economy

After last week's disappointing March jobs report, the Department of Labor released some rather encouraging news on Thursday.

Job growth appeared to slow drastically during March, as employers added 88,000 new jobs, down from 268,000 in February. The unemployment rate went down a tick, from 7.7 percent to 7.6, but that was due to a reduction in the labor force.

The labor market—and the economy overall—is improving, albeit gradually, with employers adding 236,000 jobs in February. That gain brought the unemployment rate down a few ticks from 7.9 percent to 7.7, its lowest point in four years.

The American economy created 155,000 new jobs in December, according to the latest report from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate is 7.8 percent, the same as November.

Have you heard the crazy notion that men’s underwear sales are an economic indicator? When men’s underwear sales are up, the economy is doing well. When people are not buying guys’ tighty whities, the economy is in the tank. Do you think it’s true?

Call it the "baby bust." For the fourth straight year, birth rates in the United States have declined. Slightly fewer than four million babies were born in the U.S. in 2011, the lowest total since 1998. However, the 1 percent drop in the birth rate was less than it had been in the previous three years. This suggests that the economic pressure experts believe is depressing the birth rate

For the past couple years, many American workers have been putting in longer hours to help cover the productivity gap left by the massive layoffs that took place after the recession hit. Now maybe they’ll be seeing some rewards for all that hard work — a new survey shows a lot of companies will be handing out bigger raises in 2013 than they have in recent years.

It used to be a given that a college education was worth the money. But the price of a four-year education has skyrocketed over the last couple decades, and — due to the bad economy –a college degree has become less of a surefire job guarantee. So have these factors changed opinions on college’s worthiness?