By the numbers: Hiring by U.S. employers remained steady in October as the unemployment rate edged down and wage growth accelerated to its strongest pace since the recession, The Wall Street Journal reports. Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 161,000 in October from the prior month, following September’s upwardly revised gain of 191,000, the Labor Department says. The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of American households, ticked down to 4.9% last month from 5% in September because the labor force shrank. The labor-force participation rate edged lower, to 62.8% in October from 62.9% the prior month. Read the full story.
Here’s the deal: Monroe-based CenturyLink announced a deal this morning to sell its data centers and colocation business to a group of funds for $2.15 billion in cash, Reuters reports. The deal includes CenturyLink having a minority stake, to be valued at $150 million, in the consortium’s global secure infrastructure company. The consortium, made up of funds advised by BC Partners, Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management, will own CenturyLink’s portfolio of 57 data centers at the close of the deal, expected to be in the first quarter of 2017. CenturyLink says it would use the net proceeds from the sale to partly fund its $24 billion acquisition of Level 3 Communications Inc, which it announced on Monday. Read the full story.
Better together: The Louisiana Department of Education has released a request for information from expert partners locally and across the country to help Louisiana’s school and district leaders transform the state’s lowest-performing schools. According to a news release, the responses to the RFI will be used to select partners to join school district leaders for a daylong summit scheduled for Jan. 18 in New Orleans. During the summit, school districts will begin to design plans for school improvement under the new Every Student Succeeds Act. The RFI was sent to nonprofits, charter organizations, colleges and universities as well as traditional district school systems. Also at the summit, school districts and selected partner organizations will discuss the most effective strategies for improving schools.
