Jul 28 Labor market still considered strong after weeks of mixed jobless benefit numbers By Matt Ott, Associated Press Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week, but the previous week’s number was revised upward significantly, with claims breaching the 250,000 level in back-to-back weeks for the first time in more than eight months. Continue reading
Jul 28 U.S. economy shrinks for 2nd straight quarter By Paul Wiseman, Associated Press The United States economy contracted at a 0.9% annual pace last quarter, raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession. Continue reading
Jul 01 Facing skilled worker shortage, U.S. companies try to train their own new labor pools By Levi Pulkkinen, The Hechinger Report With a growing consensus that some sectors of the economy face a shortage of qualified workers, employers are paying entry-level workers to learn on the job. Continue reading
Jul 07 What can you actually learn from the monthly unemployment number? By Paul Solman The U.S. unemployment rate crawled up to 4.4 percent in June. NewsHour correspondent Paul Solman looks at what that means for the economy. Continue reading
Feb 07 How the housing crisis boxed in some job seekers By Making Sen$e Editor When job searchers were constrained geographically due to the "lock in" effect of lower home values, they were more likely to apply for lower-level and lower-paying positions within their commuting zone. Continue reading
Apr 10 Why did Walmart raise its wages? By Benn Steil and Dinah Walker This article is reproduced with permission from Forbes. Find the original story here. Walmart recently announced that it was raising its minimum starting wage to $9 an hour, 24% higher than the federal minimum. Since Walmart is… Continue reading
Apr 02 Why education won’t solve America’s inequality crisis By Simone Pathe Earnings inequality in America has increased since 1979 — that much we know. But why and what to do about it is murky — in part because we’re often talking past each other when we talk about inequality. There are… Continue reading
Mar 17 Why you shouldn’t expect wages to rise any time soon By John Komlos For months, the thorn in the side of otherwise sunny jobs reports has been sluggish wage growth. As unemployment falls, wages are supposed to rise. Those expectations will likely play a role in the Fed's policy deliberations this week. But… Continue reading
Jan 30 Economy slowed in final quarter of 2014 By Simone Pathe The U.S. economy grew 2.6 percent in the last three months of 2014, more slowly than in the previous two quarters of the year. Continue reading
Sep 29 Why are fewer people going to college? By Simone Pathe In an economy where college graduates earn significantly more than high school grads and enjoy a much lower unemployment rate, why are fewer people enrolling in college? Enrollment has dropped by nearly a million since 2011. Is this an expected… Continue reading