UNEMPLOYMENT

A series of groundbreaking (and head-scratching) bills in states from Florida and Tennessee are set to become law on New Year's Day 2012. Here's everything you need to know, from aids for illegal immigrants and abortion restrictions to Utah's ban on Happy Hour and California's move for LGBT rights, and why you should care.

The number of people seeking state unemployment benefits increased for the first time in four weeks, but with the figures dropping for three consecutive weeks prior to the most recent reading, this could be a sign that the U.S. job market is turning a corner.

It surely has been an eventful year with popular uprisings, dictators being deposed or slain, royal marriages, celebrity divorces, and thrilling sports achievements, so here's a look at some of the top moments of 2011 as compiled by the IBTimes.

In a year filled with partisan strife, economic calamities and foreign policy conundrums, picking President Barack Obama's biggest achievements feels darned near impossible. But whittle away lowlights and a rather substantive list remains.

The king also pays a 40 percent tax on his income.

CIPD forecasts that joblessness will then peak at 2.85-million in 2013.

Opinion polls suggest that JLP and PNP are running neck-and- neck.

President Barack Obama will nominate Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell, an investment banker and former Treasury official, to the two empty seats on the Federal Reserve's policy-setting board of governors.

President Barack Obama will nominate Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell, an investment banker and former Treasury official, to the two empty seats on the Federal Reserve's policy-setting board of governors.

In the latest survey, 47 percent of America approve how Obama is doing his job. The results are the highest for Obama, the Democratic president seeking a second term, since July of this year. Also, it's a five percent improvement since the last Gallup survey, taken Dec. 16-18.

Even when times are tough at home... British people care deeply about the world's most vulnerable children.

What’s ahead for 2012? Obviously, change, some for the better and others for worse. Fortunately, the Island’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent from 7.2 percent a year ago, the state labor department said. But its principal Long Island economist, Michael Crowell, said that may reflect a declining work force, with too many “discouraged workers” who’ve given up looking.

Congress approved a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, after a prolonged partisan battle on Capitol Hill. The stop-gap measure buys Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a longer-term extension.

The temporary payroll tax fix gives President Barack Obama and the Democrats a political win over Republicans

For the past decade, cattle ranchers and meat packers watched with despair as America's beef consumption steadily declined, ceding ground to leaner meats as well as vegetarian trends among the health-conscious.

Asia'a markets rose more than 1 percent and U.S. index futures also gained on Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a year-end bounce for riskier assets.

Fresh signs the giant U.S. economy is gaining momentum drove major world stock markets and the euro higher on Friday, with activity likely to be thin in the last session before the Christmas holiday.

Asian stocks rose more than 1 percent and U.S. index futures also gained on Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a year-end bounce for riskier assets.

Congress, after months of bitter fighting, is poised to pass Friday a payroll tax cut extension that President Barack Obama argues is vital to the health of the economy.

Japan has cut its forecast regrading economic growth for 2012 as a cumulative effect of a rising yen, natural disasters and the eurozone debt crisis.

Asian stocks edged up Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a modest year-end rally in riskier assets.