Unemployment rates spiked up a bit last month, when the country saw a decrease in new job creation, according to the New York Times. News reports say that the nation lost 125,000 jobs in the month of June, but that this trend in job loss is mostly due to the large number of temporary federal Census workers that left their jobs.

The United States added just 83,000 jobs across in the country in June. This number may seem like steady growth to some people, but economists say that the country needs to add about 130,000 jobs each month so that the economy can keep pace with all the new workers entering the market. The median duration of unemployment rose to about 25.5 weeks in the month of June, which is up from 23.2 weeks in May.

The largest privately owned fitness chain in America is being sued for allegedly passing over promotions on female and minority employees and favoring white workers. Not only is this lawsuit giving the chain 24 Hour Fitness USA Inc. bad publicity, but the lawsuit could end up costing the company millions of dollars.

Because of the lawsuit's class action status, there are many 24 Hour Fitness employees seeking back pay and damages in the case. A press release stated that the case has been filed in Alameda County Superior Court, located in Northern California. The lead plaintiff is Raoul Fulcher Jr., who claims that he was not promoted at 24 Hour Fitness because of his African American race.

George Lucas' company is now being criticized by employment lawyers across the country after a California jury awarded a former employee of the company $114,000 in damages in a wrongful termination suit.

The San Francisco based film company brought the Star Wars series and Indiana Jones films into the world, but many people may now be questioning how employees are treated at the film company. The Bay Citizen reports that former employee Julie Veronese sued the company, alleging that she was terminated from her position because she was pregnant.

University of North Texas employee Allison Timmons Vrana claims that she was a victim of retaliation in the workplace after she filed for an appeal to her own performance review as a college employee. She claimed that her performance review was unfair and discriminatory, but that when she informed her employer of the discrimination, she was simply asked to just stop making complaints.

The Southeast Texas Record reports that the woman has filed a lawsuit against the University in hopes of seeking damages for back pay, front pay, lost benefits, compensatory damages, including recovery for mental distress, punitive damages, costs of court and attorney's fees. The lawsuit was filed in the Sherman Division of the Eastern District of Texas on June 18, where a jury trial has been requested for this case.

Dallas firefighter Helen Watts and her Texas employment lawyer have finally reached a settlement agreement with the city of Dallas after filing a lawsuit against the city almost two years ago.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the female firefighter alleged that she was a victim of sexual harassment when working for the city's Fire-Rescue department and that she was repeatedly propositioned by a colleague. She also claims that she filed complaints with the department about the alleged harassment but that her complaints were ignored. The employee claims that she resigned from her position because of the harassment.