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State promises better jobless claims system

HARRISBURG — After a year of frustration over long waits for checks, jammed phone lines and confusing online filing procedures, Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry is promising a much quicker and easier unemployment compensation claims filing system in two months. The new system, scheduled to launch on June 8, is based on what the department said Thursday is modern software to replace an “obsolete 40-year-old mainframe legacy system.” It arrives after a series of bungled efforts to replace the system began in 2006 and culminated in a 2017 lawsuit that is still ...

Pandemic-weary chefs, cooks enjoy serving from home

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When COVID-19 shutdowns hit in March 2020, Mike Winneker, a hotel executive sous chef, found himself without work for the first time in years. Between caring for a 6-year-old son and waiting for unemployment benefits, days now spent at home in Scottsdale were stressful. One night in June, Winneker, 33, cooked up some tacos with beef chuck and beef cheeks. Seeing what a large quantity he had, he came up with the idea of selling tacos. His first test run was a post on the NextDoor app offering brisket barbacoa tacos in his driveway. Winneker decided he would only ...

Milton Savings Bank announces new CEO

Milton Savings Bank’s board of directors recently announced a change to the executive management of the bank. Effective March 22, Robert “Bob” Crane has been appointed chief executive officer of Milton Savings Bank. Crane will be replacing Scott Pfaff who was with the bank for over ...

Violin-crafting in ‘idyllic’ place

BELSANO (AP) — Robert Gordon III can hear, and even see, the music inside a piece of wood before he transforms it into a finished violin. To demonstrate how, Gordon, a second-generation luthier, twisted a Douglas fir top to a violin made based on a Guarneri mold that was handed down to ...

March hiring accelerated to 916K, yet many jobs remain lost

WASHINGTON — America’s employers unleashed a burst of hiring in March, adding 916,000 jobs in a sign that a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession is taking hold as vaccinations accelerate, stimulus checks flow through the economy and businesses increasingly reopen. The March increase — the most since August — was nearly double February’s gain of 468,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate declined from 6.2% to 6%. Even with last month’s robust increase, the economy remains more than 8 million jobs short of the number it had before the ...