NEW YORK (AP) — Bloomberg LP, the financial news and information service, says it's appointing Samuel Palmisano, the former CEO of IBM, as an independent adviser on its privacy and data standards.
The move comes a week after revelations that Bloomberg journalists had access to some information on customers' use of Bloomberg's data terminals, including when they last logged in.
The company apologized for the breach of privacy. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are looking into Bloomberg's use of data.
Palmisano will review Bloomberg's practices and policies for client data and advise on changes, the company says.
Bloomberg also says Clark Hoyt, an editor at Bloomberg and the former editor-at-large at The New York Times, will review the relationship between Bloomberg's news service and its commercial operations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Solid hiring helped lower unemployment rates in 40 U.S. states last month, the most since November. The declines show the job market is improving throughout most of the country.
The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates increased in only three states: Louisiana, Tennessee and North Dakota. Rates were unchanged in seven states.
California, New York and South Carolina all reported the largest unemployment rate declines in April. Each state's rate fell by 0.4 percentage points.
The report said 30 states added jobs in April, while 18 reported fewer jobs.
Nationwide, employers added 165,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. The economy has added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's up from only 138,000 a month in the previous six months.
The housing recovery is creating jobs in many states. Rates have also declined because many of the unemployed have stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively seeking jobs.
Texas has created 41,500 construction jobs in the past year. That's helped the state be the nation's leader in job growth over the past year and in April. The state added 33,100 jobs last month and 326,100 jobs over the past 12 months.
Texas' unemployment rate stayed at 6.4 percent in April compared with March, but has fallen from 7 percent a year ago.
New York gained 25,300 jobs in April — second most among the states — and 111,600 jobs in the past year. The job gains in April helped pushed the state's unemployment rate down to 7.8 percent from 8.2 percent in March. Some of the decline was also because people stopped looking for work.
Florida added 17,000 jobs in April and 119,100 in the past year. More than half of April's job gains were in construction. The state has gained 15,500 construction positions in the past year. Jobs in trade, transportation and utilities have grown by more than 40,000 in the past year. The category includes retail jobs.
Nevada had the highest unemployment rate last month, at 9.6 percent. But it also had the biggest decline of any state over the past year, falling from 10.7 percent. Part of that decline is because many people have given up on their job hunts. But the state has also gained 22,700 jobs in the last 12 months.
North Dakota reported the nation's lowest unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent. The state has benefited from an oil and gas drilling boom.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street bonuses and staff levels are expected to rise this year as trading and dealmaking activity pick up, according to a closely watched report released on Friday by a compensation consulting firm.
Johnson Associates Inc predicts that senior bank executives will receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent, with investment bankers getting the biggest potential bonus increases of up to 20 percent.
The firm, headed by longtime industry pay consultant Alan Johnson, cited "signs of economic recovery in the United States and positive market momentum" in its report, but also noted that new regulations and a slowdown in Europe may weigh on bank profits and employee compensation.
Johnson Associates predicts that banks and other Wall Street firms will grow headcount by 5 percent to 10 percent this year. Cost-cutting initiatives in 2011 and 2012 helped support bank profits, as trading and dealmaking revenues were soft.
The firm predicts that advisory bankers will receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent, while underwriting bankers will receive bonus increases of 10 percent to 20 percent. The firm expects employees of equities and fixed-income trading divisions to receive bonus increases of 5 percent to 15 percent. Bonuses in other areas including prime brokerage, asset management, hedge funds and private equity are expected to rise in similar ranges.
Commercial banking and retail banking were the only areas Johnson Associates expects to have flat to 5 percent bonus increases.
(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)