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Tight labor market vexes retailers looking to hire for holidays

Jul 20, 2018
The number of people filing for unemployment benefits has fallen to its lowest point since 1969, according to data released by the Labor Department Thursday. These numbers are another sign of a tight labor market. And they’ve got retailers thinking about the holiday season. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

With low unemployment, employers strapped for workers may find it hard to add jobs

Jan 5, 2018
The latest unemployment number for December comes out today (Friday, Jan. 5th). With the ranks of the unemployed declining in 2017, it’s getting harder for employers to add jobs and find qualified candidates to fill them. So some employers are starting to settle for candidates they might have overlooked in the past. Maybe employers are […]

What will the GOP tax bill do for the economy?

Nov 3, 2017
And what will Jerome Powell do for the Fed?
President Donald Trump speaks to the House Ways and Means Committee about tax reform legislation yesterday at the White House, flanked by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, left, and committee Chairman Kevin Brady.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Workers are seeing wage gains, even in some of the lowest-paid jobs

Jul 20, 2017
We haven’t seen much in wage gains out of recent jobs reports from the Labor Department. The most recent one, for June, showed average hourly wages, as reported by employers, up just 2.5 percent over the past year, not much better than inflation. But another measure of income from the Labor Department, based on a […]

Labor figures will put President Trump’s job creation goals to the test

May 5, 2017
We’ll get the Labor Department’s jobs report for April today. The report for March was dismal — just 98,000 jobs added — though economists think that was a winter-weather-induced aberration. But even if job creation rises this spring and summer, it’ll still be well short of what’s needed to create the kind of supercharged employment […]

Yes, wages are rising faster than in several years. No, that isn’t great.

Nov 4, 2016
The monthly jobs report from the Labor Department said wages are growing at the fastest rate since the economic recovery started seven years. That’s good, certainly. But labor market experts looking at the bigger picture might revise that assessment downward for working Americans to kind of OK.
A woman waits for a job at a temporary employment agency in North Dakota. ProPublica's Emily Corwin discusses the work opportunity tax credit's benefits for temp agencies and the persistent lack of solutions for workers.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

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What's a sustainable level of job growth?

Jun 3, 2016
Job creation has slowed and economists are divided as to whether it will revive significantly later in 2016.
Job growth slowed down for the month of May, according to numbers released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but some economists say we might be reaching sustainable job growth. 
LAURENT FIEVET/AFP/Getty Images

Why have 1.4 million prime-age men dropped out of work?

Mar 28, 2016
1.4 million men age 25-54 have left the workforce since before the Great Recession began.
Being ill or disabled is the most common reason among prime-age men for being out of work.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Labor Department may extend overtime to more workers

Jun 10, 2015
The change would mean workers with higher salaries are eligible for overtime.