ECONOMY

Minn. Nurses Walk Picket Line After Talks With Allina Health Fail

5:02am September 06, 2016

by Elizabeth Dunbar

The nurses oppose the company's demand to end health care plans sponsored by the nurse's union and replace them with corporate-sponsored plans which have higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.

Clinton Promises To Help Create Manufacturing Jobs Of The Future

4:29pm September 05, 2016

by Jim Zarroli

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says if he's elected president he will bring back some of the millions of manufacturing jobs that the United States has lost in recent decades. Democrat Hillary Clinton has a manufacturing plan as well, one she says will help create the manufacturing jobs of the future.

Productivity, a key measure of the economy's health, has been growing more slowly in recent years.

Why Your Facebook Habit At Work Makes Economists Worry

1:26pm September 05, 2016

by John Ydstie

Productivity, a key measure of the economy's health, has been growing more slowly in recent years. Can Facebook and other social media distractions on the job be partly to blame?

Economy

Data Suggest Economic Outlook May Be Improving For Middle Class

5:34am September 05, 2016

American household income may be rising. Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution and contributing correspondent to The Wall Street Journal.

Former coal miners are trained as linesmen in a program co-sponsored by the Hazard Community and Technical College and the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program in Hazard, Ky.

Eastern Kentucky Tries To Keep Former Coal Miners From Leaving

5:03am September 05, 2016

by Jim Zarroli

For a long time, coal was king in eastern Kentucky. But the industry today is hemorrhaging jobs. The region is now struggling to rebuild its economy and find new jobs for unemployed miners.

China Shows G20 World Leaders Its Temporarily Blue Skies

5:03pm September 04, 2016

As world leaders arrive in China for the G20 summit, China is cleaning up the facade of the city of Hangzhou by closing hundreds of factories for one week, making the skies temporarily smog-free.

Multinational Manufacturing Giants Opening More Plants In South Carolina

9:08am September 04, 2016

by Alexandra Olgin

On Labor Day weekend, we wanted to take a look at one place in this country where factory jobs are increasing. In South Carolina, multinational manufacturing giants are expanding.

The Betancourts bought their home in 1986. They were on the verge of paying off their mortgage in 2005 when a series of health emergencies shattered their hopes of owning their home outright.

For The Black Middle Class, Housing Crisis And History Collude To Dash Dreams

4:32pm September 02, 2016

by Ari Shapiro

Evelyn and Grattan Betancourt live in a wealthy, majority-black county in the U.S. They did everything they were supposed to: steady jobs, bought a house within their means. Things still went wrong.

U.S. Job Growth Fails To Meet Expectations In August

4:32pm September 02, 2016

by John Ydstie

Employers added 151,000 jobs in August, which is somewhat disappointing. Most economists were expecting about 180,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate held at 4.9 percent for the third straight month. Many analysts are now saying job growth is slow enough to keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates in September.

Queue Listen Now

Hawaii Fishermen Raise Concerns About Expansion Of National Monument

4:29pm September 02, 2016

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Michael Goto, manager of the United Fishing Agency and a member of the Hawaii Longline Association, about how the expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea National Monument will affect his business and the economy of Hawaii.