuclear weapons workers employed at covered facilities on the benefits available under the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The session is also open to these workers’ survivors.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the incremental award of $3,750,000 in funding to support continued disaster-relief employment and workforce training for eligible residents in Florida as the state continues to recover following Hurricane Ian.

WASHINGTON – The Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su issued the following statement on the June 2024 Employment Situation report:   

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the American economy added 206,000 jobs in June. The prime-age labor force participation rate hit a 22-year high, and the unemployment rate remains low at 4.1 percent. This strong jobs report demonstrates another month of steady, stable economic growth.  

LIVERPOOL, PA– The owner of a Liverpool roofing company risked the lives of two of his children by exposing them to falls from heights — the construction industry’s leading cause of death — while they worked on roofs atop a Mechanicsburg apartment complex in June 2024, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

LITTLE ROCK, AR – The owner of a Benton tavern and restaurant has agreed to comply with a preliminary injunction obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor to stop the employer from violating federal regulations.

The action comes amid allegations that Tim’s Tavern and owner Tim Steppach failed to pay minimum and overtime wages as required, kept workers’ tips, employed children illegally and fired a worker who warned that the department would be notified.

In the week ending June 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 238,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 233,000 to 234,000. The 4-week moving average was 238,500, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 236,000 to 236,250.