The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 29

SATURDAY a 7.3.2010 THE TAMPA TRIBUNE TBO.COM MARKET SNAPSHOT -2722 igQ M0 gg JQ, Unemployment falls to 9.5 because more than 650,000 have given up on their search for work. the recovery. Unemployment dropped to 9.5 percent, which is the lowest level since July 2009, from 9.7 percent. But the reason for the decline was more than 650,000 people gave up on their job searches and left the labor force. People who are no longer looking for work aren't counted as unemployed.

The latest figures suggest businesses are still slow to hire amid a weak economic recovery. Many economists were hoping to see more private-sector job growth, which would fuel the economy by boosting consumers' ability to spend. "It could have been worse, but it wasn't good," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm. "It's adding to the evidence that growth has slowed." People left the work force "because they think there's nothing out there," he added.

In a separate report, factory orders fell by 1.4 percent in May, the Commerce Department said. It was the first decline after nine months of gains and the biggest drop since March 2009. The nation still has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began. The private sector has added an average of 98,000 jobs per month since the beginning of the year. At that rate, it would take nearly seven years to regain jobs lost during the recession.

It takes about 100,000 new jobs a month to keep up with population growth. By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER The Associated Press WASHINGTON A weak June jobs report offered the latest evidence that the economic recovery is slowing. Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since October, the Labor Department said on Friday. The loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary census jobs.

Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, the sixth straight month of private-sector job gains but not enough to speed Associated Press photo by BEN MARGOT A woman looks for jobs at the Oakland, Career Center on Friday. A June jobs report shows businesses are slow to hire. Beef 0'Brady's leader steps down to pursue MBA Nick Vojnovic was with the chain for 12 years and won't rule out a return to restaurants. I 1 11) BP- 1 i I I 1 1 4 i ft 1 I By MICHAEL SASSO msassotampatrib.com TAMPA Nick Vojnovic, the well-known president of the Beef O'Brady's sports pub chain, has left the company to pursue an execuuve MBA, he said Friday. Vojnovic has been the public face of Family Sports Concepts, the Tampa-based parent company of Beef O'Brady's.

Blessed with the gift of gab and quick with a joke, he was among the most visible restaurant leaders in the Tampa Bay area and once chaired the Vojnovic Thinkstockphotos Whole Foods will require that its suppliers of personal care products making organic claims meet the same U.S. Department of Agriculture standards as food. Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. He had been with the restaurant chain for 12 years but stepped down from Family Sports Concepts in mid-June. Vojnovic expects to begin the executive MBA program at the University of South Florida in August.

Eventually, he wants to become a college professor, but won't rule out a return to restaurants. Vojnovic's departure comes shortly after a leadership change at Family Sports Concepts. Three years ago, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm called Levine Leichtman Capital Partners invested in Family Sports Concepts. In March, the private equity firm converted debt into equity and became the chain's 100-percent owner, Vojnovic said. At the same time, it appointed a new chief executive, Chris Elliott, to lead Family Sports Concepts.

He replaced Chuck Winship, who had been Family Sports Concepts' chief executive. When Elliott took over, there was less of a role for Vojnovic at the company, he said. Vojnovic also said Levine Leichtman had been frustrated recendy with Beef O'Brady's lack of growth. During Vojnovic's 12 years at the company, Beef O'Brady's had gone from about 30 to 270 restaurants. But, the recession hit the company hard and it has since fallen back to about 245, he said.

A representative of Levine Leichtman could not be reached for comment Friday. Vojnovic had only praise for the company Friday. "For me, (it) was beyond my wildest dreams," he said. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865. Mine Whole Foods cracks down on standards.

0 a Jobless benefits cutoff hits home 'J 7 i Congress left for a weeklong break for July Fourth without approving an extension. iffif! Whole Foods has the clout within the industry to lead a change, he said. The chain "represents such a significant amount of everyone's business, you're not going to have two different labels in the market," he said. "It's going to more or less create a de facto regulated market." Diana Kaye and her husband sell organic body products online and out of some smaller stores nationwide. But their Terressen-tials products aren't carried in Whole Foods, and Kaye said she'd like to see the standards enacted more quickly, to give operations like hers a foot in the door.

Many companies have been unethical in marketing themselves as organic, said Kaye, who is based in Maryland. "They have exploited the consumers' trust, and they have really degraded the word 'organic' in the marketplace," she said. In the past, Whole Foods led the charge for organic food standards. And Dickson himself serves on the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, which advises the department on which substances should be allowed in organic production and handling. But there is uncertainty over which government body might regulate organic claims for personal care products.

The standards board recommended last fall that the USDA should regulate those claims, a position that Whole Foods supports, Dickson said. "Until something happens and we can just defer to the government, like we do with food, we have to sort of pinch-hit and regulate it ourselves," he said. By BRIAN GAAR Cox Newspapers AUSTIN, Texas Citing confusion in the marketplace, Whole Foods Market Inc. is cracking down on organic standards for personal care products. Numerous products such as soaps and shampoos tout themselves as being "organic" or made with organic materials, but those claims aren't regulated by the government, as is done with food.

And because there's no regulation, "you'll see an organic shampoo that may have a very small percentage of organic ingredients, or one organic ingredient," said Joe Dickson, Whole Foods' food, organic and environmental quality standards coordinator. "Or in a few cases, not necessarily in products we've been selling we've seen organic claims being made with no organic ingredients identified on a product, which is obviously deceptive," Dickson said. Starting next June, Whole Foods will require that its suppliers of personal care products making organic claims meet the same U.S. Department of Agriculture standards as food. That means products billed as organic must be made with more than 95 percent organic ingredients.

Those products advertised as being made with organic ingredients must have at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The move will boost consumer confidence in organic labeling, Dickson said, while giving credit to companies that already make authentically organic products. "For the core organic shopper, By SHANNON BEHNKEN sbehnkentampatrib.com TAMPA This week marks one year since Julie Serna lost her job as an office manager. In six weeks, her unemployment checks will stop coming. Serna has flooded the area with resumes but has yet to land a single inteiview.

And last week a new blow: her husband, the family's breadwinner, was laid off from his job of 15 years. "It's hard not be able to go out and find a job you know you could do," Serna said. "Companies don't want to pay you what you're worth because they can find someone else to work for much less." Serna, like millions of other jobless workers, hoped Congress would extend her unemployment benefits. More than 1.3 million laid-off workers who've already lost their benefits didn't get them reinstated before Congress left for a weeklong break for Independence Day. Hundreds of thousands more will lose their benefits in the coming weeks.

The House voted 270-153 Thursday to extend jobless benefits for people who have been laid off for long stretches, but the gesture was made futile by the Senate's inability to pass the bill. For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a similar measure See JOBLESS BENEFITS. Page 2 Terressentials Diana Kaye, who sells Terressentials, wants the standards enacted quickly. what you put on is just as important as what you put in," he said. Some companies, frustrated with poseur competitors, are happy with the changes.

One Whole Foods supplier, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, is recognized as a leader in the organic personal care product field. To accomplish that, the company has invested "substantially" in its supply chains, said David Bron-ner, president of the Escondido, Calif. -based Dr. Bronner's.

But "we're on a shelf with products that are making even stronger organic claims than we are, that are not based in organic materials in any of their major ingredients" Bronner said..