Research Center

As a followup to last week’s speech by President Obama on jobs, the administration sent the proposal–called the American Jobs Act–to Congress on Tuesday.

At an investor conference in New York on Monday, Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan said that the bank plans to cut $5 billion in annual expenses by 2014, largely through eliminating positions.

Investors weren’t encouraged by events late last week, especially the latest from the cauldron of rumors in Europe. By the end of the day on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 303.68 points, or 2.69 percent.

Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Thursday, President Obama took to the bully pulpit to call for the passage of a $450-or-so billion jobs program.

The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index, which is always released right after the official U.S. monthly employment numbers, dropped slightly to 100.8 in August, compared with a revised July figure of 101.

The miserable jobs report on the Friday before Labor Day included some miserable details. The private sector did, in fact, create a modicum of jobs during August. But that was cancelled out by governments shedding just that many workers.

The newly found focus on jobs in Washington–with the administration pushing one plan, House Republicans another–seems all the more urgent in the light of the jobs numbers on Friday.

On Wednesday, the ADP National Employment Report reported that private-sector employment increased by 91,000 from July to August.