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With unemployment so low, where are the workers coming from?

Aug 3, 2018
The U.S. economy created 157,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.9 percent. The last time was saw unemployment that low? The year 2000. What does all of this mean for wages? And for businesses looking to hire more workers?
Commuters arrive from Metro North Railroad trains in Grand Central Station in New York October 19, 2016.
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Automakers fret over threat of Trump tariffs

Jul 3, 2018
Car sales figures for last month are coming out today, but automakers are focusing on the future, especially since President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars. GM says if tariffs land, its cars will cost up to $6,000 more, and the company would have to lay off workers. […]

Inventory shortage driving existing home sales market

May 24, 2018
There’s a shortage of existing homes for sale in some parts of the country and prices are going up steadily. Part of the problem is that people aren’t moving and there aren’t enough new homes being built.   Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Signs that some workers, especially in high tech, are willing to move for a job

May 18, 2018
A new survey out this morning of mobility in the American workforce finds that one in four job applicants would move to a new city for a new job, a higher salary or better career opportunities. The online employment site Glassdoor found that younger workers and men were more likely than others to relocate to […]

Labor shortage = labor shortage

May 17, 2018
The latest birth rate numbers are out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Americans, you are not being fruitful and multiplying. Last year saw the lowest number of births in 30 years. That dearth of babies has a lot of repercussions for the future — a smaller active labor force would mean […]

Should we be getting paid for providing data?

May 8, 2018
The data we generate daily could be seen as labor. "I do think people are starting to wake up to this," one researcher says.
A man reads a full-page advertisement, taken out by Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman and chief executive officer of Facebook to apologize for the large-scale leak of personal data from the social network on March 25, 2018.
OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

Canada's immigration system has created a labor shortage

May 1, 2018
Haitians, whose temporary protected status is ending in the U.S., are helping to solve the problem.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent walks onto a frozen lake that is split between Canadian territory to the right and the United States in 2006 near Norton, Vermont.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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Haitians with TPS help fuel Haiti's economy, one wire transfer at a time

Apr 17, 2018
Their protected status ends in 2019. If they have to leave the U.S., how might that affect Haiti’s economy?
Reynald Justance earns a living working in the kitchens at Disney World. He sends money to family and friends in Haiti at least once a week.
Renata Sago/Marketplace

Did women’s jobs help them during the recession?

Apr 9, 2018
Women work in professions that are more resistant to the business cycle and therefore more stable, one expert says.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

With low unemployment, a look at who is still standing outside the labor pool

Jan 5, 2018
The December jobs report, in the grand sweep of things — not month to month, but year to year and even decade to decade — shows the economy’s come a long way. Unemployment, at 4.1 percent, is now several points lower than it was before the Great Recession hit. We’ve had more than seven years […]