Biz.PeanutButterNews.com

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Shuttered General Motors dealers hoping to get their business back should stay near the phone. General Motors is in the process of calling 661 dealers targeted for shutdown to offer them their franchises back, company executives said Friday afternoon.

That represents more than half of the dealers who lodged an arbitration appeal last month to fight their planned termination.

Full Story atmoney.cnn.com

(CNNMoney.com) — When Jim Ball ran a traditional call center in Golden, Colo., in the late 1990s, employee turnover was rampant. Often, Ball was forced to hire just about anyone who walked in the door because few people were willing to commute to the call center and sit in a sterile cubicle for minimum wage.

When Ball and his partner Steve Rockwood sold the call center in 1997, they decided the next business would be radically different: Customer service agents would work from home.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

Analysts had been expecting good news on the jobs front, forecasting that payrolls would expand.

Instead, both people who have jobs and those who were set to start new positions couldn’t get to work because of the weather. As a result, they’ll file for unemployment benefits.

Full Story at news.yahoo.com

SEATTLE – Boeing Co.’s giant 747-8 freighter should make its first flight Monday after performing well on taxi tests and reaching a top speed of about 103.5 mph, the company said.

At 250 feet long, the plane is the largest Boeing has ever built and about 18 feet longer than the existing 747-400 jumbo jet. The company conducted taxi tests on the freighter Saturday at Paine Field in Everett, north of Seattle.

“Based on early indications, the airplane is ready to fly,” said Mo Yahyavi, the 747 program’s vice president and general manager.

Full Story atmoney.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks were poised for a mixed start Thursday as investors awaited some reports on the labor market.

Dow Jones industrial average futures were lower, while Nasdaq-100 and S&P-500 futures were up slightly.

Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins.

Stocks rose Wednesday as the falling dollar boosted commodity stocks, and a rise in wholesale inventories and an upgrade of 3M provided some optimism.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — So just how many jobs has the $787 billion stimulus package created or saved?

A new government report raises a new round of questions on the Obama administration’s figure of 640,000 jobs, saying there are many concerns surrounding the data recipients reported.

“There is a range of significant reporting and quality issues that need to be addressed,” said Gene Dodaro, acting comptroller general, in a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — McDonald’s plans to open 1,000 new restaurants next year and renovate 2,300 existing locations.

At a meeting of company investors on Thursday, the fast-food giant said it would focus on opening new restaurants primarily in the U.S., Germany, France, Russia, China and Australia.

Specifically, McDonald’s plans for 150 new U.S. locaions plus: 260 in Europe; 490 across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia; 80 in Latin America; and 20 in Canada.

Full Story at CNNMoney.com

Where the jobs are: Kansas City Mo.

“I am thankful people are still showering in this economy!” says Emily Voth, owner of this natural and organic hygiene-products company, which sells to large retailers including Whole Foods. The company, most known for its Zum bar soap, is currently looking to fill positions in marketing, sales and public relations, as well as another soap maker. The 40-person company hopes to attract creative, happy types with lots of energy. “Typically a type-B person is not going to work out here,” Voth says.

Full Story at msnbc.com

SEATTLE – Boeing Co. will open a second assembly line for its long-delayed 787 jetliner in South Carolina, expanding beyond its longtime manufacturing base in Washington state to take advantage of economic incentives and a nonunion work force.

The Chicago-based airplane maker said Wednesday it chose the site in North Charleston over Everett, Wash., because it best suited plans to boost production of the highly anticipated jet, designed to carry up to 250 passengers.

The decision ended an interstate competition for the huge factory, with South Carolina prevailing over the state where Boeing has built airplanes for decades. It hands South Carolina production of a plane crucial to Boeing’s future but one plagued by problems stemming partly from the company’s reliance on suppliers spanning the globe.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

(Fortune) — Without any experience in automaking or government, Steven Rattner left his Wall Street perch to wade into the largest restructuring in American history. The scale and speed of the rescue raised many questions, inspiring Rattner to write this account of a defining moment in capitalism.

Rattner, who led the group that did the hands-on work, believes passionately that the decision to intervene represented not “creeping socialism,” as some feared, but a critical part of the effort to prevent economic collapse. In an excerpt from this Fortune exclusive, Rattner gives a behind-the- scenes look at the ouster of GM’s Rick Wagoner:

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Getting a job in this economy is tough everywhere, but some local job markets are faring worse than others. And nowhere is it harder to find a job than in Michigan.

Michigan leads the nation in unemployment, with a statewide rate of 15.2%. Joblessness is even higher in cities like Detroit where the local unemployment rate is 17%.

For a long time Neal Garron was one of Michigan’s many unemployed. A husband and father of four, Garron, 40, had worked as an assistant in a recording studio making $9 an hour until he was laid off nearly two years ago.

Garron struggled to find another job and even considered starting his own business. “I thought I would start a small little studio in my house but nothing really came of it,” he said.

Full Story at msnbc.com

Vimal Patel was studying for a master’s in business administration in London when he saw an advertisement for work in the U.S. The ad offered a job in the tech industry, as well as sponsorship for the kind of work visa that allows foreign nationals to take professional-level jobs in the country. So Patel applied and paid his prospective employer, Cygate Software & Consulting, in Edison, N.J., thousands of dollars in up-front fees. But when Patel arrived, Cygate had no tech job for him. He ended up working at a gas station, and Cygate nevertheless took a chunk of his wages for years, according to documents in a criminal case against Cygate.