RALEIGH, N.C.  The North Carolina Justice Center says a proposal to reduce future benefits to boost the state's unemployment insurance trust fund doesn't solve the problem. The center will hold a news conference about the issue today at the Legislative Building in Raleigh. The N.C. Chamber has proposed cutting future unemployment benefits to help reduce the trust fund shortfall.

FRANKLIN Steam is rising again from International Paper's Franklin mill. The mill on Union Camp Drive recently resumed operations to get ready for a June startup of the renovated facility. In its new form, the mill will make fluff pulp that's used in baby diapers, adult-incontinence products, feminine-hygiene products and medical wipes.

- As told to Pilot writer Philip Walzer I had done a couple of commercials with my dad when I was in grade school. My family had a meatpacking business in Dayton, Ohio. I just thought a TV studio was a pretty cool place to be. I went to Ohio University and got my first job in Parkersburg, W.Va., as a weather guy. That was in 1974, and I've been at it ever since.

After four straight monthly declines, Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady in April, the Virginia Employment Commission reported today.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.6 percent in April, the same as its figure in March. But it was more than half of a percentage point below the 6.2 percent rate in April 2011.

By Martha Waggoner  RALEIGH, N.C.  People leaving the labor force were a big reason that North Carolina's unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent in April, a month when only 1,400 more people got jobs.

VIRGINIA BEACH A job fair geared to veterans will be held today at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach.

RALEIGH, N.C.  North Carolina's main business booster group wants legislators to cut future unemployment benefits and issue taxpayer-backed bonds to close a debt to the federal government.

By Josh Boak President Barack Obama and other members of the administration may be giving warm advice to freshly minted graduates at commencements across the country, but the reality is the job market is now much colder.

A Verizon worker who sued the company and the Communications Workers of America, saying her request to resign from the union had been denied, will be reimbursed some of her dues money, her lawyers announced Monday.
Monika Cassell, who is from Williamsburg and works in Newport News, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

– As told to The Pilot

I’ve been in the company 23 years. My first official job here at Costco was pushing shopping carts. You couldn’t beat the pay at the time. I think the minimum wage was like $3.25, and I started out here at $5.85 an hour. After a year or two, I moved into tire sales. Then, I became an installer. I’ve been an installer at least 11 years.