More than three dozen organizations – including several community colleges and youth-serving agencies – will split $150 million in “green jobs” grants released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The grants – dubbed Pathways out of Poverty grants and part of a larger, $500 million green jobs initiative under the Recovery Act – are meant to help disadvantaged communities “gain access to the good, safe and prosperous jobs of the 21st century green economy,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said in a statement announcing the grants.

The labor secretary said green jobs offer “tremendous opportunities” for those who are prepared to work them.

That’s where youth-serving agencies and organizations such as CNY Works Inc. – one of 38 organizations to be awarded the grants – come in. (more…)

FORTUNE’s Annual Ranking of America’s Leading Businesswomen

Perhaps the only thing more challenging than the business environment this year was the criteria for making the list, which, with eight newcomers, was the most competitive yet.
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The job market continued its long, steep decline in August, with the jobless rate soaring to 9.7 percent and employers continuing to shed jobs, albeit at a slower rate than expected.

Analysts generally believe that economic output began rising by late summer. But new Labor Department data released Friday morning shows that that improvement isn’t yet flowing through to the job market, as employers remain highly reluctant to add staff.

The rise in the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, from 9.4 percent in July, resumed a steep upward path that has been only rarely interrupted since the recession began in December 2007. Employers shed 216,000 net jobs, significantly better than the revised 276,000 jobs lost in July and less than the 230,000 decline that forecasters expected. (more…)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday the U.S. economy was showing signs of leveling out two years after the onset of the deepest financial crisis in decades and it moved to phase out one emergency measure.

The U.S. central bank also kept its benchmark short-term interest rate steady near zero and said it would likely stay there for an extended period to guide the way to recovery.

The Fed made its clearest statement to date that it sees the recession nearing an end and that shattered financial markets are healing. (more…)