Main Street Independent

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wage and pension

Firefighting union leader Bob Brooks targets Pennsylvania House seat in November toss-up

Illustration accompanying article: Firefighting union leader Bob Brooks targets Pennsylvania House seat in November toss-up
  • Bob Brooks, a firefighting union leader and former union president, won the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District and will face Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in a November toss-up race.
  • Brooks emphasized his working-class background and decades of union negotiation experience as qualifications for Congress.
  • Brooks supports policies including Medicare for All, labor law reform, a minimum wage increase, and a ban on private equity buying homes.
  • Mackenzie characterized Brooks as a "conman, fraudster, and dumpster-fire candidate" and said Brooks's consultants "dress him up as a work-class everyman."
 3 MIN READ

U.S. adds 172,000 jobs in May; broader underemployment holds at 8.2%

Illustration accompanying article: U.S. adds 172,000 jobs in May; broader underemployment holds at 8.2%
  • The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. employers added 172,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in May, with leisure and hospitality alone contributing 70,000 positions, more than four times its 2025–2026 monthly average.
  • The broader U-6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and those working part‑time for economic reasons, held at 8.2 percent in May, while the headline U-3 rate remained at 4.3 percent for a third straight month.
  • The JOLTS quits rate stood at 2.2 percent in April, a metric the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta interprets as signaling that workers still have limited confidence in their ability to find better‑paying jobs.
  • The Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker measured median year‑over‑year wage growth at 3.6 percent in April, using a composition‑controlled matched‑individual method that avoids the distortions of the BLS average‑hourly‑earnings series.
 4 MIN READ
Illustration accompanying article: Median CEO pay hits $17.7 million, 200 times the typical worker's wage