Payrolls

WASHINGTON -- U.S. payrolls gained 18,000 jobs in October, according to the average of 12 forecasts in a Bloomberg Business News survey.The unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, rose to 7.6 percent last month, the Bloomberg survey said.The Labor Department is scheduled to release the report Friday. In September, payrolls shrank by 57,000 jobs and the unemployment rate declined to 7.5 percent."The economy is in the same doldrums it's been in," said Sam Kahan, chief economist at Fuji Securities in Chicago.

Small businesses would be protected from the type of fraud allegedly committed by Harford County payroll firm AccuPay Inc. under legislation being proposed by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski. The Maryland Democrat plans to introduce a bill that would require payroll service providers to register with the Internal Revenue Service and be either bonded or certified by the tax agency. It also would set federal penalties for payroll firms that fail to send clients' tax payments to the government.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. payrolls are expected to rise 177,000 in July as a federal program creating summer jobs for teen-agers reverses June's decline, according to the average of 12 forecasts in a recent survey conducted by Bloomberg Business News.The unemployment rate, based on a separate survey, is likely to decline to 7.7 percent from June's eight-year high of 7.8 percent, the survey said.The Labor Department is scheduled to release the much-awaited July employment data this morning. June's unexpected non-farm payroll plunge of 117,000 also could be revised.

Nearly half - 48 percent - of American workers haven't noticed that more money is being taken out of their paychecks for the payroll tax that funds Social Security, according to a survey released today by Bankrate.com. In the previous two years, workers' paid 4.2 percent of wages (on income of up to $113,700 this year) instead of 6.2 percent. But during last year's tax negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff, the payroll tax holiday wasn't extended. Many predicted at the time that low-income workers would be the most hurt by the payroll tax going up 2 percentage points.

American employers added more jobs than forecast in July and wages climbed. Payrolls rose by 117,000 workers after a 46,000 increase in June that was larger than earlier estimated, the Labor Department said Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain of 85,000. The jobless rate dropped to 9.1 percent as discouraged workers left the labor force. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 percent. Faster job gains are needed to bolster consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the economy and rose last quarter at the slowest pace in two years.

WASHINGTON -- In a report undermining recent signs of economic revival, the government said yesterday that business payrolls shrank by 91,000 jobs in January and that the unemployment rate remained steady at 7.1 percent only because of a surge in part-time jobs.The report on labor market conditions, a politically sensitive one in an election year, was the first comprehensive gauge of economic performance in 1992.It caused disappointment among private analysts and was seized upon by congressional Democrats to point to what they called administration failings.

Numbers-- U.S. employers expanded payrolls by 215,000 jobs last month, the most since July, the Labor Department reported.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- The baseball labor dispute edged closer to a declared impasse last night, as it became clear that the players would respond negatively to the latest ownership contract proposal.Management officials had expressed optimism Sunday that their modified taxation plan could open the door to a negotiated settlement in baseball's protracted labor dispute, but that was before the complicated proposal was picked apart by union economists.The Major League Baseball Players Association studied the proposal overnight and concluded that it was a salary cap in sheep's clothing.

In a sign that the economy continues to flounder, the nation's unemployment rate climbed to 6 percent last month - matching an eight-year high - as businesses cut a surprisingly large number of workers from their payrolls, according to a Labor Department report released yesterday. The unemployment rate jumped from 5.7 percent in October, and economists said they expect it to move higher in the coming months. "I would expect it to get up to 6.2 percent," said Sharon Stark, chief fixed income strategist at Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. "What this tells me is that we are stagnating.

As we reach today's cutoff for the Renaissance Institute's big class project -- to collect cash register tapes from Giant, Safeway and Metro and redeem them for computers for a Baltimore public school -- more than $500,000 worth of receipts are in the bag. (I feel like Jerry Lewis announcing the total from his Labor Day telethon.)Senior citizens at the Renaissance Institute -- "Dan's Kids"? -- set out last fall to collect the register tapes with the goal of rewarding a Baltimore school that had the greatest need and best attendance.

A bill introduced in the Maryland Senate Thursday would create a commission to look into regulating payroll service companies in the wake of allegations of fraud at AccuPay of Bel Air. Sen. Barry Glassman, a Harford County Republican, introduced the bill on the Senate floor, prompted, he said, by hundreds of calls from concerned small-business owners. AccuPay is under investigation for allegedly not sending clients' tax payments to tax collectors. "AccuPay of Bel Air recently filed bankruptcy, leaving hundreds of small businesses with delayed payroll and delinquent or missed tax payments to the state and federal government," Glassman said in announcing the bill.

A Bel Air payroll company under investigation for allegedly not forwarding clients' tax payments to tax collectors has filed for bankruptcy. AccuPay Inc. filed a petition for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore, listing 95 creditors and debts of between $100,001 and $500,000. Chapter 7 allows for an orderly liquidation of a company's assets to pay off creditors. A bankruptcy attorney for the company's owners said Wednesday that his clients believe they will have funds available to pay creditors.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski urged the Internal Revenue Service to quickly investigate the potential fraud at a Harford County payroll company and called for the agency to protect "honest small businesses" that might have had their payroll tax payments misdirected or delayed. Police in Bel Air, where the company is based, are investigating whether AccuPay Inc. stole years of tax payments rather than sending them to tax collectors on behalf of clients. The company, with an estimated 500 to 600 clients, shut down last week after a Bel Air veterinary hospital filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the company "repeatedly and regularly" failed to pay or made only partial payments of federal and state withholding and unemployment taxes over the past five years.

Police investigating whether Harford County payroll company AccuPay stole years of tax payments rather than sending them to tax collectors on behalf of clients warned Monday that potential victims might number in the hundreds. An investigation by the Bel Air Police Department is in the early stages and likely will involve multiple agencies, a spokesman said. Potential victims could include any business that hired AccuPay to handle its payroll and remit its state and federal taxes, the spokesman said.

Many Maryland businesses rely on a payroll service provider to handle their tax withholdings, but they still need to make sure the Internal Revenue Service gets its due. That fact became evident in recent days, following allegations that a Bel Air payroll company had failed to forward clients' tax payments to the federal government. The company - AccuPay - is under police investigation and being sued by several clients. States, including Maryland, generally don't license payroll service providers or require them to be bonded.

Mental health rehabilitation and addiction treatment center Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection because it owes more than $5.5 million to creditors and estimates its assets are less than $500,000, according to federal court filings. The center will continue to operate during the Chapter 11 restructuring, said CEO Terry T. Brown. "There's a need for us to be here," Brown said of the nonprofit company's West Pratt Street facility, on the northern edge of the Pigtown neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore.

A Carroll senator wants to ease state government's financial burdensas the economy falters, but two education leaders say his plan would harm teachers, public education and, ultimately, Maryland's economiccompetitiveness.A bill sponsored by Sen. Charles H. Smelser, D-Carroll, Frederick, Howard, would curtail the state's contributions for teachers' retirement and Social Security. It would freeze, for calculation purposes, the teacher payrolls on which the payments are based at fiscal 1991 levels for Maryland's 24 subdivisions.

The only thing both sides in Congress seem to agree on is to forego collecting the payroll tax for the Social Security Retirement System ("What it may mean to raise eligibility age for Medicare," Dec. 10). This "entitlement" program exists because we fund it during our working years, and for many people it is their only retirement savings. If we fail to pay Social Security payroll taxes we cannot expect money to be available when we retire. Dan Griffin, Perry Hall Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts