Employee-Paid

Unionized state employees are voicing optimism that a second attempt at achieving labor savings will succeed as they finishing voting on a clarified agreement that will stop thousands of layoffs and help balance Connecticut's budget without deep spending cuts.

Seeking a jolt for the economy, President Barack Obama will lay out new ideas for speeding up job growth and helping the struggling poor and middle class in a major speech in early September, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The number of workers covered by workers' compensation hit a new low when the figure fell by 4.4 percent in 2009, the largest decline in two decades, according to a report by the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Wisconsin's powerful statewide teachers union said 40 percent of its staff members were laid off Monday as a result of the law pushed by Gov. Scott Walker and passed by the Legislature curbing collective bargaining rights.

The Philadelphia School District says it will be offering teaching positions for the upcoming school year to 325 teachers laid off earlier this summer.

Wisconsin Democrats sought Tuesday to hold the ground they gained in last week's recall elections by fending off Republican attempts to oust two senators who fled the state in opposition to Gov. Scott Walker's proposal curbing public employee collective bargaining rights.