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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Business hiring is picking up, but not enough to make up for the massive losses of temporary government jobs.

The economy lost a total of 54,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Businesses added 67,000 jobs to their payrolls in August. Economists had forecast a smaller gain of 44,000 jobs. It marked the eighth straight month that businesses added jobs, following nearly two straight years of job losses.

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When Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned last month he received something few regular workers see when they quit their jobs under a cloud: A massive payout.

Turns out Hurd is far from the only top executive to be rewarded with a rich package despite a management performance that could be considered less than optimal — especially by rank-and-file workers.

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Does handing out unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans discourage them from finding a job?

In an op-ed article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, Harvard economist Robert Barro argues that the current unemployment rate would be 6.8 percent rather than 9.5 percent if the Obama administration hadn’t extended unemployment-insurance eligibility to up to 99 weeks from the standard 26 weeks.

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NEW YORK — The Empire State Building’s owner lost his bid to stop a new skyscraper from rising in the neighborhood when the New York City Council approved zoning and land use changes Wednesday that pave the way for the 1,190-foot tower.

The project, called 15 Penn Plaza, is still in the planning stages. Developer Vornado Realty Trust has not set a date for its construction and has yet to sign a major commercial tenant.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More children are crowding into classrooms in Modesto, Calif. Parents are paying extra to send their kids to full-day kindergarten in Queen Creek, Ariz. And the school buses stopped rolling in one St. Louis area school district.

These are but a few of the unwelcome changes greeting children as they start the school year. Tight fiscal times are forcing school districts to lay off teachers, enlarge class sizes, cut programs and charge for services that were once free.

Full Story at msnbc.com

NEW ORLEANS — Those who rely on the Gulf of Mexico’s rich fishing grounds say there’s a new crisis brewing — convincing skeptical consumers that the seafood they harvest and sell is safe to eat.

The Gulf’s fisheries are beginning to reopen more than three months after the oil began gushing from the sea floor, but those in the seafood industry say that doesn’t mean everything has returned to normal.

“We have a huge perception problem,” said Ewell Smith, director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. “We have lost markets across the country, and some of them may be lost for good.”

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As mom-and-pop businesses struggle to make ends meet, the latest attempt to help them has gotten mired in Washington politics.

The debate began in October, when President Obama started pushing ways to get cheap capital to small businesses. It continued after his State of the Union address, in which he touted the proposal.

Full Story at msnbc.com

LONDON — Send an e-mail to a fund manager at the moment and the chances are high you will get a bounced reply telling you that he/she is out of the office.

The week ahead marks the start of August, a period that can be — but is by no means always — one of reduced investing and low tolerance for anything other than major market-moving events.

So although the week promises important earnings reports from key European banks, a couple of key central bank meetings and one of the biggest U.S. economic data releases — jobs — trading on financial markets may be limited.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday accused Republicans of holding American small businesses “hostage to politics” after Republican senators refused to back a $30 billion small-business lending package.

Senate Republicans blocked the package on Thursday, dealing a fresh blow to Obama’s efforts to show Americans, in the midst of a tough election year, that his administration is focused on tackling stubbornly high unemployment.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — California’s state workers just can’t catch a break.

For the past year and a half, 200,000 of them have been forced to take three unpaid furlough days a month — losing as much as 14% of their pay.

The furlough order expired July 1, when workweeks and full salaries were restored.

But the reprieve was short: The state’s workers are getting slapped back down.

Full Story at money.cnn.coom

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Slick TV commercials and online ads tell delinquent borrowers that they can save their homes by filing for personal bankruptcy. But is it true — or just too good to be true?
Bankruptcy can bring foreclosure proceedings to a halt, end harassment from debt collectors, and give borrowers time to make up missed payments and reorganize their finances. In some cases, bankruptcy can also help mortgage borrowers save their homes permanently.

Full Story at msnbc.com

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. posted a strong second-quarter profit Friday but trimmed its U.S. sales forecast and predicted weaker results in the second half as the economy slowly recovers.

The automaker surprised Wall Street, making $2.6 billion in the quarter as it continued to grab sales from rivals. Ford’s U.S. sales rose 28 percent in the first six months of this year. That’s almost double the pace of industrywide sales.

“Overall, our performance this year gives us great confidence going forward,” Ford President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said in a conference call with analysts and media.