African Americans' wages nearly stagnant...

Cecilia Sirianni's small office at Massabesic High School can sometimes get a bit messy. Piles of donated clothes and boxes of snacks fill cabinets and shelves — all for students at the rural district in York County, Maine. For more than a decade, a big part of Sirianni's job has ... Show More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says more than 50 million people across the country live in “food deserts” – low-income communities where it can be hard to find healthy food. According to the last census, in 2010, almost 2 million of those people live in the Houston area alone ... Show More

Many people in Wise County agree that they can’t jail their way out of a drug epidemic, but there’s a lot less agreement on what to do instead. And we find out what happened to Joey Ballard. 

For Black workers in this economy, the last couple of years have brought gains in employment and wages. In April, the Black unemployment rate fell to a historically low 4.7%, and the racial wage gap has shrunk slightly over the last five years. But in terms of the economy as a wh ... Show More

South Africa’s unemployment rate has hit a record high: it’s now 34.4%, which means about 7.8 million people are currently without a job. Young South Africans - especially young graduates - have been hit the hardest. So, how did things get so out of hand? And is the pandemic sole ... Show More

Lebanon is in the midst of one of the most severe and prolonged economic depressions the world has seen. More than 80% of the population live in poverty and their currency has reached a record low. It’s left many struggling to afford essential goods like food, fuel and medicine. ... Show More

Covid is costing many of us our jobs.An African Union report says as many as 20 million could go as a result of the pandemic.Even before all this began, youth unemployment across Africa was already twice as high as that among older adults.So when economies started slowing down, y ... Show More

<p>There has been a bit of panic lately over employers who say not enough people want to apply for open jobs. Are we facing a labor shortage? Have stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance payments created an economy full of people who don’t want to work — and who are h ... Show More

<p>The passage of the stimulus package last week ushered in an expansion of the social safety net that Democrats have celebrated. But one key policy was not included: a doubling of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.  </p><p>Today, we look at the history of that demand, and ... Show More

Economists say that inflation is just too much money chasing too few goods.But something else can make inflation stick around.If you think of the 1970s, the last time the U.S. had really high sustained inflation, a big concern was rising wages. Prices for goods and services were ... Show More

<p>There’s been a lot of speculation lately about the role of immigration and its impact on inflation. Does a flood of foreign workers push down wages, which contains cost and keeps prices down? Conversely, did the low immigration levels post-COVID add to the wage pressures becau ... Show More